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Neutering

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Alicia

Alicia

Adult Guinea Pig
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At the moment I have 3 boars and 4 sows. The boars all don't like each other so they are all living seperatly. I worry about them being lonely and I don't want to get anymore guinea-pigs in case introuctions go wrong and I don't have the room for anymore anyway. I'm thinking of perhaps getting one of them neutered and moving him in with the sows. I was thinking about which one (I can't really get all neutered, at least not in the next few months) and the 3 I have are Roy, who's 4 so I don't want to put him through it, Billy or Barry. I know guinea-pigs are very social but Billy doesn't like to share and he seems quite happy on his own, Barry lives with a sow in a hutch that's divided so they can't get near each other. I don't know of his exact age but I got him in May and was told he was under 1 year old, but the person I got him from also told me he was 100% fit and healthy and I got home and he had mites and overgrown claws so I don't know how much truth is in what she told me. I was thinking a good small pet vet would be able to give me an estimate of his age anyway, so I could ask if I decide to get him neutered. My mum also wants to cut down on hutches because we've got 4 hutches. I don't know much about neutering, I'm trying to get information but I still can't decide whether getting him neutered would be a good thing or too risky. I'm worried about him getting infections or something like that after he's neutered. He lives in a hutch in the shed and his bedding is woodshavings, but I know this wouldn't be good after being neutered and I have some vetbed he could have. Any advice or information on netuering would be great please, especially someone who's guinea-pig has been neutered. Sorry if there are other threads on neutering!
 
Hiya - I got my boar neutered at the end of last year and he's living with 2 sows. He was 5 months when he was neutered and apart from lack of appetite for about 2 days we didnt have any complications. I put him on vetbed too afterwards and then changed it every day for about 10 days until I was pretty sure he was okay. I did syringe feed him for 2 days when he wouldn't eat.

I currently have another boy and he's going to be neutered too.

At about the same time as my boy was done there was another on here who had lots of complications and was near death - he did pull through but it freaked me out how risky is can be.

If you do it I would make sure it is a young pig - the younger the better really. But if you have one who is communicating with a sow already through the bars maybe this is the one to have done.

Good luck whatever you decide.
 
Thank you, I've been having a look on the internet and now I don't know what to do. I understand that the younger the better to be neutered but the youngest one I have is still a fully grown adult (1 year+) but I don't know about his background. Thinking back I shouldn't have got him really, I didn't ask nearly enough questions or find out enough and neither did the lady that gave him to me, which was a big mistake on my part. I just don't know. I'm going to try and get more information, the only annoying thing is I go to school, so I wouldn't like not being able to check on him. The reason I'm reluctant to get him neutered is if it went wrong and he died or became seriously ill I would feel so guilty.
 
I wish I could be of more help but I've only ever got a boar neutered when he was very young, it all went very smoothly and he was a huge hit with the girls.
 
I had a boar neutered last Feb, he was almost 2yrs old & he was fine, he lives with his ladies & is very happy :)

However, i will say i didn't make the decision lightly as there is a risk & although i have a single sow at the moment i'm not 100% sure wether to have another boar neutered because of the risks
:)
 
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I used to feel really worried about neutering boars, but if you find a good experienced vet then I think you can feel quite confident, although there can always be underlying medical conditions you're not aware of that can cause complications in neutering.

The vet I use neuters all the RSPCAs piggies and has done a lot of mine, last year she neutered about 150 and only lost 1 during the procedure. The rest all recovered post op and had no complications at all.

So I think if you can find an experienced vet, then fingers crossed your boar will be fine and his quality of life will definately improve living with sows!
 
If you can ask around for an experienced vet in neutering guinea pigs (local RSPCA and rescues, or ask at your vets for an expereinced specialist?), you can cut down a lot on the risks. Of course, you will never be able to completely eliminiate all risk. The vast majority of ops go without hitch, however.

We had my very first own boy neutered back in the eighties without problems (even though we were given no proper advice, like keeping him separate for some weeks). I have adopted my current boy Llewelyn after he'd been neutered.

Best of luck - a neutered boy with his own ladies is usually a very happy boy!
 
Ok thank you for all the help :) I don't know whether to get him neutered yet, I'm going to leave it and decide after I've got all the sows in one hutch. Would it be a bad idea to neuter Barry because I got him when he was almost 1 year old, and I don't know much about him apart from he was used for breeding, and was being passed round from breeder to breeder so I wanted to just give him a nice home away from all that. Would it be a bad idea to get him neutered?
 
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