Wendle
Junior Guinea Pig
This is Patch
He is a super survivor piglet, and very special. Patch came to me from a neighbour down the road, her daughter had lost interest in him when she started college and was often forgetting to feed him
I took him in, how could I not! I trimmed his too long nails (they were digging into his pads!) and moved him into one of my big six foot hutches in my nice warm shed. He has always been wonderful for picking up, he actively seeks me out if I'm in the garden and he is in his run, but he did tend to spend a lot of time in his pigloo. After he settled in, I decided he would need a friend. Though I'd been told he wouldn't bond, originally he'd come from p@h adoptions where he had been removed to because the other pigs were picking on him. I wondered if he would bond, and as luck would have it an old school friend got in touch to tell me shed split with her husband and did I want their Guinea pig. Boris (full name Boris black foot) came into our little family, another pig in a tiny hutch, lonely but friendly and a similar story about being told he wouldn't bond. I put him in another six foot hutch near Patch. Then after a week or so I put a clean run on an unused patch of lawn and decided To just give them ten minutes together to gauge how they would react. There was rumble strutting, general stiff legged countering, and ten minutes later they were sharing a pigloo. And that was that! They went into a clean and neutralised hutch together and were inseparable.
A few of weeks later I noticed Patch was not as lively as he had been, and when I picked him up he had a huge lump on his throat. The vet took X-rays and it was a HUGE dental abscess. They operated and drained it and left the wound open. It was incredibly smelly. Every day, twice a day, I had to squeeze the wound to expel puss, clean it, syringe manuka honey into it and give Patch an injection of antibiotics. He was the most patient little pig, no fighting, just resignation. And slowly he improved. And then the abscess started to come back. They took another X-ray and this time they could see his tooth was fractured right down near the base. Another operation and the decision to remove that tooth down to where the fracture was. Each vet visit was one of 'last chance saloons' and shaking heads, but he pulled round again and came back to his old self. Then he started to lose condition again, when I examined him, the tooth bud was reprising, but had come through the wound in his neck! So he literally had a tooth sticking out if his neck. This was truly the last chance, it wasn't fair to make him suffer more and more operations and vet visits, but another operation went well, tooth removed, wound sutured and I'm currently administering antibiotics by mouth and cleaning the wound daily. I'm pleased to say Patch has really turned a corner, again, and has perked right up.
Sadly, today I took them both to the vet's for a check up and for lice stuff. Boris, lovely little loyal Boris, was examined and found to have cancer, sadly there was nothing that could be done and Boris was put to sleep. I'm keeping a close eye on Patch who is refusing to go back into his pigloo without Boris. They were inseparable.
But here he is, Patch the survivor. someone has been in contact to let me know they've had a litter and are looking for homes for them come February, I'm thinking about it. Patch is such a friendly little pig x
j
He is a super survivor piglet, and very special. Patch came to me from a neighbour down the road, her daughter had lost interest in him when she started college and was often forgetting to feed him
I took him in, how could I not! I trimmed his too long nails (they were digging into his pads!) and moved him into one of my big six foot hutches in my nice warm shed. He has always been wonderful for picking up, he actively seeks me out if I'm in the garden and he is in his run, but he did tend to spend a lot of time in his pigloo. After he settled in, I decided he would need a friend. Though I'd been told he wouldn't bond, originally he'd come from p@h adoptions where he had been removed to because the other pigs were picking on him. I wondered if he would bond, and as luck would have it an old school friend got in touch to tell me shed split with her husband and did I want their Guinea pig. Boris (full name Boris black foot) came into our little family, another pig in a tiny hutch, lonely but friendly and a similar story about being told he wouldn't bond. I put him in another six foot hutch near Patch. Then after a week or so I put a clean run on an unused patch of lawn and decided To just give them ten minutes together to gauge how they would react. There was rumble strutting, general stiff legged countering, and ten minutes later they were sharing a pigloo. And that was that! They went into a clean and neutralised hutch together and were inseparable.
A few of weeks later I noticed Patch was not as lively as he had been, and when I picked him up he had a huge lump on his throat. The vet took X-rays and it was a HUGE dental abscess. They operated and drained it and left the wound open. It was incredibly smelly. Every day, twice a day, I had to squeeze the wound to expel puss, clean it, syringe manuka honey into it and give Patch an injection of antibiotics. He was the most patient little pig, no fighting, just resignation. And slowly he improved. And then the abscess started to come back. They took another X-ray and this time they could see his tooth was fractured right down near the base. Another operation and the decision to remove that tooth down to where the fracture was. Each vet visit was one of 'last chance saloons' and shaking heads, but he pulled round again and came back to his old self. Then he started to lose condition again, when I examined him, the tooth bud was reprising, but had come through the wound in his neck! So he literally had a tooth sticking out if his neck. This was truly the last chance, it wasn't fair to make him suffer more and more operations and vet visits, but another operation went well, tooth removed, wound sutured and I'm currently administering antibiotics by mouth and cleaning the wound daily. I'm pleased to say Patch has really turned a corner, again, and has perked right up.
Sadly, today I took them both to the vet's for a check up and for lice stuff. Boris, lovely little loyal Boris, was examined and found to have cancer, sadly there was nothing that could be done and Boris was put to sleep. I'm keeping a close eye on Patch who is refusing to go back into his pigloo without Boris. They were inseparable.
But here he is, Patch the survivor. someone has been in contact to let me know they've had a litter and are looking for homes for them come February, I'm thinking about it. Patch is such a friendly little pig x
j
So sorry about Boris 
