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poorly piggie question

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gothic

am new here,
so i may be posting this in the wrong place,
so please forgive me,

i have 2 piggie's, around 4 years old,
castrated male, and un done female ( daughter of the male) usually kept together

last night the male seemed to have a small fit, then seemed fine, later on he attacked the female, she was in deep shock and we wondered if she would make it through the night, luckily she did, but she is still very jittery, if anyone goes near her cage ( seperated now from the male) she goes sort of mad, hurtling around her cage, seems totally terrified.

although the female has eaten a little, both piggies seem very disinterested in freash food,
took the dry food out on reccomendation of knowlegeable freind,
did i do right, or should i have left dry food with them, friend mentioned soy in the food can cause problems, dry food is waggs mix, same as i have always fed them. if piggies have not eaten by the morning, i will take them to the vets

any help and advice is most welcome,


tracy
x
 
Hi Tracy, welcome to the forum.

I am sorry your piggies had a falling out last night. The seizure the male suffered is of some concern - his behaviour towards his daughter could well be his reaction to the seizure, he was acting out of fear and, potentially, disorientation. How long was it between his seizure and hs attack on his daughter? The cause of the seizure is best determined by a good guinea vet - I do advise getting both piggies examined ASAP in any case, but particularly since the boar had a seizure and the sow is very shaken up.

How badly did he injure the sow? Could you explain which areas of the body and how large/deep the wounds are - if there are any wounds?

Pain will often reduce a guinea pigs' appetite, so pain relief may help significantly with the sow if she has wounds. Calpol, or children's Nurofen, can be given at the dose of 0.2ml up to twice daily. If the sow does have significant injuries, it would be wise to clean the wounds carefully with saline and consider providing some pain relief.

Whether she is physically injured or not, it is understandable that she is terrified, so do keep her warm and ideally keep her cage covered for the next day or two. It may take her a bit of time to settle again, so keep things calm and gentle with her.

How long is it since each of the piggies ate? Are they eating hay at all? I would recommend keeping the dry food in the cages for now, since they have reduced appetites it is more important that they eat something. If they were being picky and favouring dry food over hay and fresh veg, then it can be a good idea to remove the dry food, but in times of illness when they are just not really eating it's more important to offer as many foods as possible to tempt them and spark their appetite. They need to keep their digestion going, so pretty much any food will do.

Do keep trying to tempt them with their favourite foods. Parsley and dill often go down well with piggies, keep trying things like cucumber too.
 
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Hi Tracy, so sorry to hear about your piggies. I think Laura has given you great advice, I would certainly do what she has suggested. Please let us know how you get on.
 
Seizures are often associated with a fungal infection, does he have a skin problem?
 
alcesterpigs said:
Seizures are often associated with a fungal infection, does he have a skin problem?
Click to expand...

This was what I was thinking. Maybe extreme case of mange mites if not fungal?

Would explain also why the female went abit mad when you go near her cage, as maybe something is wrong with them both - just effecting the male more to the point he is seizuring.

Laura, thanks for that info on Calpol and Nurofen (sp), never knew that but have taken note :)
 
No problem. Further point of interest is the different flavours, strawberry or orange...but no, that's probably going too far....my pigs prefer the strawberry flavour Nurofen.

I did wonder about parasitic/fungal infection too and did mean to ask, although I figured the owner would have noticed significant symptoms if it's at the point of causing seizures.
 
Many pigs with severe skin problems will start to become agitated even before you can pick them up, be careful that is when they are likely to bite you, at least they give you a warning.
 
hi there,

thank you all for your advice.


to clarify,

the male did seem to have some sort of siezure, but he seems better now, if very subdued, and he doesn't seem to be eating, is this perhaps because we have seperated them?

the female didn't have any wounds on her, she was eating a little this morning, but, most worrying, every time she has any sort of stimuls, she goes totally mental, and ends up on her side, rigid and looking nearly dead,

i want to take her to the vet, but i know that the stress will proberly kill her.
again, if i try and give her any pain releif, she will have this strange sizure again.

so i am a little torn as to what to do for the best,
for the moment, she is in her cage, in the little house, with plenty of hay, and a towel over the house to cut out as much stimulis as poss.

the piggies are in my daughter's (16yrs) bedroom, and she is keeping the light off and disturbance to a minimum, handling them is not helping my allergy, yup, i am allergic to all furry things!

really don't know what to do for the best for both the little piggies.
 
ps,

meant to say,
neither of them showed any sign of skin irritation before this,
no scratching etc
 
A remote and unlikely possibilty is that the boar suffered a stroke.
Where are you located?
 
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