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Short Snouted Piggy

Emz1999

Emz1999

Junior Guinea Pig
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We got a piggy a few months ago who I posted a thread about (And her friend) who had some questionable problems. She has just seen a specialist vet who is just as dumbfounded as to what is wrong with her and said she would have a look into other known cases of pigs like our Rosie. I'm curious too if anyone here has been through something similar.

First off, she is very small for a year old. Every other pig that we've owned has grown substantially at this point. She just hasn't and she is about the size of a 6 month old. She is also very short snouted, so much so that this is the first feature I noticed about her. There is not much between her eyes and snout, but she does also have very big black eyes which also won't be helping the case. She also has a infrequent cough. She eats perfectly fine and doesn't cough when eating, her body just appears to coil up like she is choking and just looks awful to go through.

We've decided not to do a proper examination on her under sedation until the problem develops because at the moment it is not affecting quality of life. Her symptons don't lead directly to one specific problem and heart and lungs are all okay. Vet also thinks it could be a congenital issue because of inbreeding and similar to pugs and bulldogs, she has respiratory issues because of her short snout.

I'm curious to see if anyone has ever come across a piggy like Rosie and what did you do about it. Other than the things mentioned above she is a happy healthy pig with a manic personality. She's just strangely small.
 
Can you post a picture please and could we have her weight? It is easier to see from a picture what you mean.
 
Oh my god, how adorable is she!?! :love::love:
 
She's adorable, first of all!

She has a rounded little face, but it doesn't look out of the ordinary to me. A lot of piggie breeds have different characteristics and a lot of pigs out there are mixed breeds and thus can show a wide range of physical traits. I had an abyssinian who was tiny and had the same rounded little profile... I have also seen some crested pigs with round little faces. I am guessing that her nose/face shape is just an inherited trait from other pigs in her family and within the range of normal.

She does look tiny, but there are a wide range of guinea pig sizes. It's also possible that she may have come into the world as the runt of the litter, with a mom who had poor nutrition, etc. Those could affect her overall size. For what it's worth, I've had a couple of large pigs (over three pounds) and a couple of little pigs (about 1.5 pounds max) living alongside each other, eating the same food, with the only difference being their individual genetics and wherever they came from (which I have no knowledge of.) Right now I have giant Hadley and little Leela (and I don't think Leela grew much at all after six months or so either. She was a tiny baby when we got her and although she grew significantly since then, she is not a long pig and has a very petite bone structure.)

Hope this helps a bit!
 
I'm bad with grams, but just looked up a conversion and wanted to add that she not much smaller than my Leela, who is a petite little girl but perfectly healthy. I converted your piggies' weight to about 1.3 pounds, Leela is about 1.5 pounds.
 
Freela said:
She's adorable, first of all!

She has a rounded little face, but it doesn't look out of the ordinary to me. A lot of piggie breeds have different characteristics and a lot of pigs out there are mixed breeds and thus can show a wide range of physical traits. I had an abyssinian who was tiny and had the same rounded little profile... I have also seen some crested pigs with round little faces. I am guessing that her nose/face shape is just an inherited trait from other pigs in her family and within the range of normal.

She does look tiny, but there are a wide range of guinea pig sizes. It's also possible that she may have come into the world as the runt of the litter, with a mom who had poor nutrition, etc. Those could affect her overall size. For what it's worth, I've had a couple of large pigs (over three pounds) and a couple of little pigs (about 1.5 pounds max) living alongside each other, eating the same food, with the only difference being their individual genetics and wherever they came from (which I have no knowledge of.) Right now I have giant Hadley and little Leela (and I don't think Leela grew much at all after six months or so either. She was a tiny baby when we got her and although she grew significantly since then, she is not a long pig and has a very petite bone structure.)

Hope this helps a bit!
Click to expand...

Thank you. I am also hoping that her size is nothing bad and she is just a small pig like you say. My concern just comes from the health problems that she has but fingers crossed they won't stay around for long. She also doesn't seem to struggle with socialising and we would introduce her and her friend to the two older ladies if they weren't as big as what they are.

furryfriends (TEAS) said:
She looks exactly like our Freya, who has come to live permanently at TEAS due to dental issues caused by her blunt face. View attachment 84051
Click to expand...

The similarity is striking, even the same little irregular rosette is in the same area on her back. Long lost relatives I'm thinking. Dental problems were mentioned but vet was unable to properly have a look at the molars because she still have food down there but she felt nothing out of the ordinary. So the short snout was directly linked to dental problems?

I will pass on everyone's compliments when I get home to her. I'm sure she'll love the attention.
 
Emz1999 said:
Thank you. I am also hoping that her size is nothing bad and she is just a small pig like you say. My concern just comes from the health problems that she has but fingers crossed they won't stay around for long. She also doesn't seem to struggle with socialising and we would introduce her and her friend to the two older ladies if they weren't as big as what they are.



The similarity is striking, even the same little irregular rosette is in the same area on her back. Long lost relatives I'm thinking. Dental problems were mentioned but vet was unable to properly have a look at the molars because she still have food down there but she felt nothing out of the ordinary. So the short snout was directly linked to dental problems?

I will pass on everyone's compliments when I get home to her. I'm sure she'll love the attention.
Click to expand...
I couldn't get over the similarity! They must be related somewhere down the line! Freya was seen by our vet, Simon Maddock, a couple of weeks ago and her back teeth were perfect. For some reason her incisors don't wear as they should, but other than that, she seems absolutely fine!
 
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