Suzygpr
Senior Guinea Pig
Although this delivery is covered in another thread, this one has all the photos!
This female had very traumatic delivery - for mum, babies and me! She went into labour at 1 am on Sat night/Sun morn. I got up to check on her at 2 am and found one baby sitting on it's own, not having been cleaned but OK. Spotted another still in it's sack and struggling to breathe - Mum was scared to death of these 'monsters' and just ran and hid. I ripped the sack open and revived this second baby, it responded well and so I dealt with the first baby then, to clean it and check it was OK.
Then I waited, and waited, and waited. I knew she had more babies inside as she was so big and I could still feel them wriggling. Nothing happened. Normally they pop out one after the other and it's all over in 20 mins or so. After 2 hours waiting for her to have more contractions I knew it was time to call the vet - 4am on a Sunday morning isn't the most convenient time! Well the emergency vet (St James Vet Group) was great, after a 25 miles dash in the pouring rain to the surgery in Swansea, mum had an injection of oxytocin to bring on more contractions. The only other option after that was a C section, not great news.
I brought her home and waited for the injection to take effect. Finally at 7.30 a small bit of a pig appeared, she pushed and pushed but it just wouldn't come out! After all this time had gone by I assumed any remaining babies would be still born, so I just had to get on with it and help her pass this baby. I managed to get hold of this little bit and working with mum's contractions slowly managed to pull it out - by the top of it's head! I got the sack off it's face hoping it might live and there was a big kick and a breath! Fantastic - I cleaned this little one, all the time apologising for hurting it's little head.
While I was cleaning this one there was one big push from mum and out slid number 4, the biggest of the lot!
Mum spent the rest of the day recovering but was completely terrified of the babies, running away in fear if I tried to introduce them back to her cage. Finally, after a suggestion from Sophiew, I placed the whole family into a small cage so she had to be near them and this worked a treat - within minutes she was licking them and they were under her feeding. What a relief! Handrearing is so exhausting and nowhere near as good as mum doing the job herself.
Well here they are in the order they were born. They weighed 95-120g at birth, 3 boys and the heaviest a girl, she's hopefully going to stay with mum so they can be rehomed together.
This one was still in it's sack when I found it.
This is the one that got stuck
And finally the biggest of the lot, a little girl.
This female had very traumatic delivery - for mum, babies and me! She went into labour at 1 am on Sat night/Sun morn. I got up to check on her at 2 am and found one baby sitting on it's own, not having been cleaned but OK. Spotted another still in it's sack and struggling to breathe - Mum was scared to death of these 'monsters' and just ran and hid. I ripped the sack open and revived this second baby, it responded well and so I dealt with the first baby then, to clean it and check it was OK.
Then I waited, and waited, and waited. I knew she had more babies inside as she was so big and I could still feel them wriggling. Nothing happened. Normally they pop out one after the other and it's all over in 20 mins or so. After 2 hours waiting for her to have more contractions I knew it was time to call the vet - 4am on a Sunday morning isn't the most convenient time! Well the emergency vet (St James Vet Group) was great, after a 25 miles dash in the pouring rain to the surgery in Swansea, mum had an injection of oxytocin to bring on more contractions. The only other option after that was a C section, not great news.
I brought her home and waited for the injection to take effect. Finally at 7.30 a small bit of a pig appeared, she pushed and pushed but it just wouldn't come out! After all this time had gone by I assumed any remaining babies would be still born, so I just had to get on with it and help her pass this baby. I managed to get hold of this little bit and working with mum's contractions slowly managed to pull it out - by the top of it's head! I got the sack off it's face hoping it might live and there was a big kick and a breath! Fantastic - I cleaned this little one, all the time apologising for hurting it's little head.
While I was cleaning this one there was one big push from mum and out slid number 4, the biggest of the lot!
Mum spent the rest of the day recovering but was completely terrified of the babies, running away in fear if I tried to introduce them back to her cage. Finally, after a suggestion from Sophiew, I placed the whole family into a small cage so she had to be near them and this worked a treat - within minutes she was licking them and they were under her feeding. What a relief! Handrearing is so exhausting and nowhere near as good as mum doing the job herself.
Well here they are in the order they were born. They weighed 95-120g at birth, 3 boys and the heaviest a girl, she's hopefully going to stay with mum so they can be rehomed together.
This one was still in it's sack when I found it.
This is the one that got stuck
And finally the biggest of the lot, a little girl.
