What to do when they pass.

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PopcornPigs

PopcornPigs

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This is a bit morbid but I've been worrying/stressing myself out and need some advice/reassurance.
You may/may not know but I have Terry, my 4 1/2 year old boar
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living with George, my 3 month old boar
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happy happy happy..

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but my problem is, they can't be without eachother for a second. If I take Terry out of the cage, within two seconds George is going MAD. He's running around, squeaking, squealing, jumping up at the bars, biting the bars etc and it doesn't stop until Terry is returned. If George is removed Terry perks up and starts looking around then runs up to George when he's returned as if to say 'there you are!'

Well, my mum brought up the fact that Terry is 'getting on'. He may not be that old but he's certainly slowed down, and I'm really upset of the thought of George being alone .What would I do? He'd be constantly squeaking. I have a plan for Tilly (my 5 month sow) when Doris passes on (5 year old sow). Hopefully she'll be bonded with Frazzle and Annie. But George..? Obviously another boar but, I think its more the thought of George having to deal with his only friend passing away rather than finding him a friend that's bothering me. Does anyone else worry about this?

Thanks
Lizz
 
Aw yes I know it is morbid but it is a huge worry. My Patrick is so attached to my Pebbles it's awful and I do believe if Pebbles died he could very well die of a broken heart.

I think it's important to put the pigs first and although we'll be upset and not wanting to replace our friends at the same point we don't want to lose our other friend.

I would put him side by side your other pigs and when the times right get him a friend.
 
It is a worry, & one reason why I didn't get a baby for my lone female after her friend died at 4 years old.

Poppy was bought as a companion to Peaches after her friend died. Poppy was the runt of the litter & absolutely adored Peaches, she would cry when she wasn't there & washed her face every day, she thought Peaches was her mum rolleyes
When Peaches died aged 4 we thought Poppy would pine & were really worried for her. Peaches died of heart failure in the night & Poppy was with her. However Poppy was a transformed piggy & no longer the underdog she thrived, never cried for Peaches, ate more, etc & enjoyed another 3 years on her own with us. We had a bad experience with our previous piggies trying to bond the lone one after her friend died, a rescue piggy thought suitable attacked her, so this time we decided only to get a baby piggy again if Poppy pined for company as she was the smallest piggy we'd ever seen. So you see sometimes they are better at coping than us humans, so he may surprise you.

I still miss her dreadfully :(
 
Not morbid...more practical!

I'd suggest, when the time comes, maybe finding George a similar aged lady friend?
 
My 4 1/2 year old piggy, Woog, died a week ago. She lived with 2 year old Bellatrix, who could not be without Woog. Woog died at the vet and not in the cage with Bella. I cleaned the cage out, and introduced Bella and her twin half-sisters on neutral ground. The get along fine together, even though Bella is not as taken with them as she was with Woog.

I also had a bad experience with this with Nibbles (RIP) and Josephine (RIP). Nibbles and Josephine were the best of friends. But Josephine, although 6 months younger, was badly inbred. She started to deteriorate, which Nibbles knew and never left her side. Josephine died and Nibbles was devastated. She barricaded herself into one of her hidaways with her food bowl. I tried to bond Nibbles with my other female piggies, but she always hated other pigs, except for Josephine. She lived for a few months on her own, then had a bad stroke. After her stroke, her temperament changed. I ended up bonding her to Dobby, a 2 month old sow. But, Nibbles still was depressed and died a month after. She was a bit better with Dobby around though Dobby didn't know Nibbles very well and wasn't really upset, but I ended up adopting Willow a month and a half later and bonding her with Dobby. Sorry about the sad story
 
I'm sure he'll be very upset to lose his friend he is bonded to, but I think that as long as he is with other guinea pigs, he will be ok.

So when the time comes, I would find him a new friend straight away, as soon as possible. I don't think they need time to grieve before getting a new friend, I think they need company to help them feel better. :)

I'm sure he will bond to a new friend too and be ok. He will miss his old friend, but he will be ok, x
 
PopcornPigs said:
Thanks for all the comments, have helped reassure me :)
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I worry too, Ted and Dougal are insepereable and i hope that when one goes it will be Dougal first, that sounds bad but it would be better as he is the reliant one. He is boss pig but he adores Ted and is very protective. If Ted were to go first, Dougal would die of a broken heart I'm sure :(
 
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Interesting for me as I was about to make a similar first post myself. I'm at work now and am very worried about what I will find when I get home tonight as China - one of my two 5 years and 4 months old boars - looks very tired and disinterested this morning, with eyes sunken and only half open. He even refused parsley and I'm thinking that he is just worn out (and I know from past experience the sunken eyes is usually a definite sign that the end is not far off....).

Harvey is the boss pig and the larger and generally stronger of the two but, although my feeling is he would cope the better of the two being alone, it's obviously not an ideal prospect, and I'd feel so sorry for him as they have lived all their lives together. Of course, given that Harvey too is slowing down (just not as much as China) I would be relucant to introduce a new pig at this stage either. :(
 
I think there are lots of us in this situation. I know it definately occurs to me sometimes as Merry is 5 1/2 and we got him a new baby boar friend, Suilven earlier this year as he was pining following the loss of his brother, Pippin.

My plan is to bond Suilven with a younger boar when Merry's time is up. If I get him a younger one then hoepfully I miss ending up with two hormonal adolescent boys at the same time.

The rescue I got Suilven from was very ssupportive and promised lots of support when the inevitable happenss so I would suggest finding a local rescue that boar dates and approaching them when the time comes.
 
It's definately a pratical way to think but like many other have said, a lot do cope better than expected. I always allow a pig time to grieve for a little while before introducing another, just in case.

My eldest boar, Fuzzy, lost his pal Peanut in Feb this year (i suspect Peanut was inbred too) whilst at the vets. I hadn't had this happen before, mine have always passed at home or the final one has passed at the vets. So I was devastated and didn't know what to do with Fuzzy, i mean his mate was there this morning and for him not to return ever seemed a bit distressing. The vet told me to put Peanut's body in the cage, present it to Fuzzy so he could sniff it and accept nature had taken it's course. I looked at her like she was crazy but she explained she saw it on a nature program years ago about wolves and it allows the others to understand what has happened and that nature has taken it's course as opposed to a member of the family just disappearing, apparently that is much worse. She said she had done it with various animals of her own and it worked well. Well I did this, as weird it seemed and Fuzzy sniffed him, then walked off to clear out the food bowl! So that was that. I took 4 months to decide if i should get Fuzzy a friend just because of his bolshy nature but did so a few weeks ago and all is good :) Infact i think little Tyler is helping Fuzzy be a bit more active as Fuzzy has cataracts and isn't always too confident moiving too fast but is now following him around lol

Now time to stop rambling....:red
 
He's so little and young though, he's never been alone and I have no idea if he'd understand. :( Ive heard of showing them the body too.
 
I understand your worry completely. I guess you won't know what to do for the best until the worst happens with Terry, but hopefully it'll be a good few years yet ;)

I'm in kinda the opposite situation to you... I have Pippa at Willow and two and a half, Boris and Pixel at two and Marmite at about 8 months, so four of them are aged very closely together. As much as I want them all to live very long and happy lives together, I also dread them becoming an elderly little group and all going together
 
Maybe, if you can, get another boar and introduce them. Maybe they will join it in their group and not be attached to each other so much. Even when one passes the other will at least have another firend. I understand your worrying. I hope that this helps.
Guineagurl
 
I think it's very important that they see the body. My darling Wilfie was put to sleep this week, but I also took his friend so he be put back with him after Wilf had passed so he would know he had gone. He cuddled up to Wilf for a few minutes and then wandered away. I introduced him to another boar just two days later and they are already best friends.
 
I had a similar experience several years ago. Gethin was also about 3 months ago when Kurt (who was about 7 - not exactly sure how old he was as he came from a rescue as an adult) died. Gethin was incredibly distraught. Next day, I took him to work with me and left my deputy looking after him when I went to a meeting :(|) I stopped at Pets at Home and asked them for the youngest boar they had, and that was Celyn - 7 weeks old. Celyn and Gethin bonded immediately, and were inseparable until Gethin died nearly 2 years ago (he had a heart condition.)

When Gethin died, I started searching rescues for young boars and found Griff, who was born the day Gethhin died. Celyn went with me to work for 3 weeks until Griff was old enough to join him (and his typing speed improved incredibly! 8)

I think the key is to give the bereaved pig lots and lots of cuddles and time but you don't have to rush into getting another pig immediately. I think it's better to find the right pig rather than a quick pig, although the one time I did that, I was very lucky.
 
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