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Advice On Neutering My Male Guinea Pig Pinky

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Melanie07

Melanie07

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So we bought two females in November, one of which turned out to have been pregnant and gave birth on 24th January this year to one female and one male. After a few weeks we obviously had to separate the male, Pinky, from the ladies...
When the babies went for a check-up soon after their birth, the vet told us that he could be neutered when he reached 5 months or was big enough. He is now nearly 7 months (weighs just over 1kg) and we are considering getting him neutered so he can interact and be with the ladies. He bites and gnaws the bars and looks into their cage a lot and so psychologically we thought it might help him. We are a bit wary of having him neutered because we know it can be risky. Does anyone have any advice or personal experience they could share?
Thank you! I've posted a photo of him below :)
IMG_0552.webp
 
Hello and welcome to the forum, he's gorgeous!

My piggy was neutered today to go in with his ladies, and so far he's been fine. Obviously it's a risky procedure, but it is very common now for smaller rodent's and cavies. To me you have two options, find a rescue and try boar-dating to see if you can find him a male friend, or have him neutered to go in with the girls. I had the same options and I've chosen to neuter. There is lots of information about neutering on the forum and aftercare and I'm sure someone will pop along on here that has more experience in it too :)
 
Hello!
We were considering getting a male friend for him a couple of months ago but we were told that two males in the vicinity of females would likely fight and that their cage would have to be at the other end of the house away from the smell of the ladies. It would be easier for us if all four guinea pigs could be together and after all it would be nice if Pinky could be reunited with his mum and sister! Still we are concerned about putting him through an operation.
 
I think, given those circumstances that neutering is in his best interests. As long as you find a good piggy savvy vet or small animal/exotics vet who knows what they are doing you should be in safe hands. What I also recommend is read read read. Prepare yourself, look at the vet locator up top. Find a vet, chat to them, make sure YOU are happy with your vet before you go ahead. :)
 
The crucial part for as smooth a ride as possible with a neutering op is finding a good vet. This does not necessarily need to be a small animal specialist, but a vet who routinely neuters for a rescue with neutering policy is also a good place to turn to. Either will have practice with GA and operating quickly but efficiently, which minimises the risk of complications considerably.

Please be aware that you are then facing a full 6 weeks post op wait. My Tegan is the surprise baby of a supposedly over 5 weeks post op boar, just to prove the point. It is not worthgoing through the op just to play the statistics!

We have got a few members that have gone down this route with a single baby boar of theirs.
 
Hello again everyone.

After much deliberation and research and discussions with my family, we decided that it'd be in Pinky's best interests if he could be with his lady friends again. Last week we took him for a check up at our local vets who have seen our pigs for many years now (and actually operated on one 4 or so years ago) and the vet we saw, who own a lot of guineas himself, said that it would be fine for him to be neutered and recommended it. So he is booked for his operation on Monday...!

I've had a look at a lot of the threads on here and at other websites and guides etc, but was wondering if there is anything I should get ready for when he comes home from the vets post-operation on Monday? I bought some white towels to line his cage with as was recommended. Should I do anything else to his cage?

Thanks very much!
 
We have a couple of snuggle sacks about and lots of things for him to get cosy in :) also, how long should I put white towels down for?

Thanks very much, I will ask and also get some probiotics.
 
Piggy wounds should heal and knit within 10-14 days, but the most crucial time is the first couple of days, especially the first night when a piggy could gnaw on an operation would that is paining him (which is very rare, but it can happen). It would be good to check on him once during the night and - of course - to always the out-of-hours number ready.
 
Ok, thanks very much. I have made sure I am completely free for the first few days so I'll be able to keep a watchful eye on him :)
 
I have had several boars neutered recently and they have all gone very smoothly. Depending on the vet, the wounds are small and in my experience the worst bit is getting over the anaesthetic. None have needed antibiotics, or pain relief, other than what was given post op, and they have healed up in 7-10 days. The most common post-op problem is an abscess, and this can occur up to several weeks post-op. My advice would be to keep him clean and tidy, watch for normal pooping and weeing, and eating, check the stitches regularly and pop back to the vets if you see anything out of the ordinary. My most recent boy was neutered on Monday and by Tuesday was popcorning around and completely back to his normal self. Now you can hardly tell where the wounds are. Hope it all goes well. You sound prepared for anything!
 
I have only had 1 boar neutered and it was successful with no complications; he went in in the morning and I picked him up at night after work. When I went to pick him up the nurses practically gushed about how amazing the surgery went and also the stitches and how small they were, when I got home I had a look and couldn't even see the stitches.

I didn't get any antibiotics or pain relief but they said if he hadn't started eating/pooping within 24 hrs to bring him straight back in. Thankfully that didn't happen, he didn't perk up until we put the carrier out in the garden and let the girls out, they went up to him and he was right back to his old ways and started eating too much to my relief! My friend who has many males suggested putting him on fleece and change it daily and to keep him comfortable he had his own cosy and also a snuggle safe for the night.

I hope all goes well with your little guy :)
 
Thanks everyone. We took him in this morning with no problems, just have to play the waiting game now!
 
He's now back home. He's still getting over the anaesthetic so he's a bit slow and sleepy still but once he was in the cage he crawled out his cosy sack and I got a bag of parsley out, which caused the ladies in the neighbouring cage to go crazy squeaking, and he tried to join in with the squeaks! He gobbled down a lot of that anyway and some hay.
 
Just an update on how he is. When he got back home he ate a fair amount of parsley and when it came to teatime he ate some cucumber and yellow pepper. He didn't seem much in the mood for moving around and he was quite lethargic for much of the evening but if I placed the food right infront of him he did seem keen to eat it.
I set up a cosy little hideout for him at one end of the cage with a fleecey floor, a cosy sack and a warm hot water bottle wrapped in a towel inside. As he still wasn't keen on moving, I picked him up and moved him into there and had a quick look at his stitches which all looked fine. He got very comfy inside there. Around midnight I went to check he was ok and watched him walk out, have a bit of an investigation and even do some poos.
This morning he's much better and pretty much his usual self again. He's drinking from the bottle, eating hay with his usual enthusiasm and ate some dried food :) his stitches still look fine too.
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Great that he is doing well! I hope that he's having a very smooth recovery from now on.

Keep weighing him regularly every 2-3 days in the next few weeks (an infection is usually heralded by a suddenl loss appetite/weight) and also check the groin area for any swellings from potantial abscesses or hernias, so he can be treated promptly if that is the case.
 
Melanie07 said:
Thanks, will do, I'll give him a weigh later today.
Click to expand...

If you weigh frequently, please always do so at the same time in the feeding cycle to even out the natural variations of 30g between a full/empty tummy and bladder as much as possible. ;)
 
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