bullied to death?

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chellebert

Please would someone be able to advise? We are new to guinea pigs this summer and have just lost one today- apparantly from shock. 4 weeks ago we bought 3 eight week old boys from a local breeder . They were so delightful and very happy together. Yesterday we noticed one of the guineas was trying to hump his neighbour and this behaviour, although not agressive was disturbing for the children to witness. We separated the perpitrator although, searching online, all I could discover was that it was perfectly natural behaviour and that he was trying to assert dominance in the herd. We put the boys back in together for the night, but this morning the 'victim' was listless and covered in diarrhoea and semen. A swift trip to the vet ensued and she believed him to be suffering from shock with a 50/50 chance of survival. She gave him antibiotics and painkillers. He died two hours later. The 'naughty' guinea is behaving perfectly normally today and the remaining 2 are cuddled up just as normal together. What I want to know is - do i have a dangerous 'rapist' style guinea on my hands who should be separated from the other, or was this just an unfortunate event for the children to witness? why didn't the breeder mention this type of behaviour when I got them? Yours sad and confused. :(
 
Oh my goodness, that must have been horrible for you :'(
I have never witnessed or heard about this type of situation before, but I'm sure it isnt a habit of the offender, just a one-off battle of dominance. If you see anything like that again, I would seperate them straight away and pehaps consider putting them with spayed does
It might be a good idea for you to do this anyway
 
That's an awful situation :-\ The humping is quite normal which usually dies down after a couple of days. Perhaps the piggie that died was already ill? There are some more experienced posters on here that may be able to help a bit more, I'm so sorry for your situation :-\
 
Thanks guys. the guinea who died seemed happy and healthy till this morning. The vet seemed to think that the over enthusiatic guinea had left him sore and shocked - hence the diarrhoea which had not been present the day before. Cannot seem to find evidence that neutering males makes them less randy and am not keen to add new hutches and guineas to the garden so I guess we'll have to pray it was a one off... or he'll end up a very lonely piggie! m
 
Regarding the diarrhoea, several people including myself on these forums have lost seemingly perfectly healthy pigs from sudden attacks of the runs, literally happening within hours. We have lost two seperated boys in the last month, from identical circumstances (except the semen bit) so it could be that the piggie that died possibly was ill? I know that's not very helpful, but some of us who have lost piggies very, very quickly like this are wondering if perhaps something is 'going around' and they have caught some kind of infection - we are now really concerned about our other pigs if it is contagious. Are in or anywhere near Cambridge - the Cambridge Cavy Trust is a charity run by a specialist to help guineas and their owners as many vets are not guinea pig savvy. Perhaps it may be worth seeing the CCT of even your vet to have tests done on the other pig to see if there is any kind of infection present? We had this done last week with the CCT and are still waiting for the results.
 
Oh my gosh! Thats terrible... poor little piggy :'( :'( :'(

I'm really sorry to hear of your loss. You must be totally devestated (and bemused :o ) by it all!
 
I'm so sorry to hear about your piggy. :'(

With them being 12 weeks old now they are at the age of sorting out who is the dominant one. It could well have been as Boureki said, that this little piggy was ill as this can be why he was picked on. Although he seemed perfectly well yesterday they can go down hill so quickly.

It could be because there was three of them as problems can arise with trio's more so then with pairs.
 
:o oh what a terrible thing to happen :-\ i have no idea why this happened, the "humping" does normally settle down and the other piggies should settle in. please dont be put off by this, i have no clue why it happened. poor little piggie :'(
 
neutering doesn't stop them being randy at all, unlike most animals, guineas are different.
The one that died could of been ill, and they can go downhill really quick, they hide illness very well.
I wouldn't seperate the other two, but i would keep a very close eye on their behavior, I suggest you put extra hidey places in their hutch, so they are able to get away from eachother if they wanted to X
 
I'm so sorry to hear about your little piggy.
It could be that he was already ill or weak - one of our babies died 2 weeks after we got him, and we have just nursed another one through an illness this last week - we've only had him 2 weeks!
 
Thanks all- you've been very supportive- what a super site! i'm beginning to understand that Biscuit was probably poorly then and the other piggie wasn't really to blame. The remaining boys seem very content today (which is more than can be said for my daughter :'() but it's a learning curve , i guess. we shall definitely keep tuning in to learn more about these fascinating little animals.... :o
 
Gosh, I have never heard anything like that before either. As the others have said, I cant imagine it was the humping thing that killed your poor piggie, he must have been ill already.
I am really sorry you and your daughter had to witness that, I do hope it doesnt put you off :)
Welcome to the forum btw :)
 
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