rmanuel
New Born Pup
So, I found the information on this forum too late regarding not separating guinea pigs after surgery, and now I’m experiencing significant issues. I’m not sure there’s a solution, but if anybody has any ideas, I’d be really grateful.
I have two sows - Molasses and Parfait - who have been together since birth. I adopted them from a rescue two years ago and they’ve never been separated for more than a few hours before. Around six months ago, Molasses was diagnosed with ovarian cysts. (She likely had them for a while before that, but it took me some time to recognize the signs as I never had a piggy with an ovarian cyst before.) I started getting her hormone shots at the vet, which would work for about a month before her symptoms would kick back up again - including dominance behaviors (chasing, mounting, rumblestrutting; more annoying than aggressive). Parfait seemed pretty chill about it all and just kind of let it happen, maybe gently snapping back if Molasses annoyed her too much. I’m wondering, though, if maybe this soured their relationship more than I thought.
After six months of underwhelming results with the hormone shots, I finally made the decision to get Molasses spayed last Thursday (5/4/23). According to directions from the vet, I separated her into a small area - actually the second floor of their cage with the opening blocked off and the ramp removed, about a 1x2 c&c grid area. She’d been recovering really well, so on Saturday - less than three days of separation - I popped her back into the main cage so she could have some time to move around a bit, since she looked to be getting a bit depressed all cramped up in the small second floor area. I honestly didn’t think there’d be much issue, given how chill-seeming Parfait had been about Molasses’s hormone issues and how short of a separation it had been. But… wow. As soon as they smelled each other, it was instant and aggressive teeth chattering and chirping, fluffed up fur, raising onto their back legs to look bigger, etc.; and they only didn’t manage to start actually lunging and biting because I immediately dropped an opaque barrier between them and separated them.
Naturally, it was after this incident that I found the information on this site. So the next day I tried more neutral territory on my bed. Same thing. Thank goodness both of them are bonded to ME, even if they aren’t so much to each other anymore, because all I had to do was stick my arm between them to keep them apart, and they didn’t bite me.
I ordered some extra wire grids and split their cage today in hopes they could make better friends through the bars. No dice. Same issues, and this time Molasses literally bashed her face into the bars trying to attack Parfait. I had to put up an opaque barrier, and it look them a while to calm down.
So… is it hopeless at this point? Should I just give it more time, or is it already too late? I have the terrible sinking feeling that it might be, which will mean I have to say goodbye to one of them. I have enough room for them to live separately next to each other, if they can get along through the bars, but I don’t have enough room to home two piggies in each half in order to give them a companion.
I have two sows - Molasses and Parfait - who have been together since birth. I adopted them from a rescue two years ago and they’ve never been separated for more than a few hours before. Around six months ago, Molasses was diagnosed with ovarian cysts. (She likely had them for a while before that, but it took me some time to recognize the signs as I never had a piggy with an ovarian cyst before.) I started getting her hormone shots at the vet, which would work for about a month before her symptoms would kick back up again - including dominance behaviors (chasing, mounting, rumblestrutting; more annoying than aggressive). Parfait seemed pretty chill about it all and just kind of let it happen, maybe gently snapping back if Molasses annoyed her too much. I’m wondering, though, if maybe this soured their relationship more than I thought.
After six months of underwhelming results with the hormone shots, I finally made the decision to get Molasses spayed last Thursday (5/4/23). According to directions from the vet, I separated her into a small area - actually the second floor of their cage with the opening blocked off and the ramp removed, about a 1x2 c&c grid area. She’d been recovering really well, so on Saturday - less than three days of separation - I popped her back into the main cage so she could have some time to move around a bit, since she looked to be getting a bit depressed all cramped up in the small second floor area. I honestly didn’t think there’d be much issue, given how chill-seeming Parfait had been about Molasses’s hormone issues and how short of a separation it had been. But… wow. As soon as they smelled each other, it was instant and aggressive teeth chattering and chirping, fluffed up fur, raising onto their back legs to look bigger, etc.; and they only didn’t manage to start actually lunging and biting because I immediately dropped an opaque barrier between them and separated them.
Naturally, it was after this incident that I found the information on this site. So the next day I tried more neutral territory on my bed. Same thing. Thank goodness both of them are bonded to ME, even if they aren’t so much to each other anymore, because all I had to do was stick my arm between them to keep them apart, and they didn’t bite me.
I ordered some extra wire grids and split their cage today in hopes they could make better friends through the bars. No dice. Same issues, and this time Molasses literally bashed her face into the bars trying to attack Parfait. I had to put up an opaque barrier, and it look them a while to calm down.
So… is it hopeless at this point? Should I just give it more time, or is it already too late? I have the terrible sinking feeling that it might be, which will mean I have to say goodbye to one of them. I have enough room for them to live separately next to each other, if they can get along through the bars, but I don’t have enough room to home two piggies in each half in order to give them a companion.
