Hello all!
To preface my story, I do not own any guinea pigs. I work at a pet store and although I am not thrilled with the fact that we carry animals at all, I am lucky enough to work with many people that care very deeply about the animals, even if corporate doesn't.
A couple months ago we got a shipment in of new baby guineas. Something was very wrong with the babies and three out of four of them died within two days. Unfortunately there was no necropsy allowed so we don't know what caused this. The fourth baby was very wobbly and had all the symptoms associated with an ear infection as well as an URI. We took him to the vet (a well trusted one, thankfully) and the vet confirmed what we thought. He has now gone through two rounds of antibiotics and the head tilt and circling has yet to let up. The vet says that it is probably a permanent inner ear issue caused by not getting vet treatment soon enough (as he probably developed the infections before we got him). We are now planning to adopt him out as special needs and I am considering taking him home since I have grown quite fond of the goofy little guy.
My question is: would he still be best off being housed with another guinea pig? I know that companionship is HUGELY important for guineas but I am concerned that due to his issues he could be bullied and would be unable to work out the tussles that come along with adjusting new guineas to each other. I don't want to enter into a situation where I adopt another guinea pig (not from our store since I don't want to contribute money to the fact that we keep animals) and that guinea turns out to be dominant and the head tilt guinea gets hurt.
To preface my story, I do not own any guinea pigs. I work at a pet store and although I am not thrilled with the fact that we carry animals at all, I am lucky enough to work with many people that care very deeply about the animals, even if corporate doesn't.
A couple months ago we got a shipment in of new baby guineas. Something was very wrong with the babies and three out of four of them died within two days. Unfortunately there was no necropsy allowed so we don't know what caused this. The fourth baby was very wobbly and had all the symptoms associated with an ear infection as well as an URI. We took him to the vet (a well trusted one, thankfully) and the vet confirmed what we thought. He has now gone through two rounds of antibiotics and the head tilt and circling has yet to let up. The vet says that it is probably a permanent inner ear issue caused by not getting vet treatment soon enough (as he probably developed the infections before we got him). We are now planning to adopt him out as special needs and I am considering taking him home since I have grown quite fond of the goofy little guy.
My question is: would he still be best off being housed with another guinea pig? I know that companionship is HUGELY important for guineas but I am concerned that due to his issues he could be bullied and would be unable to work out the tussles that come along with adjusting new guineas to each other. I don't want to enter into a situation where I adopt another guinea pig (not from our store since I don't want to contribute money to the fact that we keep animals) and that guinea turns out to be dominant and the head tilt guinea gets hurt.
