Piggie Post Traumatic Stress?

[Cue]

Can Guinea pigs experience a form of PTSD? Or trauma in general?

I’m working with a <2 year piggie who was seized by animal control from an abuse situation. Absolutely petrified when we got her.
She also refuses to bond with anybody. She wouldn’t bond with her sister or her sister’s baby. She attacked my pigs when I tried to bond them. We recently tried bonding with a lone (neutered) male and she had none of it.
It’s really sad because she desperately wants to be with pigs. If she hears our girls she goes wild. If she can see another pig from her cage she squeaks and tries to get their attention. They’ll even sniff from a barrier with no issues but she doesn’t have any tolerance once the barriers are down.

One of my pigs had a raging fear of dogs that has settled down now she’s been with us a year. We found Cheesy under a bush at a park many people run their dogs at and we think she was chased at one point. Whenever we would take her outside to run around, if there was a dog upwind of her she would freeze. Completely. She would be frozen and completely ignore any outside stimulus for about five minutes until she “woke up” and resume acting completely normal. It seems similar to disassociation episodes or panic attacks, to anthropomorphize a bit.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Yes - being frozen with fear to the point of playing dead has been seen in other piggies. I know of a member whose rescued piggy was like this.

Refusing to bond would be part of that. She is happy living in her own territory and not having to share but is keen to have through the bar interaction with others

 

[Wiebke]

Can Guinea pigs experience a form of PTSD? Or trauma in general?

I’m working with a <2 year piggie who was seized by animal control from an abuse situation. Absolutely petrified when we got her.
She also refuses to bond with anybody. She wouldn’t bond with her sister or her sister’s baby. She attacked my pigs when I tried to bond them. We recently tried bonding with a lone (neutered) male and she had none of it.
It’s really sad because she desperately wants to be with pigs. If she hears our girls she goes wild. If she can see another pig from her cage she squeaks and tries to get their attention. They’ll even sniff from a barrier with no issues but she doesn’t have any tolerance once the barriers are down.

One of my pigs had a raging fear of dogs that has settled down now she’s been with us a year. We found Cheesy under a bush at a park many people run their dogs at and we think she was chased at one point. Whenever we would take her outside to run around, if there was a dog upwind of her she would freeze. Completely. She would be frozen and completely ignore any outside stimulus for about five minutes until she “woke up” and resume acting completely normal. It seems similar to disassociation episodes or panic attacks, to anthropomorphize a bit.

Hi

Piggies can be highly traumatised by a bad home and/or major neglect. Many can eventually work through it with your good care, patience and persistence. It also very much depends on whether they have been kept as singles or in a crowd in how they experience other piggies. The second sort always noticeably relaxed when they arrived in my house and could smell and hear my other piggies being relaxed and happy. The first lot sadly lacks that connection or has bad experiences from a struggle for survival against their mates or from bullying, or from not having a reference at all due to being separated at a young age. Yours sounds like they are very much frozen with fear. Keep her ideally next to other settled piggies once out of quarantine; if you can on two sides and let time and the example of the neighbours do a lot of the work for you.
It will be sadly quite a long road and she may never be able to fully come out of herself at the worst.

The ones I have found in some way much harder to make a lasting impact with are the babies born soon after arrival in rescue from pregnant sows still very high on stress because they experience those high stress levels as their normal while still in the womb and retain them as their default setting all life long. They struggle to fully relax and always remain skittish to a good degree.

You may find these links here interesting as they look at things from a guinea pig perspective:
Arrival in a home from the perspective of pet shop guinea pigs
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
How Do I Settle Shy New Guinea Pigs?

 

[PoptartShop]

Awwww, that is sad. Absolutely. 100%.

For example, one of my rescues, Cinny, definitely has PTSD. I got her early last year, she was in a local pet store with her 2 brothers & sister. She has been through so much trauma in her past. While I don't know her full history (she was just dropped at a local pet store w/ the rest of the litter, no food, no hay, nothing), you can just tell by her body & her reactions. Her spine even feels a bit different than my other pigs. Almost like she may have been dropped as a youngster. No idea. Both of her ears are all chewed up, she was also extremely malnourished when I got her.
She also DID NOT like humans at all. It took me a long time to gain her trust. She also was pregnant when I got her (I didn't know at the time, plus she was very skinny) & had a miscarriage a month after I got her. So, she's been through a lot.

Her sister Sugar was pregnant also, but she fortunately had a successful birth & Cinny got to help 'raise' Powder (the son), lol. Which I think she enjoyed since she unfortunately lost her own.

Now over a year later, she's super cuddly, squeaks to me, & popcorns all the time. She's living a happy life now & she trusts me. But STILL, even now, if anyone else goes to hold her or pet her, she screams and kinda hyperventilates almost, she gets all worked up. She 100% has PTSD.