[Gpdd] [BEHAVIOUR] Sensory impairments

[DebJonSara at aol.com]

When I did my rescue in January 2003, 3 of the piggies were congenitally  
blind - the vet said this was a result of inbreeding (it was that unscrupulous  
"Crocodile Woman", some of you may remember!). Their blindness did not seem to  
impair their quality of life at all - they could still locate food and water 
and  other piggies. They were also much more tame than my other rescues - they 
 couldn't see when a hand hovered overhead wanting to pick them up, so never 
ran  away and hid. At veggie time, I just used to sit cross-legged in from of 
their  hutch, and they would file out onto my lap and chomp their way through 
the  veggies whilst I stroked them, then file back into the hutch. Etoile and 
Huppe  were chief wheekers - I think their hearing and sense of smell alerted 
them to  my arrival!
 
"Oldtimers" here may remember that their blindness tragically contributed  
eventually to their demise. They were used to the smell and sound of dogs, as  
our two dogs are piggie- friendly, but one day they were out in their (at that  
point foolishly uncovered) run when two dogs belonging to a farmer who was  
ploughing local fields burst into the garden and murdered them, alongside two  
other beloved tame piggies. Three more timid piggies who were also in the run  
had the sense to hide, but my poor blind Etoile, Huppe and Ourson were unable 
to  sense the danger and so were killed. It broke my heart, and I always felt 
 guiilty that I had taught them to trust dogs.
 
I think my favourite Dolly Mixture, Soulage, has a hearing impairment, as  
she doesn't react to auditory stimuli, but is a chief wheeker once she sees me,  
or indeed if she sees the others getting excited. It's ironic, because she 
seems  to have exceptionally big ears - when she was rescued and before we 
rehomed her,  we gave all the piggies awaiting adoption nicknames, and I'm ashamed 
to say,  hers was "Bigears"!! I didn't know then that she would eventually be 
returned to  us and become a beautiful Aby-Peruvian, my beloved favourite. 
Once again, her  deafness makes her all the more adorable, as she does not run 
and hide in  response to sudden noises like a sneeze or a dog bark. 
 
Debbie and the 13 Dolly Mixtures