[Gpdd] HEALTH Spaying and behaviour of new piggies.

[Penny Charlesworth]

Hello Mary K and welcome to the GPDD. A big piggy welcome to Canela and Buttons from all at Piggyfriends, a little gp rescue and sanctuary in England.

My local animal shelter, a huge place that caters for every sort of pet, from mice to horses, and wildlife too, often neuters their boars in order to find them a new home. They find that most people want to adopt sows but by making up a trio or a quartet, including one boar, they can re-home the boars that way and make room for new piggies to come in. They have a group of people, myself included, that will adopt a pair of entire boars, if they happen to come in as friends, without the need for neutering.

Neutering and spaying in prohibitively expensive in England but they have an in-house vet. They do not spay their sows and it seems strange to me that a gp rescue centre would do this as the adoption fees will surely not cover the cost of the operation and after-care. Maybe a local vet practice volunteers their services at the place that you visited?

Personally, I would never, ever have a sow spayed unless there were exceedingly good medical grounds necessitating this operation. All operations carry a risk to the piggy not to mention the cost, which could be better spent on bales of hay and bags of carrots and I would never put a piggy through the pain and discomfort of an op unless they were actually sick. If one of my girls was unlucky enough to have an ovarian cyst, there are other, less invasive, methods of treatment available to me.

It is hard to pick two piggies from a herd that are likely to be friends, as, like us, they prefer to choose their own friends. They are likely to behave differently in a herd than as a pair in any case. When an unwanted piggy arrives here, I have to think for her and I try to assess which group she should join. Most sows will get on with each other, particularly in a group but there are exceptions. I once had a piggy called Freya, who, on the death of her elderly friend, did not want to live with any other pig. She would happily play with the others when they went out into the garden in their huge run but would not share her indoor home with anypig.

My local rescue centre makes sure that any pair, trio etc. adopted have lived together peacefully for a while before they are put up for adoption, so the new owners will not have any problems in this regard. Two adults, suddenly forced to co-habit, will sometimes behave like your two girls. I suspect that Canela is a natural "boss" pig and is trying to exert her dominance over Buttons. Once the "pecking order" is established, and Buttons happily accepts that Canela is the alpha pig, I hope that peace and harmony will reign.

I would put in two bowls and two water bottles to make sure that Buttons can get her share and you already have two hding places for them both. It is good that they will happily eat together so, hopefully, it is just a matter of time. Just watch Buttons carefully to make sure that she is not being bullied and let us all know how they get on.

Best wishes from Penny and the Piggyfriends.