[Gpdd] [Health] Ghirardelli (and welcome Godiva)

[scalabro3 at cfl.rr.com]

Hi. Please send healing wishes to Ghirardelli tomorrow. She will be undergoing a dental procedure. We hope that it will just be a routine tooth trim, but the vet who saw her this weekend thought that her first, upper, molar on her right side was moving, which could mean an abscess. The vet who saw her this weekend recommended that we wait until tomorrow for our regular vet to do the procedure because our regular vet is an expert rodent dentist, and Ghirardelli is about the size of a hamster, which would complicate anything other than a routine tooth trim.

Poor little Ghirardelli has gone through a lot recently. She's lost all vision in her left eye and her cataracts are taking over the other eye as well.  My efforts to find her a new little friend before the world went dark failed miserably.  I found a sweet little sow who was dumped in the middle of the night with a male pig and her four little piglets. According to the rescue, she was a great mother, who got along great with the male pig (obviously), and did well with other pigs. Whenever a sow would be dropped off at the shelter, they would put her in with Princess Merida, who we have renamed Godiva, and she got along well with everyone.  Every pig around her was adopted, but after four months, poor Godiva hadn't found a home yet.  So we went to meet her and decided to take her home with us.

After a three week quarantine period, we put the girls together. At first we just held them in our laps together and they ignored each other for a good ten minutes, and then when they realized there was another pig nearby, they came together and Ghirardelli immediately started licking Godiva, and they sat and snuggled for a while, and we were sure that this was going to work out great.  Unfortunately, the next day they only lasted in a pen together for about thirty minutes, before we were forced to separate them.  As soon as we put them together, Godiva seemed like she was afraid.  We watched them for about fifteen minutes, and didn't see any signs of aggression on either side so we left them alone to get settled while we had breakfast. After breakfast, we found poor little Ghirardelli huddled in the corner with a bloody lip and Godiva chattering on the other side of the pen.  So, the coffee table in the living room is now a full sized pig pen. Godiva lives there where she can see and talk to Reese and Ghirardelli, but far enough away so that she can't get another piece of Ghirardelli.

So, my apologies to Godiva for not giving her the announcement post that she deserves. She really is a beautiful girl. Perhaps when Ghirardelli is well again, they can spend some more supervised time together. Meanwhile, Reese is pleased that he now has two sows to spend his time with, even if they are a pen away.

Hope that all is well with you and your herds!

ME in New Smyrna Beach