Little Miss Lucky

RGPR have recently taken in an extremely distressed guinea pig with multiple problems. She had been ‘rescued’ from a ‘free to good home’ advert along with a large group of guinea pigs. However her behaviour led her new owner to enquire about the gender of his new pig. When put in with the other pigs she became very controlling and displayed boar like behaviour.

There was no aggression from her but her behaviour led to friction amongst other members of the group. Along with rumblestrutting she was mounting the sows, walking around making ‘boar noises’, yet would squirt urine (sow like behaviour) at the castrated boar in the group.   The sow was confirmed as a sow despite this behaviour but her Human was unable to keep her as she was causing upset in the group.

As she was in poor condition and suffering from mites (a sign of stress perhaps?) and probable hormonal problems she came into rescue. Her new home was a Cavy Cage on her own next to a large group of well socialised guineas who took no notice of her.  The next day she visited our vet. She was described as being in ‘poor condition’ and having mites.

  • A Gorgeous Guineas Melt and shampoo was advised as the first step in her treatment (Cost: approximately £25 for a full course, including Manuka and Neem shampoo, CocoNeem Melt, and Lavender and Myrrh Lotion),
  • Xeno 450 Spot On treatment for mites (£29.92 for one pack of 6, Little Miss Lucky will need two of those- approximate cost £10),

Consultation fee £22.24, total cost so far: £57.24.

She will be returning to the vet who suspects there may be a hormonal problem too. Gorgeous Guineas have offered to fund her treatment for any skin problems.   Money can be thrown at those problems, but there is a lot of distress going on with this little sow, she is not finding socialising easy at all.

However, she is going to remain here until she can be part of a herd and then move on to finding a friend that she can be rehomed with. There is no question of her being rehomed to live on her own or ‘within sight’ of other guinea pigs. That would be ignoring the obvious issues that she has and is against the RGPR policy of ‘quality not quantity’.   Chrissie, of Gorgeous Guineas, who has met her, has named her Little Miss Lucky.

Karen (wondering how many more Little Miss Lucky’s are being pushed from pillar to post with no real regard for their wellbeing :( )

Eventually Little Miss Lucky decided it was time to be part of a herd and jumped over her cavy caging into the pen nextdoor in which Cloud’s herd lived. When i found them in the morning the herd were paying no attention to the newcomer and Miss Lucky was busy being curious of her new surroundings. A few days later I found Miss Lucky with a bite/scratch on her nose when I went in in the morning but all was calm so whatever had happened had been resolved (if not particularly amicably!). From that on there were no more scraps and Miss Lucky took her place within the herd until she left us to become a star on Planet Guinea in January  2010… See below…

Earlier this month Little Miss Lucky left us to become a star on Planet Guinea. She is the white one that bounces around and desperately tries to get in front of the of the others, if not on them!

Little Miss Lucky arrived in 2009 after having over 5 homes in 2 weeks. She was brought here because she ‘wouldn’t live with anyone’… It wasn’t long before Little Miss Lucky had chosen to live in a herd and was adjusting to being part of a group as nature intended.

I am proud that she was chosen as a case study by a local Animal Aromatics student but even more ‘stunned’ at the benefits she experienced. Despite never fully overcoming her physical hormonal issues Miss Lucky’s behaviour changed dramatically, proving that, for her, the issue was not  linked to what was happening physically (Ovarian Cysts), if it wasn’t for the hairloss there was no indication that anything was wrong.

All this has been a valuable part of the continuous learning curve linked with guinea pigs and was yet another life that was not in vain :)

Karen (Thanking the Lucky Star) :)