Tonic for 2mothers

Question
Hi I've 2 mothers who have recently given birth to their 2ND litter x I no it's wrong but it happened x in the 1st pregnancy both mums an dad were all fine I wasn't sure on dates but woke up to find 4 babies an knowing dad had already mated was too late to remove him x she's just had her 2 ND litter but seems to be really thin an her coat is all thin an patchy x she's having plenty of water an fresh an dry food but she's really looking unwell even thou she's running round an seems happy x could you or do you know of a tonic/remedy that can perk her up a bit x x this time she had 6 babies too so that don't help x x

Thank you Maxine x

Answer
She's obviously feeling the stress of nursing a large litter and having them back to back. You don't say how old the babies are but I would suggest an early weaning for half the litter.  When they are three weeks old take the baby boars out. They learn to eat from the feed dish within a couple of weeks from birth. That will cut the stress on her by half.

If the other sow has fewer babies you can foster some of the larger litter to her. If they're already all together both sows are probably nursing back and forth already. When fostering babies to a new mom put the mother and the new babies in a very tight small cage, small enough that the mom cannot get away from the babies. Soon she will need to nurse to alleviate her full breasts and she'll allow the foster babies to suckle. Once she does that she can return to her babies along with the new foster.

In the meantime see if you can get some rolled barley for her. If you have a feed store available to you or know someone with horses or cattle you may be able to get it from them. People with livestock buy in huge bulk and are often willing to sell or even give you a few pounds for your guinea pigs.

I use a four way grain on my pigs in the winter months but when it is warm here in Calif the grain gets moldy very easy because it contains molasses. That's when I use barley. The pigs love it. The babies also enjoy it and start eating it at about ten days old. It helps keep weight on the mothers and the babies seem to thrive on it as well. It's available all year and should be for you too.

I don't find vitamins for guinea pigs particularly helpful. The kind that go in the water make the water taste strange and mine won't drink it. For me it's a waste of money. You can supplement them with fruits and vegetables and those they will eat. Be cautious about allowing young babies to eat those things as I've found it seems to cause diarrhea in the youngsters.

Some pigs seem to show more physical stress than others by losing their coat. It's fairly common. She should return to normal once the babies are weaned but it will take about three months. I have sows that will throw their coats when nursing babies and show the stress more than others.  They regain their coats and condition but it takes awhile.  I give them a very long rest between litters and retire them much sooner than those who maintaing good condition during pregnancy and nursing.

There isn't really a tonic that I'm aware of, but I'm going to try to get Sam Amison to pop in to offer his help since he also lives in the UK and might know more about what's available to you. For that reason I've changed your question to public so that he may view it also. I hope you don't mind. It always helps to get more than one opinion and Sam is very good at this too.

We use a little trick to help alleviate stress for pigs that are traveling. It's Vit E capsules. You need the kind that has the liquid inside. Just put a hole in one end of the capsule and put it right into the pig's mouth. She will swallow it right down. Do this once a day for about a week and see if that doesn't also give her a little boost.

We honestly don't know why this works but it does. And of course I'm sure you've already pulled the boar from the cage. The baby sows can come into heat as young as two and a half weeks and he will breed them also.  Although they don't seem to have any issues giving birth at a very young age it's not advised to allow that to happen.