BiloxiPigPapa
Member
Cavy Gazer
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2015
- Posts
- 9
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2015
- Messages
- 9
I haven't even had these guys for a full week yet and I'm already worried about one of them.
Quick background:
- Adopted Petey from Petsmart last Friday. He's an orange Abyssinian and he's adorable. He's bigger than the other one for now.
- Adopted Oscar from same Petsmart (same cage, so same litter, according to sales girl) the following Saturday. He's a brown/black/white multicolor short hair. Vet says he'll get a lot bigger.
- Both are males and about 3 months old, according go the vet. She said they both weighed about 12.1 oz.
- Although I've since moved both piggies into a bigger C&C cage (compared to the rabbit hutch they were in), Oscar has shown to be the mostly dominant one... he'll rumble at Petey if Petey gets too close sometimes...occasionally nip at him if he's invading his space...it got to the point that I had to put two water bottles and food bowls in there so I didn't have to worry about Petey getting enough food and water. I will say the fighting has toned down a lot since moving into the bigger space.
Here's a picture of the cage:
(broken link removed)
Anyway, I was worried that Petey might have mites initially. I would see him scratching himself sometimes in his old cage before we got Oscar, but I didn't know what to look for in terms of frequency of scratching or what would be concerning. I then became concerned that Oscar could get some too, as I'd witnessed him scratching a bit as well. I know some degree of scratching, nibbling at one's fur is probably normal for guinea pigs... but I wanted to play it safe. First step was finding a competent vet in south Mississippi. Luckily I found one in Saucier, and possibly two in the same office. One breeds guineas herself and seems pretty knowledgeable, and the other is their usual exotics person.
I voiced my concerns about Petey's scratching, she took a look at him and didn't seem to think there was much to it at that time. She said typically what you see is patchy fur and scabs or lesions forming from excessive scratching, and Petey looked like he had a nice coat. She did hold him up close and check. She noticed he was missing some fur around the toes of one of his feet, and there was a tiny scab down there, but didn't seem prepared to say it was mites at that time. She said to keep an eye on it and if anything changed, to bring them both back in because guinea pigs can deteriorate quickly if they get sick. She said she thought it looked like Oscar was beautiful, as well as a "well endowed little fella," which might explain some of the aggression and rumbling directed toward Petey. She said to give them more time--a few weeks or so--and if he won't leave Petey alone, then neutering might be an option, though there was some risk. I wasn't ready to make that kind of decision yet and told her I'd give it more time, but she did point out little bite marks taken out of the edge of one of Pete's ears.
She said she didn't see any scabbing around it or much blood, so it's possible it was from when he was in the store cage or younger. Still, Petey is a cute little guy--possibly my favorite so far--and I'd hate for Oscar to make his life hell unnecessarily. They're not at it constantly, but Oscar still rumbles at Petey on a fairly frequent basis.
She went ahead and did fecal exams on both of them and said they came back OK. She went ahead and gave them each an oral dose of medicine to treat whipworms and hookworms. (I can't for the life of me remember what it was called... I think I read on the invoice it was like Puracan or Purcan or something.) Again she said if anything changed to please let them know because guineas can get sick quickly.
So all of this brings me to yesterday afternoon when I got home from work. My wife got home first and said when she got home they were each just chilling in their respective Oxbow Timothy hay tunnels ((broken link removed)), so she thought they were just resting.
She said she'd heard one of them make a loud noise at one point and wasn't sure what it was until I got home later and we both heard it twice more. It was Petey, and after doing some Youtube research, it sounded like Petey was coughing. I also noticed that when I looked at him, he appeared to be sitting there and falling asleep... but then I realized it was just his left eye squinting shut slowly off and on, as if irritated by something.
We picked Petey up out of the cage and I noticed that although he was still skittish and tried to get away, he wasn't quite as quick as before (he sort of gave up a little easier). My wife and I looked at him... I looked him over for patches of missing fur and didn't really see much in the way of patchy skin or scabbing from excessive itching. Because he coughed a couple of times, we looked at his nose for drainage and didn't really see anything. I looked at his eye closely and although he was still sort of squinting it, I didn't see much of anything in the way of discharge. I then looked at his feet to see if the little scab was still there or worse, but I couldn't get a great look because he was wriggling around more. More restless than when we held him before. He soon started nibbling my wife's finger to let her know he was done with it, so we put him back down.
I didn't really observe any of these behaviors from Oscar, so for now my fear of him catching something (if Petey has something) remains low... but I know things can change.
I have heard each of them sneeze before, but I don't think I would call it constant and I'm almost convinced it was because of hay dust. We had first bough Vitakraft sweet grass Timothy hay and although they loved it, it seemed to get powdery at the bottom of the pile. I went out and bought them some Oxbow western Timothy hay yesterday and so far so good. Still, any sneezing makes me worry. (As you can probably tell, I can be a worrier and a bit obsessive sometimes).
I took both Timothy hidey tunnels out, emptied out the poops from inside, picked up the majority of the poops from all around the cage, cleared out the old "potty corner" bedding (I put some paper bedding in one corner on top of the fleece so they could have a designated bathroom area--Oscar seems to use it more than Petey), and picked up all of the old hay. I did my best to get the darker hay dust/fine hay pieces at the bottom of the pile. I noticed the fleece was a bit moist under the hay pile...maybe from pee?
I put in all new hay, bedding in the corner, and put the hidey tunnels back in. I didn't hear Petey cough again after that. Was it the smell of the poop inside his hidey that was getting to him? Is it a URI? Is it hay dust?
I called the vet and she sounded concerned, but said to keep a close eye on them over the next 24 hours. She said to try and find some saline solution eye drops (kept saying liquid tears as an example) that were steroid free and try dropping a little into Petey's eye to see if anything changes. She said if it persists or gets worse, or if the coughing continued, to bring them in because she'd hate to blow off something serious like a URI if that ended up being the case. The soonest I could get them in to her would be Saturday morning. I trust her opinion because she seemed very knowledgeable, but I wanted to get a feel for what you guys think might be going on or what I can do to help.
(I'm sorry this turned into such a long post...yikes)
Two final thoughts:
1.) I'm often worried about the temp of the house while I'm away at work. Their cage is mostly on tile floor near our kitchen area, and only about a quarter of it sits on the carpet. I know cold air sinks. I live down here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and it's starting to get hot and humid again. I've left the A/C set to like 75 while I've been gone the past few days, but I worry about what it'll do to my electric bill in the long run. At the same time, I don't want my guineas getting sick because of me. Do guinea pigs catch colds? What's their normal tolerance for heat and cool changes? It's been getting down to around 60-65 at night here lately, but it could jump to 70-something at night. You never know. My wife wants to make them a cozy sack out of some extra fleece we bought, and for fun last night we tossed the yard or so of fleece into the cage kind of crumpled up to see what they would do. They seemed to love it! Of course Oscar rumbled at Petey a few times under there for getting up in his business while he was burrowing... but otherwise, we hardly saw either one again for the rest of the night. I took it out this morning, shook it out, and put it back in there for them today before I left for work. I'm eager to see how they handle it. It would seem something like that would keep them plenty warm if they were ever too chilly, right?
2.) I built the cage Monday night and put the fleece down in it. I'm using puppy pads (about two layers) for lining between the cloroplast box and the fleece. It's essentially a giant piece of fleece one layer thick that we fold back around the edges of the box and underneath. I pre-treated the fleece first by washing it twice on delicate with free and clear detergent (cold water) and drying it on gentle. Did the same with the fleece we used as their "test hidey." Did I go about things the wrong way? I still have yet to wash the fleece, but that's only because I didn't think the smell was that bad. When I get my face down in there by one of their hidey tunnels though, it's noticeable... but that's before I spot clean it. I guess I'm wondering whether it could be the Timothy material the tunnels are made out of that could be contributing to any coughing or sneezing if there's poop or pee in there?
Apologies again for the novel... but this is pretty much everything that's had me concerned since yesterday. Maybe I need to relax a bit, but you can't be too careful and I tend to let my worrying side take over with things like this.
Thoughts?
Quick background:
- Adopted Petey from Petsmart last Friday. He's an orange Abyssinian and he's adorable. He's bigger than the other one for now.
- Adopted Oscar from same Petsmart (same cage, so same litter, according to sales girl) the following Saturday. He's a brown/black/white multicolor short hair. Vet says he'll get a lot bigger.
- Both are males and about 3 months old, according go the vet. She said they both weighed about 12.1 oz.
- Although I've since moved both piggies into a bigger C&C cage (compared to the rabbit hutch they were in), Oscar has shown to be the mostly dominant one... he'll rumble at Petey if Petey gets too close sometimes...occasionally nip at him if he's invading his space...it got to the point that I had to put two water bottles and food bowls in there so I didn't have to worry about Petey getting enough food and water. I will say the fighting has toned down a lot since moving into the bigger space.
Here's a picture of the cage:
(broken link removed)
Anyway, I was worried that Petey might have mites initially. I would see him scratching himself sometimes in his old cage before we got Oscar, but I didn't know what to look for in terms of frequency of scratching or what would be concerning. I then became concerned that Oscar could get some too, as I'd witnessed him scratching a bit as well. I know some degree of scratching, nibbling at one's fur is probably normal for guinea pigs... but I wanted to play it safe. First step was finding a competent vet in south Mississippi. Luckily I found one in Saucier, and possibly two in the same office. One breeds guineas herself and seems pretty knowledgeable, and the other is their usual exotics person.
I voiced my concerns about Petey's scratching, she took a look at him and didn't seem to think there was much to it at that time. She said typically what you see is patchy fur and scabs or lesions forming from excessive scratching, and Petey looked like he had a nice coat. She did hold him up close and check. She noticed he was missing some fur around the toes of one of his feet, and there was a tiny scab down there, but didn't seem prepared to say it was mites at that time. She said to keep an eye on it and if anything changed, to bring them both back in because guinea pigs can deteriorate quickly if they get sick. She said she thought it looked like Oscar was beautiful, as well as a "well endowed little fella," which might explain some of the aggression and rumbling directed toward Petey. She said to give them more time--a few weeks or so--and if he won't leave Petey alone, then neutering might be an option, though there was some risk. I wasn't ready to make that kind of decision yet and told her I'd give it more time, but she did point out little bite marks taken out of the edge of one of Pete's ears.
She said she didn't see any scabbing around it or much blood, so it's possible it was from when he was in the store cage or younger. Still, Petey is a cute little guy--possibly my favorite so far--and I'd hate for Oscar to make his life hell unnecessarily. They're not at it constantly, but Oscar still rumbles at Petey on a fairly frequent basis.She went ahead and did fecal exams on both of them and said they came back OK. She went ahead and gave them each an oral dose of medicine to treat whipworms and hookworms. (I can't for the life of me remember what it was called... I think I read on the invoice it was like Puracan or Purcan or something.) Again she said if anything changed to please let them know because guineas can get sick quickly.
So all of this brings me to yesterday afternoon when I got home from work. My wife got home first and said when she got home they were each just chilling in their respective Oxbow Timothy hay tunnels ((broken link removed)), so she thought they were just resting.
She said she'd heard one of them make a loud noise at one point and wasn't sure what it was until I got home later and we both heard it twice more. It was Petey, and after doing some Youtube research, it sounded like Petey was coughing. I also noticed that when I looked at him, he appeared to be sitting there and falling asleep... but then I realized it was just his left eye squinting shut slowly off and on, as if irritated by something.
We picked Petey up out of the cage and I noticed that although he was still skittish and tried to get away, he wasn't quite as quick as before (he sort of gave up a little easier). My wife and I looked at him... I looked him over for patches of missing fur and didn't really see much in the way of patchy skin or scabbing from excessive itching. Because he coughed a couple of times, we looked at his nose for drainage and didn't really see anything. I looked at his eye closely and although he was still sort of squinting it, I didn't see much of anything in the way of discharge. I then looked at his feet to see if the little scab was still there or worse, but I couldn't get a great look because he was wriggling around more. More restless than when we held him before. He soon started nibbling my wife's finger to let her know he was done with it, so we put him back down.
I didn't really observe any of these behaviors from Oscar, so for now my fear of him catching something (if Petey has something) remains low... but I know things can change.
I have heard each of them sneeze before, but I don't think I would call it constant and I'm almost convinced it was because of hay dust. We had first bough Vitakraft sweet grass Timothy hay and although they loved it, it seemed to get powdery at the bottom of the pile. I went out and bought them some Oxbow western Timothy hay yesterday and so far so good. Still, any sneezing makes me worry. (As you can probably tell, I can be a worrier and a bit obsessive sometimes).
I took both Timothy hidey tunnels out, emptied out the poops from inside, picked up the majority of the poops from all around the cage, cleared out the old "potty corner" bedding (I put some paper bedding in one corner on top of the fleece so they could have a designated bathroom area--Oscar seems to use it more than Petey), and picked up all of the old hay. I did my best to get the darker hay dust/fine hay pieces at the bottom of the pile. I noticed the fleece was a bit moist under the hay pile...maybe from pee?
I put in all new hay, bedding in the corner, and put the hidey tunnels back in. I didn't hear Petey cough again after that. Was it the smell of the poop inside his hidey that was getting to him? Is it a URI? Is it hay dust?
I called the vet and she sounded concerned, but said to keep a close eye on them over the next 24 hours. She said to try and find some saline solution eye drops (kept saying liquid tears as an example) that were steroid free and try dropping a little into Petey's eye to see if anything changes. She said if it persists or gets worse, or if the coughing continued, to bring them in because she'd hate to blow off something serious like a URI if that ended up being the case. The soonest I could get them in to her would be Saturday morning. I trust her opinion because she seemed very knowledgeable, but I wanted to get a feel for what you guys think might be going on or what I can do to help.
(I'm sorry this turned into such a long post...yikes)
Two final thoughts:
1.) I'm often worried about the temp of the house while I'm away at work. Their cage is mostly on tile floor near our kitchen area, and only about a quarter of it sits on the carpet. I know cold air sinks. I live down here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and it's starting to get hot and humid again. I've left the A/C set to like 75 while I've been gone the past few days, but I worry about what it'll do to my electric bill in the long run. At the same time, I don't want my guineas getting sick because of me. Do guinea pigs catch colds? What's their normal tolerance for heat and cool changes? It's been getting down to around 60-65 at night here lately, but it could jump to 70-something at night. You never know. My wife wants to make them a cozy sack out of some extra fleece we bought, and for fun last night we tossed the yard or so of fleece into the cage kind of crumpled up to see what they would do. They seemed to love it! Of course Oscar rumbled at Petey a few times under there for getting up in his business while he was burrowing... but otherwise, we hardly saw either one again for the rest of the night. I took it out this morning, shook it out, and put it back in there for them today before I left for work. I'm eager to see how they handle it. It would seem something like that would keep them plenty warm if they were ever too chilly, right?
2.) I built the cage Monday night and put the fleece down in it. I'm using puppy pads (about two layers) for lining between the cloroplast box and the fleece. It's essentially a giant piece of fleece one layer thick that we fold back around the edges of the box and underneath. I pre-treated the fleece first by washing it twice on delicate with free and clear detergent (cold water) and drying it on gentle. Did the same with the fleece we used as their "test hidey." Did I go about things the wrong way? I still have yet to wash the fleece, but that's only because I didn't think the smell was that bad. When I get my face down in there by one of their hidey tunnels though, it's noticeable... but that's before I spot clean it. I guess I'm wondering whether it could be the Timothy material the tunnels are made out of that could be contributing to any coughing or sneezing if there's poop or pee in there?
Apologies again for the novel... but this is pretty much everything that's had me concerned since yesterday. Maybe I need to relax a bit, but you can't be too careful and I tend to let my worrying side take over with things like this.
Thoughts?
