What breed? Osteodystrophy and Satin pigs.

My satin was x-rayed just after Christmas and her bones are in pretty good shape.

I was warned about overfeeding calcium as if its not needed or done right its just more likely to cause stone issues. I believe that the hair uses the calcium to make itself soft and shiny thereby denying the bones of it.

For now my girl gets the same amount of calcium as the rest and lots of sunlight to try to help the bones absorb it.

She will be going back for another x-ray to monitor her situation in a few months.

If you haven't had an x-ray done it is your best starting point otherwise you are just working blind potentially causing more problems.

I lost a teddy (not a satin) to osteodystophy. Maybe she had the gene but didn't look satin at all. I don't think there's much that you can do once they show symptoms and you don't know they have it until then. The best thing you can do is to offer foods with calcium to guinea pigs under 6 months of age so they develop strong bones. If you add more calcium, they still don't absorb it. It's metabolic. My vet said that they don't get enough calcium because they aren't absorbing it, leaving mottled bones that calcify and become fused. He showed me the xrays.....It's horrific. Once Truffles was diagnosed, I kept her on pain meds and eventually separated her from the others because she required a lot of extra care. She became increasingly immobile and I eventually had to hand feed her. I had her on pain meds. I eventually had her euthanized. As long as she wanted to eat, I hand fed her and tended to all her needs. It was really heartbreaking.

I read once on the internet that satin carriers (heterozygous with the satin allele, but not actual satins themselves) are also more prone to OD. I can't remember where I read that though or know even if it's true.

Anyway, I have a satin abby named Elma Sparkles who is currently battling with OD. She's had two dentals in the last few months and is on two types of pain medication, because her jaw is quite badly affected which obviously makes eating hard for her. That sounds horrible, I know, but she's still happy and maintaining her weight with the help of a daily bowl of Critical Care, vitamin C, and calcium lactate (and sunshine!) supplementation. She just turned two. Her bones look mottled and moth-eaten, but they're stable. She's doing okay! It is a terrible disease though. The first thing I noticed with Elma was that she was struggling to chew larger items of food, like larger pellets. She lost a lot of jaw strength, and it was really quite obvious she was struggling to bite down even though her teeth were fine (at first). She is also a teeny tiny pig, 650-700 grams adult weight. Her (non-satin) sister Darla weighs nearly twice as much as her! Eventually, because Elma was chewing in such a strange way her teeth did wear down unevenly, hence the dentals. Currently she has monthly vet check-ups to make sure her teeth are a-okay and to make sure she's doing okay overall. She's a cheeky little trooper.

stray hares said:

I read once on the internet that satin carriers (heterozygous with the satin allele, but not actual satins themselves) are also more prone to OD. I can't remember where I read that though or know even if it's true.

Anyway, I have a satin abby named Elma Sparkles who is currently battling with OD. She's had two dentals in the last few months and is on two types of pain medication, because her jaw is quite badly affected which obviously makes eating hard for her. That sounds horrible, I know, but she's still happy and maintaining her weight with the help of a daily bowl of Critical Care, vitamin C, and calcium lactate (and sunshine!) supplementation. She just turned two. Her bones look mottled and moth-eaten, but they're stable. She's doing okay! It is a terrible disease though. The first thing I noticed with Elma was that she was struggling to chew larger items of food, like larger pellets. She lost a lot of jaw strength, and it was really quite obvious she was struggling to bite down even though her teeth were fine (at first). She is also a teeny tiny pig, 650-700 grams adult weight. Her (non-satin) sister Darla weighs nearly twice as much as her! Eventually, because Elma was chewing in such a strange way her teeth did wear down unevenly, hence the dentals. Currently she has monthly vet check-ups to make sure her teeth are a-okay and to make sure she's doing okay overall. She's a cheeky little trooper.


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Truffles didn't have jaw symptoms until towards the end. It started with her back legs. I thought it was scurvy, even though she ate guinea pig pellets and a well balanced diet. She came into our rescue as a young guinea pig that was raised in poor conditions so I thought it was due to poor nutrition. I noticed she was different from my others from the moment she joined us and thought she was mentally slow because she didn't interact much with the others and seemed to be a silent observer. My senior female immediately took to her and the two became very bonded. Curly Fry really stepped up by always laying next to her when they slept and grooming her all over. The first symptoms I noticed were seeing her hopping and not climbing to the side of the cage when it was snack time. She lost total use of her back legs and would drag herself around. Then it was the front legs, one at a time. She loved eating, though, and even after it affected her jaws, she gobbled up everything I fed her with a syringe. When she lost interest in food, I knew she was telling me that she'd had enough. Truffles was the brown one on the far right. Curly was the one in the middle. Wolfbane (on the left is a 5 year old who's still alive.)
https://s738.photobucket.com/user/kavykeeper/media/IMG_6059.jpg.html (<div class="bbImageWrapper js-lbImage" title="th_IMG_6059.jpg" data-src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi738.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx28%2Fkavykeeper%2Fth_IMG_6059.jpg&amp;hash=fb4d3b33875b3b465ebd9d8600c623be" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-single-image="1"> <img src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi738.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx28%2Fkavykeeper%2Fth_IMG_6059.jpg&amp;hash=fb4d3b33875b3b465ebd9d8600c623be" data-url="https://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx28/kavykeeper/th_IMG_6059.jpg" class="bbImage" data-zoom-target="1" style="" alt="th_IMG_6059.jpg" title="" width="" height="" loading="lazy" /> </div>)

Does anyone know a good site to help identify breeds? I think my morty is a satin but I want to know for sure.

mortyandtrixie said:

Does anyone know a good site to help identify breeds? I think my morty is a satin but I want to know for sure.

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Google "satin guinea pig" and view "images." You'll see a lot of examples. Satin isn't a breed. Satin hair shafts are hollow which results in a glistening look. Different breeds can have satin fur. Satin fur is not just shiny, it almost has a metallic quality to it like gold or foil.

pinky said:

Google "satin guinea pig" and view "images." You'll see a lot of examples. Satin isn't a breed. Satin hair shafts are hollow which results in a glistening look. Different breeds can have satin fur. Satin fur is not just shiny, it almost has a metallic quality to it like gold or foil.

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thanks! He's an American satin. He's my pretty boy oh and I see you're from carol stream. My hubby used to work for terminex in carol stream before we moved to Omaha

@MochaAndMoo are you sure she's satin? Do you have one of her side?

Here is a satin girl I piggy sat last year..You can see how her black looks ...does your girl's black have that like Pinky said 'metallic' look?

RodentCuddles said:

@MochaAndMoo are you sure she's satin? Do you have one of her side?

Here is a satin girl I piggy sat last year..You can see how her black looks ...does your girl's black have that like Pinky said 'metallic' look?
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I am positive she is a satin, her fur has a metallic un-natural shine to it. I don't have many photo's of her on this computer, so I don't have one of her side, but here are a few photos I do have.

mortyandtrixie said:

thanks! He's an American satin. He's my pretty boy oh and I see you're from carol stream. My hubby used to work for terminex in carol stream before we moved to Omaha

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We're unincorporated and used to be Wheaton until they built the new mega post office in Carol Stream. They changed our zip to the Carol Stream zip but we're not incorporated into the village. We're walking distance from Wheaton North High School where my kids went. Carol Stream has really built up since we lived in the area.

Just a bit of an update, I have been taking Meeka outside for laptime daily as I have heard that vitamin D helps absorb calcium. I have been giving her a bit of extra calcium to her diet, but not too much as I want to wait for her to get an x-ray before changing her diet. I have called my vet and they are currently booked out and have been very busy lately and as this isn't an emergency I will have to wait a few weeks.

stray hares said:

I read once on the internet that satin carriers (heterozygous with the satin allele, but not actual satins themselves) are also more prone to OD. I can't remember where I read that though or know even if it's true.

Anyway, I have a satin abby named Elma Sparkles who is currently battling with OD. She's had two dentals in the last few months and is on two types of pain medication, because her jaw is quite badly affected which obviously makes eating hard for her. That sounds horrible, I know, but she's still happy and maintaining her weight with the help of a daily bowl of Critical Care, vitamin C, and calcium lactate (and sunshine!) supplementation. She just turned two. Her bones look mottled and moth-eaten, but they're stable. She's doing okay! It is a terrible disease though. The first thing I noticed with Elma was that she was struggling to chew larger items of food, like larger pellets. She lost a lot of jaw strength, and it was really quite obvious she was struggling to bite down even though her teeth were fine (at first). She is also a teeny tiny pig, 650-700 grams adult weight. Her (non-satin) sister Darla weighs nearly twice as much as her! Eventually, because Elma was chewing in such a strange way her teeth did wear down unevenly, hence the dentals. Currently she has monthly vet check-ups to make sure her teeth are a-okay and to make sure she's doing okay overall. She's a cheeky little trooper.


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Thank you so much for sharing Ema's story, why do such beautiful coats cause such a horrible disease?

Your Elma actually reminds me a lot of my Abby Mocha, (Also a very cheeky pig that has a major Abby-tude).
They even do the same little head turn pose .

Since not all satins develop the problems, you don't need to start supplementing with calcium until you notice symptoms. Getting a baseline x-ray is a good idea.

The problems that occur with satins vary. I've had a couple who have developed "Rottweiler" jaws--the calcium for some reason is deposited in various areas and this was on the jaw, making very thick, pronounced jaws. In a satin carrier I know the calcium was deposited in one leg, basically fusing the joint.

Some people have very good luck supplementing with calcium. There are threads over at Guinea Lynx that discuss which kind is best, how much, etc.