Parasites HELP. does Dakota have parasites?and what to do about it?

[PopcorningPig]

Hello. I have a concern about my guinea pig Dakota. This morning I came down to clean his cage, I started with the litter box. His poop looked like coffee grounds, I didn't think much about it because he might of trampled over it breaking it into small pieces. When was dumping it into the bag to throw away, I saw tiny grey worms, kinda shaped like cornucopias. Dakota seems perfectly normal, squeaky, popcorning, his bottom looks normal, and he's eating fine. Yesterday I was gone all day, so I only had time to fill up his food, I didn't look at his poop. I recalled two days ago there was at least half a dozen flies around his cage, so maybe the flies lade eggs in the poop, and they hatched into larva, and thats what I saw? I freaked out and put ALL his cozys and fleece in the wash, on "sanitary". Then I washed down the entire cage three times. Twice with natural soap and water. And once with vinegar. What do you think it is? and what should I do? Thank you so much for your help.

 

[bpatters]

The tiny worms do sound like fly larvae. No parasite infests guinea pigs that look like grey worms, to my knowledge. And if he's not scratching a lot, it's not likely to be lice.

My guess is that you've gotten a fly infestation because of food/poop left in the cage. They can be hard to get rid of, as you can't spray the guinea pigs or the cage with anything that will kill them.

If they're fruit flies, they might be attracted to a homemade fruit fly trap -- you can google how to make one. If they're not attracted to it, it won't work, and they're probably not fruit flies. In that case, sticky fly strips near the cage may help. One person I know swears by these: https://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=electronic+fly+swatter

The best thing you can do is to clean up peed-on hay, poop, and left-over veggies frequently -- at least once a day, more often in the case of the veggies.

 

[PopcorningPig]

Thank you so much. I found only one fly by Dakotas cage which I'm very thankful for! (they are actual flies) now I'm going to be extra carful with cleaning! thanks again for your help.