Frustrated HELP! My piggy makes my whole house smell bad!!

[Tatuloo]

I have a one year old, blind, male guinea pig, that has a very bad smell that is causing my whole house to smell bad!
I clean his cage every day, he always has fresh water and food, he uses the potty regularly, he doesn't make any strange noises (like if he was in pain or something), he runs around and is a pretty happy & loving piggy.
My biggest problem is that i have absolutely have no idea where the smell comes from, but the smell is so overwhelming that I had to put him in a separate room from my female guinea pig and rabbits. I know its not him that smells, because i have smelled him, asked my kids and my husband to smell him, and we all agree that its not him. I'm thinking possibly that his cage could have penetrated the smell of his urine?? Every other day, i do a deep scrub & disinfect his cage, but once I return him to his cage and he starts to use the potty, that smell comes right back.
Someone please advice me, because I don't know how to control this problem and its really overwhelming my family and I. :sad:

 

[Soecara]

Are you sure it is a urine smell (ammonia smell)? If so what kind of bedding are you using? or is your cage a wooden cage? If he has very smelly urine that could be an indication of a health issue, so to check this put him on an old towel in a laundry basket, and keep him out until he urinates, then you can check if his fresh urine has a strong odour, and if it is a normal colour (clear to cloudy or orange are normal colours for guinea pig urine).

If it isn't a urine smell it is possible he might be scent marking. Guinea pigs (particularly some young males) will scent mark to "claim" the area, this can have a particularly strong odour but the odour usually doesn't linger, if the area is well ventilated, as long as they don't continue to scent mark. To help minimize scent marking it can help to keep a "dirty" item in the cage that still has their scent on it (I keep a single dirty fleece item in the cage each time I clean, and switch that out halfway between cleanings). If it is scent marking doing full cage cleanings every other day might be making the issue worse not better as every full clean he would be in a fresh environment with none of his scent, meaning he would be compelled to scent mark it all over again.

Also have you checked his anal sac? Some boars can have very smelly anal sacs, which you usually won't smell until they turn their sac inside out. If you check his anal sac you will get a whiff of what that smells like so you will be able to identify if that is the source of the smell or not. It isn't a good idea to clean out their anal sacs unless there is debris (such as bedding, hair, hay, or poop) caught in it, as over cleaning will stretch the sac and can cause them to experience impaction issues, so if this is the source of the smell, and the smell is as big of an issue as it sounds like, you may need to consider neutering him (neutering also helps decrease the smell from scent marking).

 

[scmtsmomma]

After cleaning my piggies' cages, I usually spray it with this and let it settle a bit before putting them back in. Then their cage smells like baby powder! It doesn't last super long but its piggy safe and smells really nice https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/617AdTGmeIL._SL1500_.jpg

 

[Tatuloo]

I'm definitely going to buy this and try it out for both my piggies and bunnies!

 

[bpatters]

You really don't need a spray to control odor with pigs. Neither their urine nor their poop has much odor unless the pig has a urinary tract infection. However, peed-on hay smells very bad, and if it's not kept picked up out of the cage, will quickly overwhelm you with odor.

The smaller the cage, the more likely you are to have an odor problem. A big cage that's kept clean should be pretty much odor-free.

If what you're smelling is a really pungent smell that doesn't smell like urine, you're probably smelling "boar stank," the odor that males produce when they scent mark. If the room the cage is in is well ventilated, it should dissipate pretty quickly. Or, as @Soecara suggested, you may need to check his anal sac to make sure the odor isn't coming from there. Here are instructions on checking and cleaning the anal sac: https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/85830-Awesome-video-on-how-to-clean-the-Anal-Sac

 

[Tatuloo]

It's not really an ammonia smell, I honestly do not know how to explain the scent, but its REALLY bad. I have one of those potty train things that people use for rabbits/ferrets for him, and in the potty train I use the national geographic animal litter, and then in his cage I use the the bedding, and he has a regular store bought cage. But I really don't think its his urine, because his pee is a cloudy color, and the house doesn't smell like ammonia, but I will definitely try your method just to make sure it's 100% sure not a health issue.

It could possibly be scent marking, but problem is the smell does linger!! I have my small animals in a certain portion of my living room, and his scent is so bad that it reaches all the way to the entrance of my home. So a few days ago, I had put him in a completely different room to see if it was just him, and it is, because now the other room smells terrible!! So i don't think that there is a problem with the ventilation, because if there was I'd think my female pig and two rabbits would smell bad too
But I'm going to try and replace the bedding I put with a fleece blanket, and see if that works also.

And how do I check if it is his anal sac?
If neutering him will solve this problem, I will definitely consider it!!

I really want to solve this issue, cause I really get so embarrassed inviting people to my home and it smells so bad because of him... :sad:
I clean my house every day, and have bought all these candles/oil warmers/febreze/etc to mask the smell, but my family and I are really getting way too overwhelmed, and the last thing on our minds is to give him away. :sad:

Also, i wanted to thank you so much for your advice!

 

[bpatters]

I just gave you a link, in the post just above, about checking and cleaning the anal sac. You should check the sac, and the penis sheath, at least weekly, but only clean as needed.

It really does sound like boar stank. The presence of the female probably contributes to his marking tendencies.
@spy9doc has males, although they're neutered. But she uses air purifiers. Maybe she'll see this and weigh in on what kind she has.

 

[Tatuloo]

I just saw and read your post, I'm definitely going to check and clean the anal sac if necessary.

But if it is boar stank, how do I help that smell?!
Because its just really bad, and i'm super desperate to get rid of the smell.
I already separated him from my female, it's been about over a week, and now the other room i have put him in has that same smell! And my whole home is ventilated pretty well, so I just really don't know what else to do.
This is my second male, and Ive never had this problem with the first one before. :sad: