General Are my guinea pigs healthy??

[guineapiglova88]

Hi!
I have two guinea pigs. One sow one boar. They're separated since we don't want any baby piggies but they still see and hear each other since their cages are right next to each other. Sometimes I'll take Oreo (boar) up to Trixie (sow) (trixie in her cage and oreo in my arms) so they can smell each other. But I stopped doing this since Oreo apparently has mites. When we first got him in 2016 he had what looked like a little part in his fur kind of like what Abyssinian guinea pigs have, but over time it got larger, and it eventually formed a V shape over his back. We don't have very good guinea pig vets around here so the first vet we took him to just gave him an allergy shot. The second one was better and prescribed him a diluted lime sulfur bath solution for mites. We have gave him several and they do help, but the vet said only give him 6 baths. We have given him more than that since the mites are still there. We stopped giving him baths for a little while since he seemed to be ok with his fur growing back. But last night I noticed he's losing some fur again. So we're planning on giving him another bath tomorrow and hopefully taking him back to the vet soon. My question about this is, this seems to be drying out his fur. Is there anything I can put on him to moisturize his fur without promoting the mites?

As for Trixie.... A couple of questions for her are:She and Oreo both have white spots on their fleece. Mostly just Trixie though. I've heard this is because of to much calcium in their diet? We give them romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, carrots, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and sometimes apples, oranges (tiny bits since they're so acidic), and grapes. Their hay is oxbow timothy hay. Their pellets are Hartz small animal diet for pet rabbits and guinea pigs. These are the only pellets in our stores that don't have any processed treats with colors etc... could any of this be causing the white urine spots? Trixie doesn't drink even a whole bottle of water a week, while Oreo is capable of drinking half a bottle in a day. They have glass bottles from guineapigmarket.com if thats important at all. how often should they get fresh water, pellets and hay?

Also both of them have curved claws. I got Oreo from a friend who didn't really know how to take care of him, and he never had his claws trimmed. I trim them when needed but they are still curved. Anything I can do?
And they both are in really small store bought cages which I hate. We're planning to get C&C cages for both of them, as soon as we rearrange my room to make room for them. They are kind of lazy and sleep most of the day. And eat and pooplol
I can try to send pictures of anything if needed
Thx for any feedback. -guineapiglova88

 

[Soecara]

Sulfur baths generally are not ideal for treating guinea pigs for mites/lice, normally the prefered treatments are either one dose of revolution, or 3-4 doses of ivermectin (with the doses given once a week, so full treatment would take 3 or 4 weeks). See https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/111160-How-to-treat-for-mites-and-lice

You could put some coconut oil in his fur to help with the dryness after the repeat bathing, and using coconut oil should be fine even with mites. You want cold-pressed coconut oil, which should be available at most grocery stores. To apply it to his fur use a spoon to take out a little bit of oil (it will be either solid or liquid depending on the room temperature, but if it is solid it will melt in your hands), and rub it between your hands then rub your hands over his back and massage it into his fur (be careful not to use too much you don't want him looking greasy). He might not be happy with his fur being messed with while he is still tender from the mites so if he gets too agitated you might need to stop.

Hartz guinea pig pellets don't list their calcium content which is concerning, and I can deduce that the calcium content is likely much higher than is ideal for guinea pigs because the second ingredient is Alfalfa. Alfalfa is high in calcium. So this is likely a major contributing factor to the white urine spots you are finding. I know you can order Oxbow guinea pig pellets online from a few different places, so that might be worth looking into.

Their water should be emptied out and refilled once every couple days if they haven't emptied it. They should always have access to hay 24/7, so if you can estimate how much they eat you can top it up once or twice a day. Vegetables should be 1 cup per guinea pig per day, and the variety you are feeding looks good (though if calcium spots continue to be an issue even with lower calcium pellets you might need to cut the romaine lettuce, for some unknown reason it can cause some guinea pigs to have white urine spots even though it isn't any higher in calcium than any other lettuce). Pellets for adult guinea pigs should be 1/8th of a cup per guinea pig per day.

Once their nails have curved in there isn't really anything you can do to get them straight again, just keep their nails short and it shouldn't affect them.

 

[guineapiglova88]

Thanks!
I'll look for the coconut oil. They did give him two doses of revolution a week or two apart. I will see if our local pet store has any Oxbow pellets like they do hay, but if not I'll try to find some online. I did cut the romaine out of their diet and have been giving green leaf instead. the picture is Oreo. Is he a rex or a teddy? We were thinking rex but what do you think?

 

[Soecara]

He could be a rex or a teddy. There isn't really any difference in the appearance of a teddy vs a rex. If you are located in the US teddies are more common and that is what he is more likely to be, whereas here in Australia we mostly only have rexes, I believe both are relatively common in the UK.