Piggie with Mites, bathtime?

[holli'smommy]

I'm a new Piggie owner with 2 pigs, PeeJay and Big Momma, who we discovered was pregnant when we bought her! But she also has mites and besides giving her the medicine is it safe to give her a bath? She has many scabs and very raw areas on her skin and I am worried that they are dirty, or will become infected, so should I clean them and apply a antibiotic ointment to them? Would a bath at least alleviate some of the itching? Please let me know If anyone else has dealt with this and can help me.

 

[suzy_99]

it is reccomended that guinea pigs with mites no be given baths of a kind. The ivermectin should begin to relieve some of the itching fairly quickly and by the second treatment you should notice a big difference. Open sores can have a bit of ointment placed on them to prevent infection, but this should only be done if it has to. I use a bit of polysporin of mine right before their treatments, because one scratch was actually bleeding, but they soon cleared up after their first injection. I would ask your vet before you apply any ointment though, because I am not sure if it can after her babies.

 

[Ketus15]

I would even suggest not holding her until the mites clear up. Any touching can be very painful, so I would keep it to a bare minimum. Are you treating both pigs? And have you double checked the sex to assure they are the same? Sometimes it can be hard to tell in young ones, or the person who sold them can be just plain wrong.

I'm sorry that your pig is ill. Our pigs also had mites, and I know how terrible it is to see them. Good luck.

 

[holli'smommy]

Thank You all so much, I feel so bad for the little thing! I really don't know if PeeJay is female that is what I was told, and since Big Momma is well pregnant than she is a she. I haven't been able to hold her much because I am afraid of irratating the sores. But other than the horrible sores she is really in good shape. She has been eating very well and drinking too.

 

[Ketus15]

That's great. Make sure she continues to eat and drink and poo. Sometimes guinea pigs will stop eating from pain. I know how terrible it is to see, but she'll be better soon! That mite treatment is like magic.

Check this page for detailed photos of how to sex a guinea pig.
https://www.guinealynx.info/healthycavy.html#sexing
If you're still not sure, a vet can help you. And it will also get your vet familiar with the cavies in the case you have to rush there in an emergency.

If PeeJay is a male, he can breed your little female back to back. No good. Also, the babies need to be sexed and seperated by 3 weeks old. A 3 week old male baby can breed to the mother, and the baby girls can become pregnant as early as 3 1/2 weeks.

You can also start a medical thread, or read about others medical issues here:
https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=b6e770b19c96c50455031cf2e58a103c

 

[Denise]

The sexing thread Ketus gave you is invaluable and easy to understand. My 11 yr old twin daughters can sex a pig better than some adults! Anyway, welcome to the forums, congratulations on the piggies and I hope the mites get better very soon!

 

[holli'smommy]

Thank You guys so much. The website helped me, and now I know that PeeJay is indeed a male! So now I have dosed both of them with the medicine and Big Momma is on her way to healing. I just felt the babies move while I was holding her. We got her about 4 weeks ago so I guess she could be due anytime now. So do I need to remove PeeJay immediatly? Or maybe just at night when I don't see them? I just don't want to upset her and she is very attached to PeeJay, during play time she runs right along side him and follows him everywhere.

 

[Ketus15]

Thank you for checking the sex! You have saved Big Momma a troublesome ordeal. Good Show!

PeeJay can back breed Big Momma as soon as the babies are born. They will need to be seperated. You can put a cube divider in the cage so they can still see and hear each other. PeeJay will need a closed cage because he can climb over to get to the female.

The cage needs to be baby-proofed. With higher coroplast sides or smaller grid openings. What type of cage do you currently have?

At three weeks, you can house the male pups with PeeJay and the female pups with Big Momma so no one will be lonely. Or, you can consider neutering.

Also, don't know if its been mentioned before, but please require the pet store to pay for all vet bills. And PeeJay will need to be treated for mites, also, because of the exposure, so make them pay for his treatment. Make them pay for selling animals, and selling sick, pregnant animals especially.

Good luck!

 

[holli'smommy]

Thank you all so much for the advice and consern for my piggies. I feel confident now that they are on the way to becoming great little friends. I did have PeeJay treated as well at the same time. Better safe, than sorry. I am working on a really great new cage for them and I am going to look into neutering because they snuggle at night and I really want them together, but for now it's best to have PeeJay Seperated. I will post a pick when my new cage is done. Once Again Thank You.

 

[kk524]

my daughter is 4 months old and she just keeps scratching when we are not playing with her. I checked under her furr but I dont see any abnormal bugs or eggs. Could anyone tell me what are the signs that show your piggies got mites? Thanks for all help~

 

[rabbitsncavyluv]

Mites are invisible. You can't see them.

https://www.guinealynx.info/hairloss.html#externalparasites

 

[Butterscotch]

Actually depending on how bad the mites are sometimes you can see them. I've worked for Petco and our distributor was sending us pigs so badly infested with mites that when you picked them up and put them down you could see little "dirt" specs crawling on you. It was horrible.

As for the bathing - I am currently working on getting rid of the mites two of mine have, they are mostly gone but during the worst of it my female went almost totally bald. I talked to my veterinarian and she suggested bathing them and getting the scabs off so the hair could come back in. This was after 3 weeks of treatment and there weren't any new sores. It worked wonderfully, you could tell they felt better because they weren't as itchy and it's been 2 weeks and my female has almost all of her hair back! The vet recommended a gentle rabbit shampoo.

 

[Ketus15]

I'm so glad that you're treating both and its turning out well! It does sound like they are good friends, and after his neuter, they can be back together after 3 weeks. (It takes a while to assure all the sperm have died.)

KK524: Symptoms of mites are itching, discomfort when touched, red, flakey skin, hair loss, and open sores from scratching and biting themselves. It is a good idea to treat for mites with any itching and hair loss, it won't hurt. You should treat all of your pigs at the same time.

Good luck to everyone!

 

[holli'smommy]

Big Momma's skin looks so much better now! It's a little klakey but there's pink new skin grown in and the hair is coming back. PeeJay never did show symptoms but he received the 2 doses as well.
Now I have another concern, Big Momma has been drinking alot of water lately. She even sleeps under the bottle sometimes. I have had her for about 40 days now and she started to show after about two weeks so I'm not really sure of her due date but she has really ballooned up in the last week. Could it be from her pregnancy? Has anybody else ever experienced a very thirsty prego piggie?

 

[suzy_99]

When my girl was pregnant she drank about 32 oz of water a day and probably another 8oz at night, so it is completely normal. Make sure that she also gets lots of veggies.

 

[rabbitsncavyluv]

Rabbit shampoo would not get rid of mites.

Actually depending on how bad the mites are sometimes you can see them. I've worked for Petco and our distributor was sending us pigs so badly infested with mites that when you picked them up and put them down you could see little "dirt" specs crawling on you. It was horrible.

As for the bathing - I am currently working on getting rid of the mites two of mine have, they are mostly gone but during the worst of it my female went almost totally bald. I talked to my veterinarian and she suggested bathing them and getting the scabs off so the hair could come back in. This was after 3 weeks of treatment and there weren't any new sores. It worked wonderfully, you could tell they felt better because they weren't as itchy and it's been 2 weeks and my female has almost all of her hair back! The vet recommended a gentle rabbit shampoo.

 

[Butterscotch]

Rabbit shampoo would not get rid of mites.

The rabbit shampoo didn't get rid of the mites. The ivermectin treatment got rid of the mites. The bathing helps remove the scabs from the mites and allows for their hair to start growing back. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[holli'smommy]

I think you guys are referring to a diffrent thread, which I found and read too.

Thank You Suzy that makes me feel better, I know I was really thirsty during my pregnancies but you never know with animals. She seems to be in good spirits despite being 3 times her normals size. I can't believe she can still walk. PeeJay seems to be anxious, he's being chewing on the board between their pens and is talking to her alot. I let them have floor time together and he doesn't want to leave her side.