Does anyone keep cavies (guinea pigs)?

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Sharron

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Washougal, Washington, USA
We have a new little girl piggie -- she's got avery sweet disposition, however... We discovered she'smalnourished and has lice!! Ewwwwwwwwww :shock:

There are a plethora of other issues as well, but we're happy to haveher. Unfortunately, we didn't expect this to be anotheranimal "rescue" -- we thought we were just giving a happy little girlpiggie, not another critter needing rehab :?

So, I did a bit of research and discovered that piggie lice can't betransmitted to human critters (PHEW!!), but the treatment was generallythe same as lice treatment on humans. Once upon a time, along time ago, my kids got lice and we treated it with tea treeoil. They were cavorting upon her poor little eyes and ears,so we put some coconut oil in her ears and over her eyes forprotection, then we washed her in some Kids Melalueca oilshampoo. Then my daughter put a towel in the bathtub andclimbed in with her and gently blow-dried her hair. (We didthat to keep the nasties contained!) My daughter said therewere still TONS of them on her. More EWWWWWWWW

Soooo, we got out the flea comb and put some straight Melaleuca oil onthe comb. It caught the critters as she combed her.My expectation is that we are going to have to do this every day/everyother day for a while as I had to do when I had this problem with myown human kids...

UNLESS

Somebody on this forum has another idea???

I'm not willing to use the harsh chemical treatment because we are highly sensitive to chemicals.



Anyway, this is Rachee our new guinea girl. I'll post more pix of her as she gets more healthy.


 
I've had experience with shelter pigs with bothmites and lice....I didn't re-read the guinealynx article but I thinkthat they probably should be treated with ivermectin by the vet...it isusually 3 treatments once a week. Mites don't always cause loss of furand can cause pigs great pain. If I were you and you could manageit at all I would take the new girl to a guinea pig savvy vetand/or join the guinealynx forum which is like a RO for pigs..its greatand I guarantee they will help you. I had 2 shelterpigs withscurvy, mites and teeth issues and they helped immensely.
 
Just re-read your post and saw that they were undernouished.

Pigs without vitaminC develop horrific skeletal problems. Definitelyjoin guinealynx forums and in the meantime start giving your pigsunlimited good timothy hay and veggies very high in vit C..red peppersare extremely high in C and pigs also like parlsey, romaine , kale, andalmost anything..there is a list on guinea lynx of high vit C veggies.
 
Thanks, Angie, we are already doingthat. Unfortunately, this little piggie's former owner is avolunteer at the only "guinea savy" vet in town and she came to us inthis state -- that's is why we were so surprised by hercondition:(

I guess I could check the next town over...


 
You don't have to tell the vet that she (thevolunteer) gave you the pig. Just say that you want a routine healthcheck and let the vet find it out for himself.

If she's a volunteer she probably wouldn't be in the office regualrly anyway.


Good people have pigs with mites and lice and don't know it..thats really true.

Malnourishment is another thing

Don't let the volunteer make your life difficult (I guess unless she's a good friend and that would be hard)
 
Thanks, Angie, I hadn't thought of it in that light -- but yes, she is a good friend and would be crushed.

I didn't realize the gunea lynx had forums. I found a greatarticle over there and now I have a plan of action.

Thanks so much :D



(((hugs)))
 
angieluv wrote:
Pigs without vitaminC develop horrific skeletal problems.
Click to expand...
We also put a little powderedTang in our piggie's water bottle to help with the Vitamin Cissue.;)
 
Yea, I've heard about that... for thefirst time yesterday, actually. It was something I'd neverthought of :)



What I ended up doing was calling my local feed store. Theyhave a fellow there with LOTS of experience overall, but veryknowledgable about piggies :)

He gave us some very high quality piggie chow, some piggie specificvitamin tablets and another preparation (sorry can't remember the name-- if you want it, I can get my daughter to get it later) that isspecifically designed to build her immune system by re-conolizing thegood bacteria in her gut. Totally the way I like to approachthings! We're going to treat her with that for 10 days, everyother day, continue her baths, then we'll proceed from there.

Oh, and thanx again for they guinea lynx info -- I hadn't realized quaranteen needed to be for 3 weeks :shock:

Hopefully, by the end of her quaranteen, she'll have gained some weight and the vermin will be gone from our new piggie!

:elephant:
 
napoleon wrote:
angieluv wrote:
Pigs without vitaminC develop horrific skeletal problems.
Click to expand...
We also put a little powderedTang in our piggie's water bottle to help with the Vitamin Cissue.;)
Click to expand...
You're not suppose to had Vitamin C to their water bottles.Quoted fromhttp://www.guinealynx.info/scurvy.html

"Do not add vitamin C to drinking water!Besides not knowing how much they're getting, when added towater exposed to air, half its strength will be lost in as little as aday. Heat, metal, mineral content (hard water), and chemicals, mostnotably chlorine, will also affect how long the vitamin C is viable,and if the flavor of the water is adversely affected, the guinea pigmay drink less. Adequate water intake is vital to good health."



Definately try and boost the Vitamin C Sharron. Red peppers, Kale, andParsley contain a lot.



Good luck!
 
"Do not add vitamin C to drinking water!
Click to expand...
The pet shop owner told us to put thetang in the water. When we brought her home, we tried to justgive her vitamin c rich veggies and plain water, but she doesn't drinkmuch without the tang in it. I'm pretty sure it's becausethat is how she was raised at the pet shop. We've had her forabout 6 months now and she is perfectly healthy. Sorry forgiving "bad" advice... I didn't mean to. I guess ours wasjust conditioned to drink the water that way, so I don't want to changeanything now for fear of her health and gettingdehydrated.

Good luck with your piggie... they're such precious animals.
 
Tang is also too high in sugar. You may not seeanything now, but it could affect your piggie in the long run. I haveread so many articles about not putting tang in their water.



- Amy (Mallory, Morgan, and Madilyn-Mae):hearts
 
OK, thanks. I will see if I can wean her off it.

Sorry, Sharon... didn't mean to hi-jack your thread.:?

Again, good luck with yourpiggie. I love her name! It's sooriginal!;)
 
It would be better for her to just have regular water and give her fresh veggies high in Vitamin C.

I am not trying to target you, I just want to see your piggie live a long life:).



- Amy (Mallory, Morgan, and Madilyn-Mae):hearts
 
No worries :)



And "Rachee" is because they had named the little sweetyRatchet! We thought that was awful, but wanted somethingclose, so she'd know we were talking to her. The little girlwho gave her to us is named Rachel, so Rachee it is :cool:
 
She looks like such a sweet piggie:).


- Amy (Mallory, Morgan, and Madilyn-Mae):hearts
 
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