Can’t keep her clean and dry enough

[Spaniel]

I was hoping for advice just in case we’ve missed something obvious but I don’t think we have.

We have a 5 year old sow who we are struggling to keep clean and dry enough.

She has recurring stiffness and the beginnings of arthritis although this hasn’t been confirmed by X-ray yet. She has metacam as and when needed for this. She also has ovarian cysts which she had treatment for about a year ago. Injections which worked really well for her.

To be honest, she’s always been very mucky. She’s fluffy and her hair is like a sponge. We trim and bum bath but one wee later and it seems all undone.

Her bedding is what’s causing a problem. We just can’t wash and dry enough for her needs and can’t think of a solution.

It takes 3-4 days to dry a small load in our house. We have the dehumidifier on as much as possible and take it in and outside.

We don’t have a tumble dryer and no space for one.

We can’t use the laundrette.

One relative let’s us use their machine for our things because we can rarely do our own washing, although it’s mainly mine as my partner has multiple chemical sensitivity so hers can’t really leave this house without her reacting and becoming ill.

I’ve read to change the main area the piggy sleeps in 2-3x a day to keep them dry and comfortable and we just can’t do that.

At the moment my partner fully changes the cage every other day but she wants to do it daily and is upset that we can’t do that.

Just recently, we’ve had to stop using newspaper topped with paper bedding and hay on one side of the cage because our girl is ‘skating’ on it and we’re scared she’s going to hurt herself.

Sorry this is so long but we feel like we’re letting her down and need to find a solution

Thanks guys.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Just to clarify, is she not moving about so much due to her arthritis? Has she seen a vet recently?
I take it you are using fleece bedding now?
Have you tried using pee pads in high traffic areas as these are easier to remove and wash a few at a time rather than having to do the whole cage?

 

[Swissgreys]

Sorry you are struggling to keep your girl clean and dry.
it really does sound like you are doing everything possible.

I would consider a revisit to the vet to get a proper diagnosis.
If she does have arthritis which is reducing her mobility then she may improve with regular doses or metacam twice a day rather than occasional doses.
Pain, once present, can be much harder to get under control, so trying to keep that at bay with regular pain relief might help.

You could also consider disposable puppy pads in the main sleeping areas which can simple be removed and thrown away.
You might fond our guide on caring for guinea pigs with limited mobility helpful:
Looking after guinea pigs with limited or no mobility

 

[Danielle Smith]

You've been given some great advice here. One thing that hasn't been suggested is using vetbed; you can get the "green-backed" variety for fairly cheap off eBay and it does a good job of wicking away the wee to an absorbent layer underneath (i.e. puppy pads or towels). We use it for our older gentleboar Flubs and while it doesn't completely solve his mucky backside issues, it really does help. It's also much softer and more comfortable for arthritic piggies to walk on, my severely arthritic boar Blackjack absolutely loves it.

 

[Spaniel]

Just to clarify, is she not moving about so much due to her arthritis? Has she seen a vet recently?
I take it you are using fleece bedding now?
Have you tried using pee pads in high traffic areas as these are easier to remove and wash a few at a time rather than having to do the whole cage?

She moves around ok but is less active on certain days and that’s when she has metacam. She’s never been the most active pig though and has always needed extra hygiene help because of her fluffy hair.

She has regular check ups at the vet.

We’ve basically gone from needing two bath mats every other day for a section of the cage (which we struggled to dry in time) to needing bed pads/fleece/bath mats/vet bed covering the entire cage to make sure she’s comfortable.

As her washing has increased, we’ve been doing less and less of ours but we’re now at the point where we’d have to do none of ours and still struggle to dry as much as we’d want to have for her. We’re doing it of course and we’ll keep doing it if that’s the only option but it’d be better if we could use the machine too! Ha.

We just seem to run into a block when we try and think of solutions.

My partner said the ideal would be to put newspapers, washable bed pads, fleece and then bath mats/vet bed in the sleeping areas and bath mats under the hay piles. Change the sleeping areas daily, the bath mats under the hay as needed and the rest twice a week. It’s like she’d need three sets in the time we could dry one.

I don’t think there’s a solution really. We can’t dry the washing any faster. It’s not like the cage is even bad, it’s just we want to be able to give more.

 

[Spaniel]

Sorry you are struggling to keep your girl clean and dry.
it really does sound like you are doing everything possible.

I would consider a revisit to the vet to get a proper diagnosis.
If she does have arthritis which is reducing her mobility then she may improve with regular doses or metacam twice a day rather than occasional doses.
Pain, once present, can be much harder to get under control, so trying to keep that at bay with regular pain relief might help.

You could also consider disposable puppy pads in the main sleeping areas which can simple be removed and thrown away.
You might fond our guide on caring for guinea pigs with limited mobility helpful:
Looking after guinea pigs with limited or no mobility

Thank you. I think you’re right about another vet visit and her needing to go onto metacam full time now.

 

[Piggies&buns]

As swissgreys has mentioned, she may do better with regular metacam rather than just having it on certain days. They can hide their pain so it can be that she is struggling long before she shows it and you then give her pain relief.

The only way to get around the drying issue is to use a disposable bedding - or at least alternate it with fabric bedding so you can keep up a bit easier with the drying . You say she noticed she was sliding around when you used newspaper with paper bedding on top? Have you tried any other type of disposable? I like to use aubiose or megazorb and then I top the whole lot with hay. I don’t notice my two sliding about and they tend to have rather active periods (they are middle aged now so not as fast as they were though)

 

[Spaniel]

You've been given some great advice here. One thing that hasn't been suggested is using vetbed; you can get the "green-backed" variety for fairly cheap off eBay and it does a good job of wicking away the wee to an absorbent layer underneath (i.e. puppy pads or towels). We use it for our older gentleboar Flubs and while it doesn't completely solve his mucky backside issues, it really does help. It's also much softer and more comfortable for arthritic piggies to walk on, my severely arthritic boar Blackjack absolutely loves it.

Thank you. Love your boars name.

We’ve got some vet bed which she really likes. I’ll definitely get more for her.

 

[Spaniel]

As swissgreys has mentioned, she may do better with regular metacam rather than just having it on certain days. They can hide their pain so it can be that she is struggling long before she shows it and you then give her pain relief.

The only way to get around the drying issue is to use a disposable bedding - or at least alternate it with fabric bedding so you can keep up a bit easier with the drying . You say she noticed she was sliding around when you used newspaper with paper bedding on top? Have you tried any other type of disposable? I like to use aubiose or megazorb and then I top the whole lot with hay. I don’t notice my two sliding about and they tend to have rather active periods (they are middle aged now so not as fast as they were though)

That makes sense that by the time we see she needs it, she probably could have done with it earlier.

The vet did say to use as and when and we can move onto her long term dose when we need to. We thought we were probably looking at this autumn/winter realistically.

We can only use cardboard or paper and she stumbled on the cardboard but skates through the paper. I think the problem is the newspapers though because the bedding moves with her. Maybe disposable pads might be better? I may as well order some and see.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Definitely worth trying the pads and seeing how shes goes.

 

[Spaniel]

Definitely worth trying the pads and seeing how shes goes.

I’ll order some. We used them many years back but her partner in crime (sadly no longer with us) used to eat them! She didn’t think they were tasty luckily so hopefully she still feels the same.

We’ll hopefully work something out.

I’ll contact the vet today about the metacam too.

Thanks for your help.