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Concern about grease gland

anyar.dris

anyar.dris

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I just gave the boys a bum bath today. They are both smelling of their wee and poo so a bath is quite needed. Anyway, I'm just concerned about Bodie's grease gland. He seems to have an overactive one. When we adopted him last year, there was quite some build up there that I managed to clean. And every now and then, it would produce a lot and I just either wipe it and cut some of the hair that matted or it's not bad and I just leave it to sort itself out, which most of the time it's alright and looking clean. Today after his bath and when I was drying him, this is how it looks like. Should I be concern? I don't know how to deal with it properly coz I don't want to cause issues for him coz he is normal and no issues healthwise, apart from he is big and fatty boy. Oh and he also the only boar I've had that constantly relasing boar glue. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

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I rub coconut oil into the mess glands and leave it to soak for an hour before doing a bum bath and the grease washes off. Sometimes if I have a boy with a particularly messy gland I leave the oil on overnight.
The photo shows a white lump, my boys grease is usually black or dark brown. Is that boar glue from his cage mate?
 
No it's not boar glue. It's white sticky stuff from the grease gland. In the past, I noticed that it's just been there on the gland but it's flat. What got me concerned today was that it looks like a little lump build up. Not sure what it is really.
 
I also use coconut oil and have left it overnight - sometimes there is nothing and other times it’s a lot
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I will buy coconut oil tomorrow and see how it will do for the time being. Hopefully that will do the trick and it won't get worse.
 
Fingers crossed coconut oil does the trick, that's what we've always used.
Otherwise we do give the longer haired piggies a bit of a trim round there if they're getting a bit messy 👍
 
So how do you put it on? how much coconut oil and how do you wash it? Do I have to give him another bum bath after? How often should I do this?
 
My Pepper was a very greasy boy. I’d definitely try the coconut oil. As long as it’s not red, swollen and he’s eating and acting ok I wouldn’t worry too much.

Just rub a bit on and if it doesn’t all start to breakdown and come off then rub in some more. I found lots of hair would come out too. I never used to wash if off. After a few days it disappears. But some people do wash it off
 
I cleaned Bodie's grease gland with coconut oil and this is how it looks when all the matted stuff was removed. Now I'm not sure if it's infected or not. I've trimmed some of the hair around it so it won't get stuck on top of it for now.

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Just got back from the vets. She said the grease gland does look infected and sore. Bodie was uncomfortable when she was trying to squeeze something out from it. But she doesn't want to prescribed antibiotics yet as it doesn't look that bad for the time being, and it's mostly just red. She said to clean it for the next 2 days with hibiscrub and continue applying coconut oil if it helps. She also prescribed Loxicom 2x a day.
 
So this is how Bodie's grease gland looked tonight after cleaning it. I think it looks better and it's not that inflamed as you can see. I will stop cleaning it now but will continue giving him Loxicom until the weekend to make sure he's not in pain. I think I will keep the hair short in that area to make sure that it won't get matted.

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This is Bodie's grease gland now. I haven't cleaned it today. I think I will have to just monitor what it will look like in the next few days. I think it's looking okay now. He also didn't flinch when I was touching it.

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