crooked head

[Miriampje]

At first I want to apologize, my english is not really good, I'm from the Netherlands. But since we don't have much good guinea pig forums I wanted to try this one

I have 4 piggy's myself and they are all pretty healthy, but my neighbours have 2 piggy's and one of them always holds it's head to the left. It's had that all it's life,the first 3 weeks he lived with his breeder, after that it lived for like 5 weeks with me and then I brought it to my neighbours. I wanted to keep him myself but I had 6 guinea pigs at the time and they were all female. And I always give my piggy's a mate, but since I still live with my parents and I also have 2 rabit's, 2 turtes, a mouse, walking sticks and a tropical aquarium next to my piggy's it wasn't really an option to get more animals in here

Now my question is : What can I do about that crooked head? Becouse Going to a vet is not a good option, they don't know anything about guinea pigs over here -.- I tried several but no one really knows a thing o.0

And I think she might have had an inflammation in her ear or something in the time she lived with her breeder but Otherwise I got no clue o.0

Thanks for reading

Xx Miriam

 

[Laura-CCC4]

Hi Miriam. Your English is fine, no problem at all, no need to apologise.

A head tilt, like you describe, can be a result of an ear infection. When the infection isn't treated quickly and effectively enough, it can lead to a permanent head tilt. There may be/have been inflammation in the ear that has contributed to the problem.

Ear mites can also lead to a head tilt, but the would be other symptoms too - like hair loss underneath the ears and around the eyes, lots of scratching and head shaking.

Neurological problems and muscle problems (e.g. "wry neck" ) can also cause a head tilt, but as far as I know, nothing can be done about this.

As the guinea is otherwise well, it is up to you whether you try to persuade the vet to try a course of antibiotics to make sure there is no current infection, or you can just keep monitoring the piggie. To me, the head tilt itself sounds likely to be a permanent, incurable problem.

 

[Miriampje]

thank you for your reaction!

He has no other symptomes, I think it was an infection or something, the breeder wasn't profesional at all, gave the piggy to a pet shop when she nearly weighted 200 gramms, they should weigh at least 300 gramms before seperated from their mum :O So it wouldn't surprise me if the breeder doesn't know when one of it's piggy's has an infection.

I just hope Herman (that's the name of the piggy xD) won't have any side effects of this....