• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Do new pigs always get ill?

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Artemis

Joined
May 25, 2010
Messages
225
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Wednesbury, West Midlands
Now my other piggie has a problem. I noticed his fur didnt seem to be lying right. moved it back and hes got a patch, just smaller than a 1p of dry and odd looking skin. I'm guessing its the same as Adi had on his nose...

My question is, is this common? To get new pigs and straight away almost, they both become ill with a fungus infection and had to bathe their eyes? Is this common? Did I just get unhealthy pigs, prone to nasties?

The hutch was brand new, I use disinfectant..they have a varied diet...what have I done wrong here or was this likely to happen anyway....

I know no one can produce a magic ball and tell me exactly why 100% but in everyones experience...what do you think?

Adi, the one that got poorly first has become very very skittish and the other boy, plopper/max (my daughter named him) seems to be more loving than ever...

Maths exam tomorrow too...lovely lol. One more thing to make my brain ache lolmallethead

Also, does anyone have that link to the skin conditions page? It turned out to be spot on for Adi and his fungus nose
 
Last edited:
Were are you getting the pigs from?

Mine have never been ill when I get them but I have got 3 of them from very good rescues. Fred was P@H adoption but he's never been ill either touch wood.

I do have a girl that has a UTI just now but I've had her 6 months so I don't think that counts as being ill when I got her and she had a lump but thankfully that cleared up everyone else touch wood is healthy! :) xx>>>
 
They were both from p@h, got them both at the same time.
I certainly wont be rescuing any piggies while I have problems with health. I cant see how I could have caused it but it wouldnt stop me feeling wretched if I rescued a pair and they got ill too.

I actually popped in tonight to see if they still had a rescue pig that i'd had my eye on...good job he'd gone! I decided it was fate if he was there, then i'd have to get him lol

Really frustrated. Poor boys.

Where does the fungus come from?

Bought them some tennis balls tonight lol, Adi was straight over to see what was going on
 
Ringworm (fungus) spreads very easily amongst piggies that are farmed in large numbers, like mites or URI, especially during transport to the shop when many piggies are just squashed together and very stressed out.

It is one of the reasons why we do not recommend people buying from shops. Thankfully, you haven't bought female piggies - just have a look at our pregnancy section for the other big reason... (And yes, I'm a shop granny myself before I wised up and went rescue after that!)

Here is the link to guinealynx:
http://www.guinealynx.info/fungus.html
http://www.guinealynx.info/parasites.html

And here the one for gorgeousguineas - it pays to save them under your favourites!
http://www.gorgeousguineas.com/photogallery.html
 
Last edited:
I wish I'd have found the forum the day before I bought my pigs. I just didn't realise how many need homes. I have a rescued dog and a rescued cat, if I'd have known just how bad things were with piggies, I'd have tried harder to get rescue piggies.
I contacted a rescue centre and if I'm honest, the reply I got wasn't great. Put me off. I waited months and months to decide what to do and then bought them on a whim one day..well not quite but you knw what I mean. Regret it now, but love my boys regardless of where they. Came from.

Excuse grammar etc, replying from my blackberry
 
My vet says that GP's "hardly ever go wrong", they seem to be quite hardy for illnesses and recommend GP's and rats over other animals infact. Whilst I've had a few problems recently, I think that knowledge as a lot to say for it.

I've learnt a great deal from this forum and gives me confidence when dealing with an issue, or I think is an issue.

Mine sadly too were from P&H initially but I'm their second mummy and when I think back to the improvements, improved diet, exercise and how tame they are, especially when their previous owner regularly see's video clips and photos, they see a big difference in them. All good of course.
 
I loved my first pair of shop piggies very much as well! My reason was that I just fell for a pair of very sad hurt big eyes that were looking straight at me while the little girl was bullied badly by a bigger one...

Guinea pigs are sadly still very much under the radar with most people.
 
I guess I was just ignorant to the huge number of piggies without homes. I had pigs when I was younger, 5 at once. One got a skin condition and then got bullied so I got him a friend and that was ***. Not a problem after that.

The boys are still under 12wks at the moment, I'm using lavender and mhyrr (spelling) on ploppers back and will start bathing the area with the solution I was given for Adi from tomorrow.

They both had one sore looking eye, bathed them with cooler boiled water and looks mostly ok now. Just a little bit of dried gunk below. I so wish I had a vet I could trust. But, with a bit of luck, we won't need one :) fingers crossed that we can knock this on the head quickly. Adi has fur growing back on his nose! Yey!

I think Adi hates me because of all the meds and proddin and poking. Poor fella. Plopper/Max loves to snuggle in my cardi :)

Lesson learnt here. I didn't think they were allowed to get away with such things anymore
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top