Hops_in_Heaven
Junior Guinea Pig
Hello fellow guinea pig lovers, I have returned with a few questions. To start, I have five piggies in a homemade 2X10 C&C cage, which is lined with homemade pads made from fleece and towels. The cage is spot-cleaned twice a day minimum, sometimes three times, and everything is run through the wash once a week. A few days ago, I was handling the pigs, snuggling them and looking them over for any visible health issues. I noticed some red spots on Tickles' back feet and I don't remember them being there before. I checked the other pigs' feet and no other pig had them.
Just to be safe, I made a vet appointment for Tickles. However, no appointment times lined up with either mine or my boyfriend's schedule this week, so she, and a piggy friend for comfort, had to be dropped off at the vet's before work and picked up during my boyfriend's lunch break to be returned home. The vet's notes say that this could just be a callous from the way guinea pigs sit and walk around, and since Tickles has no pigmentation on her feet, it just looks particularly red. I should keep an eye on her feet and made sure to avoid dryness or cracking of this skin. To keep the skin supple, she suggests emollient beeswax salves or even lip conditioners provided that they are non-medicated and free of essential oils. She said Burt's Bees is good for that.
I'm grateful that she looked at my sweet piggy, and that nothing major seems to be wrong. But since I wasn't there, I wasn't able to ask any questions regarding this issue any further. So I was hoping you could all share any relevant nuggets of information you may have regarding this. Should I apply this stuff, once I manage to find some, to her front feet as well as her back feet? Should I do it every day? Should I use some on my other pigs too? Any particular products to recommend? I'm a little concerned about following through with the vet's advice properly and doing the right thing for my piggies.
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
Just to be safe, I made a vet appointment for Tickles. However, no appointment times lined up with either mine or my boyfriend's schedule this week, so she, and a piggy friend for comfort, had to be dropped off at the vet's before work and picked up during my boyfriend's lunch break to be returned home. The vet's notes say that this could just be a callous from the way guinea pigs sit and walk around, and since Tickles has no pigmentation on her feet, it just looks particularly red. I should keep an eye on her feet and made sure to avoid dryness or cracking of this skin. To keep the skin supple, she suggests emollient beeswax salves or even lip conditioners provided that they are non-medicated and free of essential oils. She said Burt's Bees is good for that.
I'm grateful that she looked at my sweet piggy, and that nothing major seems to be wrong. But since I wasn't there, I wasn't able to ask any questions regarding this issue any further. So I was hoping you could all share any relevant nuggets of information you may have regarding this. Should I apply this stuff, once I manage to find some, to her front feet as well as her back feet? Should I do it every day? Should I use some on my other pigs too? Any particular products to recommend? I'm a little concerned about following through with the vet's advice properly and doing the right thing for my piggies.
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
