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Guinea Pig Flapping Ears

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Hazel&Daliah

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Hi guys! I have a quick question. I had my guinea pig Daliah out for lap time. I was giving her a piece of fruit for her to snack on and noticed her flapping her ears while eating. She was doing it every 10 secs or so. At first we thought she was excited and thought it was cute and funny. She finished her snack and I noticed she kept doing the ear flapping but more frequently so I started to just watch her. I noticed she's kind of tilting her head to the side and flapping her ears. Daliah is constantly making those happy bubbly noises but this time I can hear her make that little noise they make when they're annoyed or just a tiny wheek, then she tilts her head and flaps her ears and goes back to bubbly noises, it happens so quick and the wheeks are low you can barely notice it unless you pay close attention like I am. I'm not sure what this means? I'm a little concerned since I've never seen her do this before. Does anyone know what this means? I'm thinking of waiting until tomorrow and hoping it's gone or I'll take her to the vet on Friday. I'm concerned but I don't want to take her today since I've just noticed this now and the vet is expensive so if it's not something to worry about I'll wait and see but if it is I'll take her in. Please advice.
 
Tilting head is often a health problem, but not sure about flapping ears. Do you mean as in how dogs shake when they dry? Until someone more knowledgable comes along, could you post a video?
 
Is she pulling her lips back when she does it? Sometimes they do this when they get an awkwardly shaped piece of veg stuck in a position that they can't shift in their mouth. I'd check her mouth but be careful not to push anything that is stuck in even further
 
I have one pig who does this when she wheeks and is super exited about veg time (Oreo).
But her head doesn't tilt, and she only does it when she is excited.

If she is still doing it this morning I would take her to a vet to be checked over.
She may have mites or some from of neurological problem and be in discomfort.
Well done for spotting it, and hopefully she is better today and it was just one of those things.
 
I agree with getting it checked, especially if she is tilting her head, though try what Adelle has suggested first. I have not had any of my pigs flap when they eat apart from the skinnies who flap their ears all the time.
 
I have seen guinea pigs do this before, do you think something might be stuck or biting her in the ear? She might have an ear infection that needs to be treated, does she ever fall over or roll her eyes or just seem off balance? If so take her to the vet as soon as you can otherwise I'd watch her and see if this behavior becomes more frequent or if she seems to be in pain I would take her to the vets.
 
I have a guinea pig with flappy ears. Their jaw and ear muscles are close together, so flapping isn't necessarily a problem if you can see that it's happening when they're eating or making noises or mouth movements.

That being said, head tilting and random flapping sounds like it could be an ear problem to me. If I were in your shoes, I'd schedule a check up to be safe, even if it doesn't get worse. Piggies like to hide their pain from us.

Also, kudos to you for catching that your piggy was starting to act a bit off! It can be hard to see any signs of developing problems. I hope everything works out!
 
Hi guys! Thank you so much for the replies. I've been keeping an eye on her and she's not tilting her head anymore but she is flapping her ears here and there. I have noticed though that her skin is red? I've checked and she had no bald spots or rashes of any kind. Her ears, belly and feet all look more red than usua but her temperature is the same. She has also been hiding almost all day. She usually doesn't go in to her little house much, she just lays outside most of the day and only hides when there's unfamiliar noises or she doesn't want to be picked up. She's been out for lap time and she's not her perky, bubbly self. Our vet is only there Wednesday and Fridays, we both work tomorrow and can't make it back in time for the vet which is frustrating. Does anyone know why her skin would be red? We'll probably look into finding another vet just so she can get checked out, I don't want to go until Wednesday to get her checked out in case is something bad. She's eating and drinking water as usual.
 
Not quite like that but she was tilting it for about 2 secs and then went back to her normal posture. She has stopped doing the tilting but still flaps her ears a bit.
I have one pig who does this when she wheeks and is super exited about veg time (Oreo).
But her head doesn't tilt, and she only does it when she is excited.

If she is still doing it this morning I would take her to a vet to be checked over.
She may have mites or some from of neurological problem and be in discomfort.
Well done for spotting it, and hopefully she is better today and it was just one of those things.

She's never done it when excited, and our other piggies don't do it either. It must be really cute when your piggie does it lol as I thought it was when I first noticed her doing it. She's not herself, still flapping her ears and her skin is red everywhere. She seems more quiet than normal. We hope to be able to take her to the vet soon.
 
I have a guinea pig with flappy ears. Their jaw and ear muscles are close together, so flapping isn't necessarily a problem if you can see that it's happening when they're eating or making noises or mouth movements.

That being said, head tilting and random flapping sounds like it could be an ear problem to me. If I were in your shoes, I'd schedule a check up to be safe, even if it doesn't get worse. Piggies like to hide their pain from us.

Also, kudos to you for catching that your piggy was starting to act a bit off! It can be hard to see any signs of developing problems. I hope everything works out!
Thank you! I'm worried it might be an ear problem like you said. She's not herself today. We're worried since we can't take her to the vet tomorrow since we both work and out vet is only I Wednesdays and Fridays, but we hope she gets better soon.
 
I have seen guinea pigs do this before, do you think something might be stuck or biting her in the ear? She might have an ear infection that needs to be treated, does she ever fall over or roll her eyes or just seem off balance? If so take her to the vet as soon as you can otherwise I'd watch her and see if this behavior becomes more frequent or if she seems to be in pain I would take her to the vets.
She doesn't seem to have a balance problem . We put her on the floor to watch her walking and it's normal. But she does seem quiet today, which is not normal as she is a happy, perky piggie. We hope to take her to the vet soon. Thank you!
 
She doesn't seem to have a balance problem . We put her on the floor to watch her walking and it's normal. But she does seem quiet today, which is not normal as she is a happy, perky piggie. We hope to take her to the vet soon. Thank you!
Your welcome! I hope Daliah feels better soon!
 
If she is acting out of character, I would definitely have her checked out sooner rather than later especially bearing in mind that guinea pigs can go downhill very quickly and it's bank holiday weekend xx
 
Update:
Daliah is doing so much better now! Yesterday she was eating lots of hay and she even laid outside of her house. Today I noticed she barely went into her little house and spent most of the day outside. She came up to the front of the cage wheeking when she heard the fridge open or sounds of bags which she wasn't doing for a few days. Her skin is back to her normal pinky colour and her ears aren't flapping anymore. We'll keep an eye and we are still open to the idea of taking her to the vet if we see anything different in her, but for now I'm happy to say our little piggie is doing great! Thank you so much to everyone who replied!
 
I read guinea pigs dissipate heat through their ears, which is one reason pink ears look, well, more pink at times. She might have just been a bit overheated.
 
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