Hair in males genitals..

[PopcornPigs]

Ok so this isn't my own guinea pigs.
I work for a pet store (not P@H) who pride themselves in high welfare for their animals. I don't condone the selling of the animals and therefore I do not personally sell them myself out of principal. However, I do take interest in looking after the animals and making sure they are well looked after.

So moving on, basically. We have a couple of male guinea pigs at the moment who are long haired - coronet and alpaca. I was checking them over today as I always do (plus I get a cuddle) and I found that both of them had hair tangled/caught inside their private areas. I gently pulled it out of both and neither of them put up a fuss. One had hair in his bottom also. The hair was obviously stained with wee/poo and it wasn't pleasant.

I was wondering if anyone could suggest how to prevent it happening? Is it best to trim the area? Sounds risky. Or is it just a case of checking every day?

Thank you

 

[suem]

I just check Bertie when he has a cuddle..he often gets hair, bits of hay and heaven only knows what stuck in his little thingy....think it is just what happens with long haired piggies. I do trim round his bum though as he does get a bit smelly and damp...inbreeding

 

[PottyForPiggies]

I've just got a long-haired piggie and I was advised to keep an eye on the fur around her bum. Keep it trimmed and I don't know whether you can do much more than monitor really! They just sound like mucky pups p

 

[piggieboys]

This has happened with my Romeo, I have trimmed all the hair near by and it still happens sometimes, god knows how as ive trimmed it short, another thing I have found as well is bits of fleece in two of my boys, I just pull it out, and they dont seem to bother.

 

[lilmisscavy]

It isn't risky to cut their fur back, I actually always encourage it with long-haired breeds because of this type of thing. It isn't healthy for them to have long fur, my boy Jasper is an Alpaca cross and his fur gets very thick and heavy so its always kept short.

Just trim around their bottoms with some small blunt-ish scissors, and then give them a clip back everywhere else to the length of a smooth-haired. If you're not used to it, it'll help if someone else held them and you cut or vice versa if they're wriggly.

 

[PopcornPigs]

Thanks for the advice guys. I was only thinking it was risky as if they wriggled, scissors near that area doesn't sound good! Will just have to check it every time I'm working. Boys rolleyes