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Help! I'm new to this! How do I clean them properly?

R

Recy

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Okay, so its my first time with all this guinea pig stuff. A friend asked me to take care of two of her guinea pigs because she'll be out of the city (To another island) And she cant bring them with her. I agreed because its only for a few days anyway. At first, I thought the pets were all about cute stuff. Fluffy, anxious.. I fed them properly as their owner had told me to. That was all. Of course, I had to clean their poo which was fine. Earlier today my mom complained about the smell on my room (where the pigs were) because shes afraid the germs and all that bacteria would harm my baby brother so I was forced to clean it again. This time though, I noticed their bedding, along with the poo, had white small worms. A lot of them. To tell you the truth, I was disgusted. I asked my other friends about this and they told me it was normal. The problem is. How do I get rid of them aside from going to a vet? (Finding a good vet here is rare, and all my past animals whom i took to there because of an illness died. I got sorta traumatized). My mom's worried on how Ill handle this, and I dont want my baby brother to be harmed because of these worms. Please do help.
 
Ok so first of all there should not be any worms on there.second what tipe of cage is it? A c and c or a hutch.i will tag some people that I think can help aswell
 
I was always told when a child is introduced to animals at an early age, they build stronger immune system. These children grow up to have less allergies and less sickness from having stronger immune syaytem.

I also don't believe smell would harm the baby unless you put the baby in the same cage as the guinea pigs.

I clean my two guinea pigs cages everyday by scooping out their poop three to four times a day. I also change their pee-pads every two to three day, and give a full, thorough clean by washing of the entire cage every 5-7 days.

Vinegar is used after fleece beddings are all washed frequently. This kills any germs or harmful stuff in their fleece bedding.
 
Welcome to the forum
First off I’m not an expert - I just share my own experience.
However - worms are not good.
You really should see a vet as soon as possible.
Where are you?
There is a vet locator on the forum for UK vets and I believe that Guinealynx is a recommended website for outside the UK.
Give the cage a thorough clean.
Change all the bedding and wash any fleece.
Clean the cage with a pet safe disinfectant if you can, white vinegar if you haven’t got any disinfectant .
Hopefully some real experts will be along later with more help
 
Recy said:
Okay, so its my first time with all this guinea pig stuff. A friend asked me to take care of two of her guinea pigs because she'll be out of the city (To another island) And she cant bring them with her. I agreed because its only for a few days anyway. At first, I thought the pets were all about cute stuff. Fluffy, anxious.. I fed them properly as their owner had told me to. That was all. Of course, I had to clean their poo which was fine. Earlier today my mom complained about the smell on my room (where the pigs were) because shes afraid the germs and all that bacteria would harm my baby brother so I was forced to clean it again. This time though, I noticed their bedding, along with the poo, had white small worms. A lot of them. To tell you the truth, I was disgusted. I asked my other friends about this and they told me it was normal. The problem is. How do I get rid of them aside from going to a vet? (Finding a good vet here is rare, and all my past animals whom i took to there because of an illness died. I got sorta traumatized). My mom's worried on how Ill handle this, and I dont want my baby brother to be harmed because of these worms. Please do help.
Click to expand...

Hi!

Please give your piggies a bath asap to wash off any worms. If you notice them in the skin (little white dots) or emerging from the skin, especially around (swollen) genitalia, then you need to see a vet (any vet you can get to) ASAP as a life or death emergency.
Fly strike (flesh eating maggots) can kill very quickly. It is one of the most horrible ways to die and any animal that has gone too far down deserves at least the kindness of being released from its suffering as soon as can be.
Fly Strike

Clean out their cage completely and disinfect thoroughly (including any hideys), ideally with a vet grade disinfectant. Virkon will do in a pinch as it is available worldwide. Wash any textiles at least 60 C / 140 F.
 
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Can I please make any new members aware that on this forum we have got specially designated members (anybody with a signature as a notable contributor to Health/Illness) whose medical knowledge we fully trust. They specifically monitor this section in order to make sure that posters receive the best possible and most competent help and don't get confused by lots of conflicting advice.
One of the reasons why our forum is such a great place is that we are putting providing the best support of any poster and their piggies first; ours is not a hip shooting free-for-all place like so many other online places.

You are welcome to contribute personal experiences and to post your sympathy, but please do not post advice on issues that you are not familiar with and have no personal experience of!

If it is an emergency you are welcome to tag mods and notable contributors into a thread. You do this by typing @ immediately followed by the username, then click on the wanted name on the list. This generates an alert, like @Seven7 .
Please do this only in an emergency or a severe case; having to wade through too many alerts as soon as we come on can contribute to us missing a vital one.

Thank you!
 
Wiebke said:
Can I please make any new members aware that on this forum we have got specially designated members (anybody with a signature as a notable contributor to Health/Illness) whose medical knowledge we fully trust. They specifically monitor this section in order to make sure that posters receive the best possible and most competent help and don't get confused by lots of conflicting advice.
One of the reasons why our forum is such a great place is that we are putting providing the best support of any poster and their piggies first; ours is not a hip shooting free-for-all place like so many other online places.

You are welcome to contribute personal experiences and to post your sympathy, but please do not post advice on issues that you are not familiar with and have no personal experience of!

If it is an emergency you are welcome to tag mods and notable contributors into a thread. You do this by typing @ immediately followed by the username, then click on the wanted name on the list. This generates an alert, like @Seven7 .
Please do this only in an emergency or a severe case; having to wade through too many alerts as soon as we come on can contribute to us missing a vital one.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Sorry
 
I clean with normal vinegar, and occasionally just wash down the whole base of the cage with regular soap and water. If there are worms in there, I would empty all the bedding, scrub everything down good with vinegar, and use all fresh bedding. I would wonder if flies are simply laying eggs in the damp bedding and you should examine both guinea pigs for any signs of fly strike (basically flies laying eggs around their rear ends and genitals.) This can rapidly prove fatal, so any worms on them requires a vet visit, even a vet who doesn't know much about guinea pigs. Fly strike is common in larger animals so a vet may have seen it before.
 
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