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sifjada

sifjada

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I really, really need advice ASAP! I was cuddling my guinea pig before bed and I noticed his toe was bent at a strange angle, so I pushed at it a little to examine it closer and turns out the toe is hanging by a thread of skin! I called the so-called pet ER number they have here, but it's just some lady's cellphone number and she told me to bring him in to the vet's office in the morning...
I can't tell if he's just hiding his pain or not. I've noticed he's been kind of quiet, but I just got him so I don't know if that's normal or not... I'm just kind of freaking out and I don't know what to do. Any advice? I'm going to try to take him to the vet's tomorrow, but I don't want him to suffer so if there's anything I can do in the meantime please let me know!
 
OK, I calmed down a bit after putting him back in his cage and on a whim I googled it. Apparently, this is a known defect named polydactyly, where the guinea pig is born with an extra toe on the hind leg. This calms me down a little, but it says it may be the cause of in breeding. That sounds worrisome to me. Are there any common, serious problems known to be caused with inbred guinea pigs?
 
I'm not an expert, but from owning guinea pigs in the past that were inbred, check to make sure he has all his teeth and nothing in his mouth is funny look. We had an inbred that was missing her top incisors (if that's even what they're called o.o) and she died. They're born with deformities like missing teeth, extra toes, and sometimes even born with no eyes.

It might be helpful if you gave out some more information. How old is she? Is she gaining weight normally? I wish I could be of more help!
 
Oh Lord, that sounds horrible! Everything seems to be okay with him, at least superficially. I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow anyway, as I hadn't gotten around to getting him an initial checkup yet. He's still very quiet at times, but I just can't tell if that's just him or not.

He's about 5-6 months old and he seems to be at an appropriate weight. He's bigger than my 3 month old boy, at least. He eats the same and drinks a good amount of water. But I'm very new to this stuff and so I just don't know what I should expect to be "normal" behavior.

I'm just grateful for the response! I feel a lot better knowing it's nothing too serious for now, I don't know what I would do if he had been really sick. I get the feeling the service for sick guinea pigs isn't great in this country.
 
Just as an update in case anyone's wondering, I took him to the vet today and they removed the extra toe just as a precaution. It took a couple of hours and he's on mild painkillers, so now it's just chill time in his cage for a few days. :)
 
Eek I don't blame you for worrying, I'd worry too, guinea pigs are good at hiding small amounts of pain but I've found all mine to be VERY vocal about things they don't like you doing, so if you had a good poke around it and he wasn't screaming at you, I guess it probably isn't hurting him too much, but every piggy is different.

edit: opp didn't see the new post, it didn't refresh. Hope he picks up well from the removal!
 
Olivitree said:
Eek I don't blame you for worrying, I'd worry too, guinea pigs are good at hiding small amounts of pain but I've found all mine to be VERY vocal about things they don't like you doing, so if you had a good poke around it and he wasn't screaming at you, I guess it probably isn't hurting him too much, but every piggy is different.

edit: opp didn't see the new post, it didn't refresh. Hope he picks up well from the removal!
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for the advice and the well wishes! I'm very nervous about them hiding their illnesses; I'm not great at picking up subtle cues, so I think my vet checkup bills will become pretty steep, haha. No matter, you do for them what you must, just like human children. :)
 
We believe them our two boars Whizz and Dusty could be inbred as we bought their mother from a store and she was (unknowingly and unintentionally) pregnant.
Both of them have a slight deformaty in their mouth and their front teeth do not align but they eat alright. Whizz, apart from that, seems perfectly normal.
Dusty... Not so much...
 
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