Is this Tapeworm?

[Pandamonium]

Good evening,
I have two Guinea Pigs, Brownie and Tangerin roughly 5 months old.

Tonight we saw this white thing poking out of Brownie's bum and we removed it.

We are worried it might be tapeworm as from our knowledge (when we got the guinea pigs) they are both female. We also tried checking their gender but we don't really know as we read about boar glue on the Internet.

Could you help us understand?
Should we visit the Vet tomorrow?

 

[Janey]

The best thing to do is to confirm the sexes of both piggies as soon as possible. I’ll attach a link about this. If your piggies are not themselves, not eating as much or generally acting different to how they normally do, it’s always advisable to get them checked out by a vet, one who is experienced with treating piggies is ideal. There’s a vet locator on the home page at the top if you need to find one.

Sexing Guide

 

[Eriathwen]

A health check never hurts, especially to confirm sexes if you arent 100%, but this looks like a lot of mucous plugs produced by females (no male is needed for them to produce these) as sometimes mucous is present when they come into season and can end up being passed as long tube looking things.

 

[Wiebke]

Good evening,
I have two Guinea Pigs, Brownie and Tangerin roughly 5 months old.

Tonight we saw this white thing poking out of Brownie's bum and we removed it.

We are worried it might be tapeworm as from our knowledge (when we got the guinea pigs) they are both female. We also tried checking their gender but we don't really know as we read about boar glue on the Internet.

Could you help us understand?
Should we visit the Vet tomorrow?

Hi

Tapeworm is always segmented. This isn't.

It also looks too long and too soft to be a sperm rod. They dry milky white and smooth.

What it could be is a fairly large piece of the mucus barrier at the end of the caecum (the last of the lower bowel tracts) that retains the gut microbiome but allows the faecal clumps to pass. Very occasionally, a bit of the mucus can slip through; this would be a pretty large bit as these things go. This is the only explanation I have ever been able to come up with for those mystery mucus blobs we get to see on here from time to time. I have had one or two in the about 100 piggies in my life. They are mostly one-offs, only rarely do you get more in a matter of days.

If you have concerns, please have your sows vet checked; including the reproductive tract, which may be another possible source.