• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Mad Piggie

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

higilty

Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
41
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Albert, (one of my pig) has suddenly in the last two days developed unusual behaviour and I'm concerned. he is a bonded pair with John, (as of yet have no concerns with john).

anyway these last two days his behaviour has been somewhat scatty, he is normally a placid pig and has been for the two and a half years ive had him. but yesterday i tried to get him out (i was cleaning the cage) and he went all wild on me, to be honest i was a bit wary as i thought he was going to bite, non-the less i won the battle, cleaned out cage and put him back, this morning i went in to give them breakfast and he was just running from me wildly round the cage, also he is no longer sitting next to john but by himself behind the food bowl.

i got him out to hold him to try to calm him but he was squealing loudly, there are no obvious signs of illness, sores or scabs ect he looks quite healthy

I'm just wondering why my piggy has gone wild ?
 
I would recommend treating for mites in any case.

He and John could have had a bad falling out while you were not there. Try and see whether Albert's behaviour changes back to more normal when he is on his own.
 
Last edited:
i tried again with him this afternoon, he was very aggressive, i had the magnify glass to look at his fur and it seems that there are some kind of small scaly clumps on his fur :(

could it be mites like you say ?

thanks for the advise
 
Sorry to hear he's behaving so out of sorts, it's terrifying when they seem to flip so suddenly, is he any calmer today?

Scaly/clumpy/flaky skin can often indicate fungal infection. If you *very gently* pull his hair, does it come away very easily in a small clump, with a flake of skin attached at the bottom? This is a classic indicator of fungal infection.

At the moment I would advise bathing him - if you can! This should help to soothe his skin. If you've got any Gorgeous Guineas anti-fungal products they may help, I have personally had success with Nizoral shampoo from the chemist for my pigs with fungal problems (not following the human instructions - just lathering up and rinsing, then lathering up and allowing to soak in for a few minutes before rinsing and drying the pig, and only bathing once weekly for 2-3 weeks).
 
Albert has been to the doctors (vets) and he gave him a shot of antibiotics. the vet said it could be mites but to test for that it would cost more than the treatment. any way we also got baytril and ivermectin. odly though, even though Albert shares a hutch with John the vet says dont treat john unless he becomes out of sorts and gets little scabs, (Albert has these, tiny scabs, i didnt even see them they are so small). and also on week two of his treatment I'm to thoroughly clean the cage in every nook and cranny with very very hot soapy water as mites dont like this.

thanks for all the help, hopefully Albert will make a full recovery :(|)

oh the cost of injection, tiny amount of baytril and ivermectin - £30.00 :aLJFBQ00151070111C:

ah well, he's worth it
 
Fingers crossed the treatment works :)

Are you waiting for a week before you clean the hutch out? Whenever I've treated for mites I've meticulously cleaned the cage out at the start of treatment as well as during the course of the treatment. From my understanding, certain types of mites could be coming from/harboured within the hay/bedding so I would've thought that you're better off scrubbing and starting from scratch now! (I also always ditch the current batch of hay I'm using, to be on the safe side, just in case it's a dodgy batch.)

Also there are various products you can buy for very effective cleaning and erradication of 'nasties' - I personally wouldn't just use soapy water but that's up to you!

Did the Vet say Albert would need a further follow up treatment at all? Before I realised that I could treat mites myself at home with a 'spot on' ivermectin product, mine were given ivermectin injections at the Vets (2 injections, about a week apart, but I believe bad cases can sometimes require more.)
 
from what you say i would normally treat all the guinea pigs in the hutch for mites,not just the 1 guinea pig it seems pointless to just treat one when there is 2 guineas together they will pass them back to each othermalletheadmallethead

also ivomec needs 3 treatments so really you need to go back 7 days later then again 7 days later for 3 treatments..

fair enough about the baytril injection,but again it still questionable by he was given itmallethead

but you still need the extra ivomec treatment as above because the mite eggs will hatch out after 7 days so you will have the same problem again and yes really you do need to treat all guineas if they already havent been treated in the last week or so for hay mites/mites..
 
Hope the treatment works and your piggies behaviour returns to normal. I would also think that all piggies would need to be treated to ensure they don't pass back and forth.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top