Maggots or something more?

[EllieAndChester]

So today was cage cleaning day. as usual I pulled up their fleece liner and as my liner doesn’t have sides, some poo fell off during the week. The pigs have a poo corner, so typically I vacuum out the drops and disinfect, but I was out of wipes last week so I didn’t. When I pulled up the liner there were about 10 little worms eating at the poo! I can’t tell if they’re maggots or something much more serious. I’m disgusted and very concerned about my pigs as they’re quite young and to loose them would be so so painful. Help me figure this out! I’ll try to attach a picture. They are quite nasty. Update: when I paused to take pictures for this post, a tiny fruit fly looking bug crawled out from the poop. They’re all over any leftover poo in the cage. What do I do? Jesus this is so disgusting. I am so concerned and if anyone could please help I’d appreciate it deeply.

 

[Betsy]

Take your piggies to the vet to check they don't have flystrike and thoroughly deep clean your cage. I use F10 (a vetinary grade disinfectant that kills everything nasty) every week in my hutch and do a thorough deep clean at least every 4 weeks (every 2 weeks in the summer). Good luck.

 

[Bill & Ted]

These look like fruit fly larvae to me, especially if they are in the poo. Very small little maggots. Fruit flies larvae eat any vegetable matter then hatch into small flies and then the circle of life continues. I think your piggies should be fine as they dont eat flesh. You need to go on poo patrol twice a day and make sure there’s no old poo left in cage so if any eggs are laid they don’t get chance to hatch out in the cage. If you are at all concerned a vet check will put your mind at rest

 

[Merab]

A vet check is always a good idea if you are concerned.
I always have a can of Johnson’s cage and hutch spray on hand for cleaning.
Hope the piggies are ok - it must have given you a scare.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi! Please deep clean the whole cage inside and out with a strong disinfectant like F10 or virkon.

Thankfully, they are not flesh eating blow fly maggots (they are white), but check your piggies if they have got some wandering around and if necessary give them a bath. It can occasionally happy that flies lie eggs in a guinea pig cage; they don't take very long to develop.
Fly Strike

 

[Flutterby]

, fingers crossed you get on top of them quickly.

 

[Rebeka]

hope your piggies are ok reading this had made want check my girls cage please give it a very good clean get rid of anything keft behind

 

[EllieAndChester]

Thank you to everyone for responding, it has really put my mind at rest. Last night I put them both in a temp. Cage and cleaned the thing top to bottom with vinegar and afterwards disinfecting wipes. If there are any eggs, etc, within the cracks I’m going to take it outside after I get home today and spray it with more vinegar and diluted bleach, then hose it down. I think everything is under control, and that they were fruit flies. There were a couple in my kitchen afterwards that I saw, so I’m pretty sure that was the problem. Gonna bathe pigs just in case, but everything is fine never gonna leave any fresh produce or anything similar in there for longer than a few hrs, and I’m gonna disinfect as much as possible lol.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Glad everything under control, humid warm weather does seem to encourage them to breed more x

 

[Merab]

Glad all is well

 

[Merab]

Hope everything is still under control and no more fruit flies to stress you out