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Perineal Sac Issues

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Liz47

Liz47

Junior Guinea Pig
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Arnie was neutered just over 4 weeks ago, last week when handling him I noticed he always had poo's poking out of his bottom, but not just one always two/three but they popped out if I gently 'squeezed' it or they just came out as he was being handled. The area in between his penis and anus looked swollen so I did some researching and impaction came up, sounded and looked just like Arnie so I gently had a look at the perineal sac and it had dried poop and white stuff in it, looked and smelled awful the poor pig. I didn't want to be too rough with jim so I popped him down to the vets and my vet cleaned it out with hibiscrub as it was really full, I was told to keep an eye on it but shouldn't occur again. However, since them I am having to clean him out every day/every other day as there's always a poop or two in the perineal sac and white stuff, as his poo's are coming out they are shaped a bit curved, as they always have been, but seem to go straight up and get caught and if I don't check and clean it daily then they dry out and block it again. I have read impaction/perineal sac cleaning shouldn't really be an issue until the pig is older as the muscles loosen, so I am not sure why he is having issues with it now, any ideas? I don't know his exact age but was led to believe he is around 2 years old. Is there a possible underlying cause or could it cause him harm cleaning it so often? I do it gently and just with a damp cotton wool pad. Thank you in advance and sorry that was a bit of graphic 'bits and bottom' talk!
 
Liz47 said:
Arnie was neutered just over 4 weeks ago, last week when handling him I noticed he always had poo's poking out of his bottom, but not just one always two/three but they popped out if I gently 'squeezed' it or they just came out as he was being handled. The area in between his penis and anus looked swollen so I did some researching and impaction came up, sounded and looked just like Arnie so I gently had a look at the perineal sac and it had dried poop and white stuff in it, looked and smelled awful the poor pig. I didn't want to be too rough with jim so I popped him down to the vets and my vet cleaned it out with hibiscrub as it was really full, I was told to keep an eye on it but shouldn't occur again. However, since them I am having to clean him out every day/every other day as there's always a poop or two in the perineal sac and white stuff, as his poo's are coming out they are shaped a bit curved, as they always have been, but seem to go straight up and get caught and if I don't check and clean it daily then they dry out and block it again. I have read impaction/perineal sac cleaning shouldn't really be an issue until the pig is older as the muscles loosen, so I am not sure why he is having issues with it now, any ideas? I don't know his exact age but was led to believe he is around 2 years old. Is there a possible underlying cause or could it cause him harm cleaning it so often? I do it gently and just with a damp cotton wool pad. Thank you in advance and sorry that was a bit of graphic 'bits and bottom' talk!
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The white stuff is normal and so is the stink. Please leave him be! He doesn't sound impacted. Here is more about what is normal and what not in boars.
Boar Care: Bits, Bums & Baths

Impaction if when the redigestible poos are no longer expressed and collect in an amorphous mass in the perineal sac. Because of the missing testicles, the perineal sac shrinks in neutered boars over time - yours is just at the beginning of this process and it looks a bit outsized at the moment.
Neutered boars are much less prone to bad impaction and usually remain able to express the mass in my own experience with an older neutered boar.

It is not unusual for my own boars to have two or three poos coming out at the same time without there being anything wrong with them. it is just the first time you have really noticed it as you are looking much more closely at the moment.
Impaction Recovery - How To Help Your Guinea Pig. (contains impaction videos, so you can really see that your boy is nothing like it!)
 
Thank you for the reply. I read those stickies and he looked like the pics/videos of impaction, and the vet diagnosed this. There was a huge chunk of soft poop caught in the sac which was blocking him from expressing hardly any poop and what he did pass was small. Now he can go a couple lf days but the same will happen again, a chunk of a few soft poos will get caught and then normal poos will also go up and what he ends up with is a big chunk of dried poo stuck inside the sac and he will squeal when trying to pass further poos. Surely this cant be normal? I've seen him with a couple of poos coming out at the same tolime before but they don't get stuck like this and the white stuff is in huge amounts and I can smell him from his cage, not just when I am around his bottom like before.
 
Liz47 said:
Thank you for the reply. I read those stickies and he looked like the pics/videos of impaction, and the vet diagnosed this. There was a huge chunk of soft poop caught in the sac which was blocking him from expressing hardly any poop and what he did pass was small. Now he can go a couple lf days but the same will happen again, a chunk of a few soft poos will get caught and then normal poos will also go up and what he ends up with is a big chunk of dried poo stuck inside the sac and he will squeal when trying to pass further poos. Surely this cant be normal? I've seen him with a couple of poos coming out at the same tolime before but they don't get stuck like this and the white stuff is in huge amounts and I can smell him from his cage, not just when I am around his bottom like before.
Click to expand...

Please read the tips for managing impaction, like a diet that is as high in fibre as you can make it. It can also help to feed the same veg etc. exactly at the same time all the time to reduce the impaction; in milder cases this can reduce or even keep impaction at bay for a goodly while. I hope that that can help to manage it to some extent.
@MerryPip
 
Thankyou for your further reply, I will dk just that. The past few days he hasn't needed cleaning but last night there was a chunk of poo but it came out with a bit of massaging. I do try to leave it alone as much as I can while its not causing any discomfort. I will be contacting rescues in the next week in preparation for adopting a sow at 6 weeks post neuter and want to make sure Arnie is in good condition first and there's nothing that could be underlying causing the poop to get stuck.
 
I can't think of anything underlying that should be causing the problem. most often piggies post neuter have less problems with impaction rather than more.
Is he managing to 'poo much' or pick the edible poops from his bottom himself? Sometimes in piggies where mobility (or size) is an issue, they struggle to reach their anus and then the result is that they struggle to keep themselves clean and tidy round there. Pain can also affect this.

Most of my boys quite often wander around with a poop hanging out of their bum so don't worry about that. A mass getting stuck is more concerning but as long as you keep an eye on him and help keep him clean when needed. Don't remove the white goo as it's important to keep the anal sac in good condition. Try keeping his diet high in fibre, so loads of hay (as he should be anyway) and not too much wet veg so his poops are firm and less likely to deform and get stuck.

Good luck finding him a wife too :)
 
Thank you. When it was at it's worst (ie the initial very large chunk the vet removed and the one after that) he wasn't pooing very much, and what he did was very small but they seem to be of normal volume and size/shape now although if he does get a chunk of poos stuck after I massage it out a lot of fresh poo's follow! I have never seen him actually eat the softer poo's which he should do directly from his bottom, I presume he does it as I never find them round the cage and he isn't overweight/doesn't have any mobility problems I've just never seen him do it so can't comment on that really!

I've stopped cleaning with anything now since yesterday he was ok and this morning I just had to ease a small clump of a few softer poos which were stuck so I'm not bothering 'down there' too much. He gets unlimited Ings hay from hay for pets which always smells lovely and is a big hit so he eats a lot, alongside a small handful of excel pellets and he gets veggies on a night, but will cut back on watery veg. :)
 
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