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Pips

PipSqueak20

PipSqueak20

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jan 8, 2025
Messages
156
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Points
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Location
Derby, UK
Hello,

Pip has these odd bouts of stomach upset that happen every 4 to 6 weeks for approximately 4 days to a week each time. She has been having these for around 2 years now. She started it again yesterday.

She has had X-rays, ultrasounds, poo samples, urine samples. Nothing is conclusive other than her being a bit gassy.

I have taken her to a cavy savvy vet every time and they just don’t know.

Her symptoms are:

- ill formed, soft and sticky poos
- Slightly bloated
- Cries slightly when she poos (this has been checked and she only does it when it’s one of these bouts)

(Other than that she is herself)

What I do:

- critical care (it keeps her weight up and stable)
- Add more hay in her enclosure
-take her off veg/grass for a few days
-give fibreplex
-give 1.1ml pain relief twice a day for a week
-weigh daily

Today, her weight is stable and she has gained 27g from yesterday but her poos are roughly the same.

All this at once and then hay mites still being a nuisance. I’ve got the gorgeous guineas lice and easy wash which I combed through and they have been scratching less. They have been seen by the vet and they’ve told received a spot on (not ivermectin but a different one). I’ve deep cleaned their home as well as out everything in a warm wash at 60 degrees.

Sometimes it can be very stressful and anxiety provoking 🥲
 
Bless her. It sounds like you are doing everything you can during a flare up.

It’s weird it’s so regular though. Does it coincide with her hormonal cycle (I’ve never had sows)?
 
weepweeps said:
Bless her. It sounds like you are doing everything you can during a flare up.

It’s weird it’s so regular though. Does it coincide with her hormonal cycle (I’ve never had sows)?
Click to expand...


I’m not sure if I’m honest. They have a cycle every 2 weeks so it could very well be
 
How old is she?
What is her normal diet, particularly what veg does she get daily?

What spot on did she get?
Was it as part of a full course?
 
Piggies&buns said:
How old is she?
What is her normal diet, particularly what veg does she get daily?

What spot on did she get?
Was it as part of a full course?
Click to expand...

She is 3 years, 6 months old. Daily she gets peppers (any colour), coriander, celery, romaine lettuce. She gets things like cucumber, tomatoes, mint, basil and string green beans (a few times a week) and watermelon, kale or carrots (once a week or every other week). She’s on a stricter diet because of her sensitive stomach and these things don’t upset her as much.

I don’t give broccoli,parsley,spinach or cabbage because of high calcium content or they make her gassy.

I can’t remember the spot on but it begins with S. You had to put it at the back of their neck. Once a month.
 
Her poos this morning are slightly better. A little soft and sticky still but has better form. She has lost 16g but I’m not too worried about that as that’s her normal fluctuations. She hasn’t cried going to the toilet either from what I have seen.
 
I wonder if it may be worth cutting out the carrots, tomatoes and fruit entirely - these are the things which could be more likely to cause a bit of an upset given the sugars and fruit not needing to be in the diet at all - to see if that helps at all. Kale is also high calcium.

It sounds like the mite treatment was selamectin
 
PipSqueak20 said:
She is 3 years, 6 months old. Daily she gets peppers (any colour), coriander, celery, romaine lettuce. She gets things like cucumber, tomatoes, mint, basil and string green beans (a few times a week) and watermelon, kale or carrots (once a week or every other week). She’s on a stricter diet because of her sensitive stomach and these things don’t upset her as much.

I don’t give broccoli,parsley,spinach or cabbage because of high calcium content or they make her gassy.

I can’t remember the spot on but it begins with S. You had to put it at the back of their neck. Once a month.
Click to expand...

Pellets she gets 3 to 4 times a week and she gets huge mounds of hay. Her water is filtered as well
 
Piggies&buns said:
I wonder if it may be worth cutting out the carrots, tomatoes and fruit entirely - these are the things which could be more likely to cause a bit of an upset given the sugars and fruit not needing to be in the diet at all - to see if that helps at all. Kale is also high calcium.

It sounds like the mite treatment was selamectin
Click to expand...

I shall cut out the tomato’s and watermelon and carrots completely just to make sure. Her stomach always got upset after a slice of apple, bananas, strawberries, blueberries that’s why I got rid of them from her their diet. Kale I barely give now because of the high calcium content. I give as a rare treat as they love it.

I think that is the treatment. They’re getting another dose of it tomorrow as it’s been a month.
 
It would definitely be worth cutting them out. The timeline for when she gets these upsets doesn’t necessarily fit the frequency with which you feed tomatoes and watermelon etc but if you know she couldn’t eat other fruits then it stands to reason she also cannot tolerate tomatoes, watermelon and carrot.

How many treatments does she still have to have?
I haven’t personally used selamectin but I know it is often done on a different timeline to ivermectin.
Is it hay mites you are struggling with?
Have you tried cutting their hair off as that mechanically reduces the amount of eggs available to hatch (this only works for hay mites though, it doesn’t work for mange mites as eggs are laid within the skin)
 
Piggies&buns said:
It would definitely be worth cutting them out. The timeline for when she gets these upsets doesn’t necessarily fit the frequency with which you feed tomatoes and watermelon etc but if you know she couldn’t eat other fruits then it stands to reason she also cannot tolerate tomatoes, watermelon and carrot.

How many treatments does she still have to have?
I haven’t personally used selamectin but I know it is often done on a different timeline to ivermectin.
Is it hay mites you are struggling with?
Have you tried cutting their hair off as that mechanically reduces the amount of eggs available to hatch (this only works for hay mites though, it doesn’t work for mange mites as eggs are laid within the skin)
Click to expand...

It is definitely hay mites. They haven’t been close to anything or anyone to get mange mites. Not a lot of soreness just dry skin especially on Ginger. They look like dust on Ginger. They have had just 1 treatment so far so they are having another one tomorrow. Once a month it said on the packaging. Cutting hair would stress them too much and I don’t know how to go about that. I’ve got a nit comb coming tomorrow as well to hopefully comb through their hair.
 
PipSqueak20 said:
It is definitely hay mites. They haven’t been close to anything or anyone to get mange mites. Not a lot of soreness just dry skin especially on Ginger. They look like dust on Ginger. They have had just 1 treatment so far so they are having another one tomorrow. Once a month it said on the packaging. Cutting hair would stress them too much and I don’t know how to go about that. I’ve got a nit comb coming tomorrow as well to hopefully comb through their hair.
Click to expand...

They’ve been vet checked as well to make sure it isn’t anything else
 
PipSqueak20 said:
It is definitely hay mites. They haven’t been close to anything or anyone to get mange mites. Not a lot of soreness just dry skin especially on Ginger. They look like dust on Ginger. They have had just 1 treatment so far so they are having another one tomorrow. Once a month it said on the packaging. Cutting hair would stress them too much and I don’t know how to go about that. I’ve got a nit comb coming tomorrow as well to hopefully comb through their hair.
Click to expand...

A nit comb is certainly worth a try but the live egg casings do stick solid to the hair shaft so I’m not sure how many it will remove. They’ve got the treatment though which is of course your best line of defence. Just make sure you do not bathe with the lice and easy too soon after doing a treatment as you’ll be rendering treatment less effective.
If you don’t wish to cut the hair off then you don’t have to but it is the most effective method as it can dramatically reduce the length of infestation. It also doesn’t have to be a pretty hair cut!
Basically you are looking to remove as many eggs as possible so quite simply there are less mites to hatch to perpetuate the cycle.

So treatment has really only just started them. Usually treatment with ivermectin is done every two weeks to ensure the life cycle of the mite is caught properly - treatment only kills mites, it does not kill eggs. So the eggs have to hatch to be caught by subsequent treatments. But it has to be at the right time before they have laid more eggs. Some treatments have different intervals between each treatment.
You should stop treatment as soon as the mites are gone, don’t continue to treat beyond the eradication.

(Mange mites can live in piggies whether they have been in contact recently or not. There can be a reservoir that lives on them at all times but is kept in check by the immune system so never causes an active infestation until the immune system lowers. Mange mites cause a distinctive v shape of hair loss in the back end)
 
Piggies&buns said:
A nit comb is certainly worth a try but the live egg casings do stick solid to the hair shaft so I’m not sure how many it will remove. They’ve got the treatment though which is of course your best line of defence. Just make sure you do not bathe with the lice and easy too soon after doing a treatment as you’ll be rendering treatment less effective.
If you don’t wish to cut the hair off then you don’t have to but it is the most effective method as it can dramatically reduce the length of infestation. It also doesn’t have to be a pretty hair cut!
Basically you are looking to remove as many eggs as possible so quite simply there are less mites to hatch to perpetuate the cycle.

So treatment has really only just started them. Usually treatment with ivermectin is done every two weeks to ensure the life cycle of the mite is caught properly - treatment only kills mites, it does not kill eggs. So the eggs have to hatch to be caught by subsequent treatments. But it has to be at the right time before they have laid more eggs. Some treatments have different intervals between each treatment.
You should stop treatment as soon as the mites are gone, don’t continue to treat beyond the eradication.

(Mange mites can live in piggies whether they have been in contact recently or not. There can be a reservoir that lives on them at all times but is kept in check by the immune system so never causes an active infestation until the immune system lowers. Mange mites cause a distinctive v shape of hair loss in the back end)
Click to expand...

I bathed them on Monday so the treatment should be fine to put on tomorrow as it’s over 48 hours since. I also waited a month for the first treatment to finish to bath them. I don’t do it often and I asked the vet before hand. Neither of them have the v shape of hair loss on their back end, or have sores or anything like that. Just slight dry skin and itchiness. No dry patches or hair loss either.

I will try and cut back some hair tomorrow but I will stop if they get too stressed
 
I'm a very new guinea pig owner so cant comment on the tummy problems. It may help to keep a daily diary of what youre feeding you may spot a pattern? Its a chore I know - I had to keep one for my dog.

My guinea pigs had hay mites on adoption. They had 2 x doses of salemectin 2 weeks apart and that did the trick. Apparently ivermectin is difficult for vets to get hold of.
 
Rumblestiltskin said:
I'm a very new guinea pig owner so cant comment on the tummy problems. It may help to keep a daily diary of what youre feeding you may spot a pattern? Its a chore I know - I had to keep one for my dog.

My guinea pigs had hay mites on adoption. They had 2 x doses of salemectin 2 weeks apart and that did the trick. Apparently ivermectin is difficult for vets to get hold of.
Click to expand...

Maybe that would help instead of a month apart. Yes the vet mentioned it was hard to get
 
Rumblestiltskin said:
I'm a very new guinea pig owner so cant comment on the tummy problems. It may help to keep a daily diary of what youre feeding you may spot a pattern? Its a chore I know - I had to keep one for my dog.

My guinea pigs had hay mites on adoption. They had 2 x doses of salemectin 2 weeks apart and that did the trick. Apparently ivermectin is difficult for vets to get hold of.
Click to expand...


Did you put the solution behind just their neck or down their back as well?
 
Piggies&buns said:
A nit comb is certainly worth a try but the live egg casings do stick solid to the hair shaft so I’m not sure how many it will remove. They’ve got the treatment though which is of course your best line of defence. Just make sure you do not bathe with the lice and easy too soon after doing a treatment as you’ll be rendering treatment less effective.
If you don’t wish to cut the hair off then you don’t have to but it is the most effective method as it can dramatically reduce the length of infestation. It also doesn’t have to be a pretty hair cut!
Basically you are looking to remove as many eggs as possible so quite simply there are less mites to hatch to perpetuate the cycle.

So treatment has really only just started them. Usually treatment with ivermectin is done every two weeks to ensure the life cycle of the mite is caught properly - treatment only kills mites, it does not kill eggs. So the eggs have to hatch to be caught by subsequent treatments. But it has to be at the right time before they have laid more eggs. Some treatments have different intervals between each treatment.
You should stop treatment as soon as the mites are gone, don’t continue to treat beyond the eradication.

(Mange mites can live in piggies whether they have been in contact recently or not. There can be a reservoir that lives on them at all times but is kept in check by the immune system so never causes an active infestation until the immune system lowers. Mange mites cause a distinctive v shape of hair loss in the back end)
Click to expand...
I tried cutting their hair but they got too stressed. I had no clippers so I may order some and see if that helps
 
PipSqueak20 said:
Maybe that would help instead of a month apart. Yes the vet mentioned it was hard to get
Click to expand...
Id probably go with your own vets recommendation on dosing frequency as they all do things slightly differently and they have the full picture. But salemectin did work for my pigs and the vet said she gets good results (I asked her why salemectin was her treatment of choice as ivermectin seems to be one most are familiar with)
 
Pips Poos are somewhat back to normal. Not soft or sticky and normal shaped. Also, I have a bit of a conundrum. I’ve brought another hay to see if they like that one as the previous company I used (haybox), gave them hay mites. I’m not sure that they like this hay. It’s hay sheds Timothy hay and they haven’t had much interest in besides nibbling away here and there. Should I go back to haybox?
 
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