• 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

Please help --Huge ball of wax on Cocoa's scent gland

Status
Not open for further replies.
N

neoma

Joined
Dec 6, 2010
Messages
202
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
NYC
I was playing with Ginger and Cocoa. Ginger seemed really excited and kept sniffing Cocoa's butt. I looked and there is a huge ball of "wax" on his scent gland. It is white and looks exactly like someone stuck a silicone earplug on his butt.

I tried to remove it with a Kleenex, but it is stuck on there (and maybe [*]in[/*] there?) and I don't know how to remove it. Please help.
 
It could be boar glue...

When this happened to one of my piggies it kinda looked like pure white dried PVA glue, it was near impossible to remove as it was rock hard - i just cut it out the guinea pig's hair as the culprit was consistently trying to pull it off (obviously causing the younger piggie some dis-comfort).

Type in 'boar glue' and have a look to see if any of the images match what you describe - if they do you can either leave it, or if it's bothering piggie too much attempt to cut some of it away (so it doesn't catch/tug causing pain) - if you have short haired piggies this may be a problem, so ensure you dopn't cut too near the skin.

good luck rolleyes
 
Sodapops, thank you so much for your speedy reply. :rose

I will dig around some more, but I'm certain that's what it was: bore glue. I am just shocked that so much of it built up so fast. I play with them every day and spend a lot of time petting them. I have no doubt that this wasn't there last night. Is it typical for it to build up so fast?

Ginger was pestering him terribly, so I decided to take care of it tonight. I found an excellent post on "spot cleaning" and decided to do that. I put him in the sink like I was going to give him a bath (towel on the bottom of the sink, etc.) and applied a teeny bit of water to the area and a big dollop of baby shampoo. I massaged it into the area and the baby shampoo started to break up the worst of it immediately. After several minutes of this, there was still some on there. I thought about cutting it off (this was before I read your reply), but decided to try one more thing.

I know from experience that cheapo conditioner will remove oil from hair. I use it to remove coconut oil from my long hair before shampooing. So I applied a tiny amount of V05 Strawberries & Cream conditioner to his little butt. I massaged that into the hair and it removed almost every trace of the boar glue. I rinsed his butt really well so Ginger wouldn't tease him about his sweet smelling butt. :))

Then I wrapped him up in a towel and dried him off really well before putting him back in his cage.

He was a really good boy through this whole thing. He seemed to understand that I was trying to help him.

All in all, I think that went pretty well.

I can see that Cetaphil or coconut oil would probably remove it better than what I did. I have coconut oil. Has anyone else tried that? Someone mentioned it in the thread that I mentioned above.

Oh, man, I was so panicked. I'm glad that's over.
 
OK, this wasn't boar glue, I don't think. I think it was a big old grease gland ball of wax. Has anyone else had it build up that badly?
 
Fairy Liquid or swarfega works best, as it seems to break up the grease without too much rubbing. Maybe a 'sudden' build up could be due to some hormonal thing. Not too sure about that. xx
 
kidsgrovecaviemad said:
Good old swarfega gives boars lovely smooth baby bottoms :(|):(|)

Nutmeg that avatar is just fab !!!
Click to expand...

(My Avatar is Sally (Used to be known as Fat Sall, but recently she and her partner Jeremy were ill. Sadly Jez passed away, and Sall is making a slow recovery. I think she is doing it on purpose though, as she seems to enjoy being here in the living room with me, she loves daytime tv! Cute Sall, very cute :(|) )
xx
 
Boar glue (i have to attempt to word this correctly) is the stuff that's produced from a male piggie when they are attempting to make babies.....

It would be interesting to know exactly what an active grease gland with build up looks like (i currently have 4 boys) - neoma described it as being a white ball - hence why i naturally assumed one of her boys had been having his wicked way with the other rolleyes

If anyone has any images of an active grease gland that would be great - always good to know what to look out for (especially when two of my boys are long-haired).
 
nutmeg said:
Fairy Liquid or swarfega works best, as it seems to break up the grease without too much rubbing. Maybe a 'sudden' build up could be due to some hormonal thing. Not too sure about that. xx
Click to expand...
Thank you, nutmeg. Alas, Fairy Liquid and swarfega are European products, and I'm in the *.S. That swarfega sounds grand, especially since kidsgrovecaviemad said it gives boars baby bottoms! :rose

Sodapops said:
Boar glue (i have to attempt to word this correctly) is the stuff that's produced from a male piggie when they are attempting to make babies.....

It would be interesting to know exactly what an active grease gland with build up looks like (i currently have 4 boys) - neoma described it as being a white ball - hence why i naturally assumed one of her boys had been having his wicked way with the other rolleyes

If anyone has any images of an active grease gland that would be great - always good to know what to look out for (especially when two of my boys are long-haired).
Click to expand...
Sodapops, yep, we're on the same page. I got it. Bore glue is piggie semen. It is possible that Ginger was having his wicked way with Cocoa -- he frequently does. But this stuff was truly waxy; it really looked looked like someone stuck a silicone earplug on my poor boy's butt.

I am happy to report that Cocoa's butt is clean and fluffy today.

I thank everyone for your help! :rose
 
This is kind of related, yesterday I was giving Terry a cuddle and found that on his grease gland he had a build up of what must be wax but it's a browny colour? And it's literally stuck right on his skin. Dunno what to do! Where do you get swarfega?
 
Grease gland oil tends to be darker and more oily than boar glue but can still set quite hard .It takes time to build up so this sounds more like boar glue than anything else
 
PopcornPigs said:
This is kind of related, yesterday I was giving Terry a cuddle and found that on his grease gland he had a build up of what must be wax but it's a browny colour? And it's literally stuck right on his skin. Dunno what to do! Where do you get swarfega?
Click to expand...


B&Q might sell it, do you have a hardware shop near you?

*edit* You can get it from B&Q
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=10287919&fh_view_size=10&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB&fh_search=swarfega&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_refview=search&ts=1294166838986&isSearch=true
 
i have just cuddled stan and found his grease gland is smeared in dark brown sticky/waxy stuff......is it at all possible that this is why my pigs could have started bickering, or maybe a result of their bickering?
 
doglovinpiggylover said:
i have just cuddled stan and found his grease gland is smeared in dark brown sticky/waxy stuff......is it at all possible that this is why my pigs could have started bickering, or maybe a result of their bickering?
Click to expand...
I'm hardly an expert, but it was their bickering that drew attention to the "ball of wax." Ginger wouldn't let Cocoa alone and they were being extremely vocal.

I'm curious to hear what someone with experience has to say.
 
I'm going to put my oar in here a bit........

Grease gland "stuff" tends to be waxy and [*]dark[/*] in colour........I regularly "pick off with my fingernails" the black/dark greasy stuff from my buff boar maple's grease gland (Vedra showed me how)..and if it;s really rank then use orange hand swarfega (Tescos) to remove the rest.

I am worried because the "exudate" in this thread is described as [*]white[/*] ..it would suggest there is a possible infection/abcess in the grease gland

Please get a vet to rule this out

HTH
x
 
Thank you, Pebble. Is it possible, then, that this was boar juice from Ginger's constant "attentions" to Cocoa?

If it were an infection, would the area be swollen? (It's not.) He's eating like a horse and running around like a hellion. Would he have this much energy?
 
Beautiful bum

Good old DIY stores like BQ,Homebase and places like asda / tesco may well stock it.
Best way is put a blob on the grease spot or boar glue :) dont rub in too much as its the hair that needs it not the skin.Just gently massage area making sure all grease pad is covered.Then give your gorgeous boar treat and supervise him for about 15 min before his bath.Then shampoo as normal,tesco value baby shampoo great and rinse off.Some first time grease spots can need two treatments if there is a heavy build up but after then its just normal bathing intervals what suits your piggie and coat.
Older sows can get this too but not as much just treat in same way.
Helen :(|)
 
Thank you, Helen. :rose

As an aside, the piggy in your avatar is quite lovely. xoxo
 
Never use Fairy Liquid neat on skin, as some of the ingrediants used in it are very often contaminated with Carcinogens.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Never use Fairy Liquid on Human or Animals neat.

-Carma
 
Hmmmmmm

......It COULD be boar glue (if one has been mounting the other recently as you describe.)....

So depends on the boar's age and whether they are neutered or not....can you provide further details please?

Grease glands ARE less active if they are neutered....but if your piggies aren't.... and approaching that "entertaining" hormonal stage (6-12 months) ..and you have positive evidence of one mounting the otherr.....then it could very well be boar glue..(especially since it became present over a less than 24hr period :(|))..and the consistency/appearance will depend upon whether they have been previously neutered.

"silicone" sounds like boar glue. "White" (or "cream") sounds like abcess...

If it was an abcess then normally there would be an area of inflammation/redness associated with the grease gland, although at this early stage it wouldn;t also affect eating/drinking/behaviour and wouldn;t be a great big swelling.


My gut feeling from the other posts above is that this is not actually an abcess but a "randy male deposition" :(|)..assuming they are un-neutered boars with raging hormones....But if you are at all concerned, or my post "doesn;t stack up" .....then I would strongly suggest a vets visit.

HTH

x
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top