Skin sores?

[marinia]

Hi, we have two boars, bought at the same time, both aged about 4-5 months. One of them has some sores on his body, the skin is red with crusty skin around it, but he also has some other smaller marks and some nicks out of his ears - we aren't sure if this is from them fighting or if he has a skin infection or both?

Any advice please?

 

[sarahp]

I'd say it is from fighting. You can look at my thread from back in October (October 10th I think?). It's called 'Do you know what these marks are?'

Are they anything like that? These were definitely bite marks.

You might have to separate them

 

[cavykind]

I agree, these sound very much like bite marks, if so watch that they don't become infected or the poor guinea may end up with abscess's. A trip to the vet may be a god idea, just to have him checked out. Sometimes guinea bites can look superficial but they can be very deep.
Let us know how things go

 

[hopperhaven]

Before you decide they are definitely fighting, where are the bites? Could they be self inflicted? An itchy guinea will bite and scratch at himself and inflict nasty sores. If the pigs are fighting properly wounds are likely to be on their faces, on both of them. These often get infected as they are very deep If one is bullying the wounds will be on the other pigs back. Bite wounds will be deep rather than superficial. If it is self inflicted the wounds will be on the shoulders and neck, the tops of the legs and the saddle area from its claws, and on the sides of its rump from its teeth. They won't normally be very deep. The piggies body language should give clues too. If one seems wary of the other bullying is a distinct possibility. If the nicks from his ears are small they could be from a fungal infection. If they are bigger, they are probably fight wounds. The fungal version doesn't usually form a scab, it would look sort of crumbly.