Hi everyone,
This has happened a few times now and i really can't find any information.
I have two guinea pigs, Felix and Griffin. They are both males and neither are neutered.
A few months ago, i noticed that Felix had something stuck to his chin. When i inspected further, it seemed like something was caked onto his chin. like a piece of food or something. It was cloudy but clear in colour, maybe a little bit yellow. It was super hard. We used some warm water and tried to soften it. We couldn't get it off and we didn't want to distress him too much because we hadn't had him long, so we decided to put a bowl of room temp water for him to kinda bathe himself in if he wanted and leave it over night and see how it was in the morning. It was gone in the morning so no problem i guess?! It happened to Felix two times after that and to Griffin once. The rest of these times we managed to soften it enough to remove it. There was no injury underneath and they seemed to have no issues once it was removed. However, upon inspection we could not figure out for the life of us what it was from! it doesn't look like any food that we have fed them ever! They never seem too bothered by it but it does sometimes seem to make eating a bit difficult (though it never stopped them from eating). Last night before bed i noticed Felix had it again. I put a bowl of warm water again in the hopes that he would be able to get it off himself again. I woke up today and saw it was still there. this time it was really large and was actually pulling his bottom lip down forcing his mouth to stay more open than usual. I used the warm water again and tried to work at it until i had to leave for work. when i got home i tried again and still couldn't get it. He was getting really upset so i gave him a break (of course, always feeding him a little special veggie each time to he wouldn't be too upset). We did finally get it off. Same thing, no injury underneith, no strange skin issues. But we stared at it pretty close and couldn't figure it out.
Kind of a gross suggestion, but my partner said he found a little bit of it on Felix's tummy, near his penis and suggested that it may be ejaculate that Felix had cleaned up.
So my questions are, has this happened to anyone else's pigs? I should say that Felix is a short hair and griffin is a long hair. though of course, their chins don't have a lot of hair? What could it be? is this cause for concern? Also, if it is ejaculate (or whatever else it is) how on earth could we prevent this from happening? its pretty awful and we've only had them 7 months and already had this issue 5 times between the two of them!
I do not have a picture. I couldn't get a picture of it on him and we lost the piece today before i could take a picture to help determine what it could be.
Any help you can offer would be wonderful!
Thanks team!
This has happened a few times now and i really can't find any information.
I have two guinea pigs, Felix and Griffin. They are both males and neither are neutered.
A few months ago, i noticed that Felix had something stuck to his chin. When i inspected further, it seemed like something was caked onto his chin. like a piece of food or something. It was cloudy but clear in colour, maybe a little bit yellow. It was super hard. We used some warm water and tried to soften it. We couldn't get it off and we didn't want to distress him too much because we hadn't had him long, so we decided to put a bowl of room temp water for him to kinda bathe himself in if he wanted and leave it over night and see how it was in the morning. It was gone in the morning so no problem i guess?! It happened to Felix two times after that and to Griffin once. The rest of these times we managed to soften it enough to remove it. There was no injury underneath and they seemed to have no issues once it was removed. However, upon inspection we could not figure out for the life of us what it was from! it doesn't look like any food that we have fed them ever! They never seem too bothered by it but it does sometimes seem to make eating a bit difficult (though it never stopped them from eating). Last night before bed i noticed Felix had it again. I put a bowl of warm water again in the hopes that he would be able to get it off himself again. I woke up today and saw it was still there. this time it was really large and was actually pulling his bottom lip down forcing his mouth to stay more open than usual. I used the warm water again and tried to work at it until i had to leave for work. when i got home i tried again and still couldn't get it. He was getting really upset so i gave him a break (of course, always feeding him a little special veggie each time to he wouldn't be too upset). We did finally get it off. Same thing, no injury underneith, no strange skin issues. But we stared at it pretty close and couldn't figure it out.
Kind of a gross suggestion, but my partner said he found a little bit of it on Felix's tummy, near his penis and suggested that it may be ejaculate that Felix had cleaned up.
So my questions are, has this happened to anyone else's pigs? I should say that Felix is a short hair and griffin is a long hair. though of course, their chins don't have a lot of hair? What could it be? is this cause for concern? Also, if it is ejaculate (or whatever else it is) how on earth could we prevent this from happening? its pretty awful and we've only had them 7 months and already had this issue 5 times between the two of them!
I do not have a picture. I couldn't get a picture of it on him and we lost the piece today before i could take a picture to help determine what it could be.
Any help you can offer would be wonderful!
Thanks team!
. Glad to hear its nothing to worry about! hopefully it will stop happening soon. Like i said, it's only happened to Griffin once and even though the shelter said they were the same age, we believe Griffin is a bit older which might explain why it happens to him less.
. Silly boys!