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Very smelly boys

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lizzie_71

lizzie_71

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I have a pair of 3 year old boars. They have always been a bit niffy if not cleaned out regularly but lately the problem is much much worse.

Since I brought them inside in September ready for the winter, it has been unbearable. I clean them out and within hours the stink is back. I even tried bathing them and it didn't help.

My husband has banned them from the playroom and they are currently living in the utility room but that is still bad as the smell drifts through to the kitchen. My husband is putting pressure on me to get rid, or put them back in the garden because of the smell, and although I am fond of them, I see the point.

I have tried every type of bedding I can think of and still not having much joy with this. Carefresh is the best so far.

Any ideas, otherwise they will have to winter in the shed or garden, or be rehomed.
 
how often are you changing them?have you tried putting them on fleece?i use fleece in my cage and change every other day and dont notice too many smells
 
I tried fleece and changed it every other day but it NEVER stopped smelling and I just don't have time to change them that often, so we are on Carefresh and changing about every 5 days.
 
Boar stank is a pretty mild thing to decide to rehome your pigs over. It's all part of having boars.

The stank is either:
Medical - one is unwell and harbouring infection
Boar stank (they're going through some dominance issues, it'll sort itself out in a short while - probably because you just changed their cage. Invest in a lot of scented candles and open the window. My room occasionally stinks of stank *looks-at-Susie's-Squeeky!*)
Impaction
You're leaving the cage too long (spot clean every day and replace the removed bedding and remove ALL hay (which stinks when left wet). Total scrub-down once a week)

Flip your boys upside down and have a peek at their butt-ends; if there's poop gathering there then HUZZAH; you have an impacted smelly boar.
 
I can't clean every day. I just don't have time, it isn't practical. Plus every time I clean them I spend the next hour or more having an asthma attack, which is the other reason I am considering getting rid, together with my husband's absolute hatred of them.

I'll look at their back ends tomorrow and see if one has a problem.
 
Maybe guinea pigs aren't the pet for you? They take a lot of work and yeah really spot cleaning everyday is one of them, I find I'm cleaning mine out every other day now because it gets so dirty in the cage. It's a pain but I love him and would do this instead of rehoming them. If you can't find a solution then yes rehome them with someone with a little more time and maybe take up a pet which is less time consuming and won't play up with your asthma =[ I'd hate to suffer everytime I clean out my guineas, could do you more damage in the long run?
 
lizzie_71 said:
every time I clean them I spend the next hour or more having an asthma attack
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oh my - If you spend over 20 mins having an asthma attack you should go to the hospital and get a new inhaler hun
I have severe asthma and hayfever and if my asthma kicks up the attack stops after 2 inhaler puffs xx
 
It's weird because I have had the boys for 3 years and the asthma wasn't initially a problem. Each winter it gets worse and it is becoming very bad.

I used to clean them out weekly and it was fine, I don't understand why it has suddenly changed.

I don't want to get rid because they really belong to the children and I don't want to upset them. Also it will be hard to rehome them because one has health problems.

Oh I don't know what to do for the best. My sister has girls and they never smell.
 
I think maybe it's because bours have scent things,

Funny story, I was outside (at my old ground floor flat) in the shared front field and Leo (rip) decided to make a dash for the bushs, i ran after him and he sprays this nasty spelling stuff into the air, i caught him, busted my knee and had to have 2 showers to get that horrible smell off me hahaha. It's that weird thing on the back of their rump. Do you disinfect with animal cage cleaner? I have some that you can actually spray on the animal, i dont but it says you can, you also use it to wash out then spray it on to get rid of oder (leave to dry before rebedding)
 
I have the cage disinfectant stuff which I use, I haven't tried using it on the actual animals but I have given them a bath which helped a bit. One behaved and one hated it but I guess I need to do it again.

I am trying to get them using a litter tray and they are gradually improving on this, so maybe I will get to a stage where I can just empty the tray daily and clean out the rest weekly eventually.
 
Thanks for the hint, I'll look into that when I use up the Carefresh. Do you know if it will also be OK for the hamster (who funnily enough doesn't affect my asthma?).
 
Is your hamster male or female? My hamster is female and sometimes smells so badly, even after cage clean and other times (like now) doesn't smell at all. I think it might be the time of the month for her when she does. lol
 
The hamster is a little girl. She is only about 10 weeks old and we haven't had a problem with smell. My 9 year old son has taken responsibility for cleaning her out so that helps a lot too. I'll keep an eye on things when she reaches hamster puberty just in case!
 
Have you tried megazorb? I find this to be the most smell absorbent bedding.
 
lizzie_71 said:
Thanks for the hint, I'll look into that when I use up the Carefresh. Do you know if it will also be OK for the hamster (who funnily enough doesn't affect my asthma?).
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I'd forget the carefresh. Useless next to megazorb.
Megazorb: https://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/Litter.11/Megazorb.174.html?osCsid=03ga18i3t05oidq64g7v4om110

The same price but ten times better than carefresh. (Same price after delivery charge)

My boys used to smell a bit after about 24 hours.
I line the whole cage. All of it with a layer of Megazorb. I clean my boys out every 6 days.
It's a god-send.
I tried carefresh AND fleece. Fleece was great but too much for me to take care of since it all needed to be hand-washed and carefresh..It wasn't worth the stupid price they were charging.
Made no difference.

Honestly. If the smell is a serious issue, I'd just buy the megazorb and use that instead. I had a whole bag of Carefresh that I binned because I switched to Megazorb. Believe me, it was worth the waste.

Megazorb comes in a whacking great bag. I put a nice layer in my cage once every 6 days and I go through a bag about once every 5-6 weeks.
My boys love it even more than fleece.
 
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YIKES! Don't go spraying anything on your pets; pigs have sensitive skin... it wouldn't be very pleasant :(

I'm not sure if you know this but... it's not unusual for people to suddenly develop an allergy to something. I've recently developed an allergy to nickel and a few years ago I realised I was allergic to something-piggy. My reaction is mainly skin-based so I just wash my hands a lot but I can imagine an asthmatic reaction would be extremely stressful for you.

On allergies read this: http://www.cavyspirit.com/allergies.htm
It covers everything from how you can manage YOUR discomfort to explaining what you could be allergic to and how you can avoid having a reaction. Understanding your allergy; learning to avoid having a reaction and learning how you can manage things in the long term to stop your reaction from getting worse - which could happen. Then again, you could also become less sensitive too.

Re: Megazorb

I have a love hate relationship with megazorb. I use it because it's great at what it does; it's a horse bedding so obviously it is super absorbant and has great odor control, it's also cheap! I hate it because it gets everywhere. Just now I'm covered in little white particles from when I had a boy out to snuggle, but it's nothing a happy hoover won't handle... I'm just incredibly lazy.

It can also be drying if you have a batch which is too dry (just spray water over it) and cause the pigs feet to dry out... moisturiser works fine to combat this on the piggie front. The manufacturer is aware of this problem (when too dry it's also not as effective when absorbing) and has instructions on what to do on the web site (Northern Crop Driers) which is pretty simple. You can tell if your batch is too dry because it feels very grainy :)

In saying that - it's great at its job. I have four boars in one cage and I'm on day three of just spot cleaning and the only thing I can smell is hay which got damp and the slight musk of boar stank because I've just added a fourth boar and they're all having "I'm smellier" issues.
 
What a brilliant article thank you! Some very useful tips there. I will also look into megazorb when I use up the carefresh I have.

Sadly getting someone else to clean them out isn't an option as I am married
to an animal hater who won't touch them, and the children can't reach the high shelf that they live on.

I wonder if the nhs' would do anti allergy injections?
 
It's definitely worth checking for impaction - one of mine has just got this, and it wasn't obvious apart from the smell. There wasn't anything stuck to the outside of his back end, but you could feel a big lump inside it.
 
Have you checked there grease glands? I don't know if this can make them smelly, but its worth a check. One of mine has a very active grease gland so I make sure its cleaned.
I also agree with other on this thread that megazorb is great. I also switched from carefresh because of the over pricing and changed to megazorb. I think it great and great value for money as the sacks are huge! I also hate that it gets everywhere as if my boys decide to have a popcorn around the cage it flicks out.
Hope you can sort the problem out soon.
 
I would just like to add that when my girls have kale they smell see if it is diet related i know don't give them too much in the way of cabbagey type things
 
Very good thread

Thankyou for this thread, i had never heard of magazorb or any other nuetral smelling thingys (i have only had my first pair of guineas three months) and have been using large wood shavings (dust particles removed). Currently i am changing my two boars every day but am very tempted by megazorb. I have also heard that guineas can be toilet trained, is this possible? Lizzie i hope you find a solution you are happy with and i wish you all the best.
 
Cecil&Spot said:
Thankyou for this thread, i had never heard of magazorb or any other nuetral smelling thingys (i have only had my first pair of guineas three months) and have been using large wood shavings (dust particles removed). Currently i am changing my two boars every day but am very tempted by megazorb. I have also heard that guineas can be toilet trained, is this possible? Lizzie i hope you find a solution you are happy with and i wish you all the best.
Click to expand...

They can be toilet trained. Sometimes they seem to get bored, though and stop using their toilet area.

My boys lasted about 3 weeks.
 
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