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Worms?

Piper&Kierstein

Piper&Kierstein

New Born Pup
Joined
Dec 13, 2018
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Hello everyone, I've had my guinea pigs for a while and I've noticed that Piper is a little round near her hips. It looks bloated. However, she isn't in any pain, popcorn, chewing on stuff, her poop is normal, no diarrhea and eating just fine. She might be overweight but I haven't been weighing them so I'm not 100% sure. But shes happy I just noticed the belly. I also have another guinea pig and she doesn't have bloating. So, idk if piper is just older or what.
 
I thought it could have been worms but there are no other signs. Like I said she is happy. I felt her tummy, it's not tight or anything. Just really soft I think I may have been overfeeding them veggies. Has anyone else had this issue?
 
As piggies grow up their body shape does change, I have found female smooth breeds tend to be much more noticeable in their abdominal roundness. However you do need to be conducting a health check weekly which includes weighing them and keeping a record of their weight. As prey animals often the first sign of illness is weight loss and if you are waiting for physical symptoms to appear then it could be too late to get effective treatment for your pigs.
 
Some pigs are larger and more pear-shaped than others- it's probably just natural variation. You may want to check weight weekly just to see if there is any unusual gain or loss, just as a general habit. But I think it's very unlikely to be worms. :)
 
Lady Kelly said:
As piggies grow up their body shape does change, I have found female smooth breeds tend to be much more noticeable in their abdominal roundness. However you do need to be conducting a health check weekly which includes weighing them and keeping a record of their weight. As prey animals often the first sign of illness is weight loss and if you are waiting for physical symptoms to appear then it could be too late to get effective treatment for your pigs.
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All very good advice! I decided today I was going to start weighing them. Because with all my years worth of research before getting them, I never thought about weighing lol
 
Freela said:
Some pigs are larger and more pear-shaped than others- it's probably just natural variation. You may want to check weight weekly just to see if there is any unusual gain or loss, just as a general habit. But I think it's very unlikely to be worms. :)
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Thank you so much for theadvice! I decided I would make an excel sheet of weight and print it out and put it in a binder.
 
Piper&Kierstein said:
Thank you so much for theadvice! I decided I would make an excel sheet of weight and print it out and put it in a binder.
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I use Google sheets (the online version of Excel). I have the sheets app on my phone which means if I ever go to the vets I have their weight history to hand. I also have a column after each pig to show the gain or loss on a weekly basis too
 
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