Bathing - Disabled piggy with dribbly chin

[BlueBird]

Hi there,
We have a disabled guinea with neurological issues. She gets a dribbly chin all the time. Keeping her clean is impossible but recently her dribbly chin has started causing her to get all sore and red. I'm now bathing her once a week because she's not cleaning herself properly (and of course shes white!). However, I don't know how to deal with the chin dribble. Would bathing that every day add to the inflamed skin or be better for her because the skin gets relief from the dribble/ veg juice/ pellet dust that's also all over her chops.

She doesn't like it at bath time. She even cries at me when I touch her chin during bath time so I know it's sore.

Do I keep with the weekly bath? Is it too much/too little? Do I wash her chin separately daily? Maybe just with water? Or is this going to make her skin worse?

 

[weepweeps]

I don’t have any experience of this but maybe your vet could prescribe a barrier cream?

 

[VickiA]

I think I would speak to your vet about what can be used to make her more comfortable.

 

[Eriathwen]

I would speak with your vet, bathing frequently should only really be done when medically necessary which this would probably come under. I used to have a dribbly pig due to a tumour pressing on her oesophagus, I did wash and thoroughly dry her chin on a daily basis, I used a very gentle antifungal shampoo every few washes as she would get warm and damp, which is a good place for fungal infections to grow. As your piggies skin is already sore it would be a good idea to have her checked for the start of any bacterial or fungal issues before starting any more frequent bathing as this could make things worse.

You may wish to also discuss things such as barrier creams, hygiene haircuts (keeping the area shaved may help for example) and other things that may help. Best of luck with her!