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Guinea Pig's Anal Area Looks Swollen?

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Red Star

Red Star

Junior Guinea Pig
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Okay so some background for those unfamiliar; Agent Nibbles is a 6 year old guinea pig I adopted from a shelter a little under a year ago. His cagemate passed away shortly after we got him from a skin infection/fungal disease that we didn't have the time to catch before he passed away from it.

Agent Nibbles seemed fine after that for a little while and then started losing weight, and showed signs of itch factor and fungal disease. He had a weird stroke like seizure thing, and has been on the decline ever since. He has some sort of fungal disease (confirmed not ringworm), and we have been treating him accordingly, but we haven't really seen much improvement at all.

The vet basically said he might just be old and there's not much we can do; he has a number of behavioral symptoms that don't line up with the fungal problems, but they can't find much else that's wrong with him.

ANYWAY, so I gave him a fungal bath yesterday and noticed his anal...area seemed maybe swollen? But I'm not sure, because I don't really look at my cavies' anal area too often, so I'm not sure if this is normal or not. It looked pretty off-putting though so I wanted to ask an opinion. If y'all think it's abnormal I will call the vet and ask about it, too.

Sorry they aren't the best quality pictures, he was wiggling a lot!

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I'm so sorry to hear your little one isn't very well. From those photo's I personally can't see a problem with his back end. Is he eating/drinking and toileting as normal?

It may be worth using the vet locator at the top of the page to find a cavy savvy vet in your area.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi! have you checked Agent Nibbles for impaction or sperm rods?
Boar Care: Bits, Bums & Baths
Impaction Recovery - How To Help Your Guinea Pig.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for this! It explained a lot.

These guys are my first boars, so I didn't realize their bums would be different than a sow's booty. I think his loss in weight made his anal sack more obvious to me, so maybe that's why I never really noticed it, before..? Or didn't notice it as much, and thus was looking strange.

As a boar gets older, the muscles that keep his anus tight (a bit like a drawstring) get looser and he may struggle to expel poops correctly.
Click to expand...

^---Also this. This is a thing he's now struggling with, definitely, which was the otehr thing that was stressing me out. It isn't clear from those pics, but his anus is just.. bigger than it used to be, and it was wigging me out. He might be suffering from impaction too, now that I've finally had the time to sit down and read that link more thoroughly than the first glance through. He doesn't have a visible blockage, but I will check and see if there's something else going on. He fits all the "Guinea pigs who ___ are at a higher risk," list I saw, too. Goodness.

Thanks for the help!
 
Red Star said:
Thank you so much for this! It explained a lot.

These guys are my first boars, so I didn't realize their bums would be different than a sow's booty. I think his loss in weight made his anal sack more obvious to me, so maybe that's why I never really noticed it, before..? Or didn't notice it as much, and thus was looking strange.



^---Also this. This is a thing he's now struggling with, definitely, which was the otehr thing that was stressing me out. It isn't clear from those pics, but his anus is just.. bigger than it used to be, and it was wigging me out. He might be suffering from impaction too, now that I've finally had the time to sit down and read that link more thoroughly than the first glance through. He doesn't have a visible blockage, but I will check and see if there's something else going on. He fits all the "Guinea pigs who ___ are at a higher risk," list I saw, too. Goodness.

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

All the best! You'll get there, a you are a very caring and conscientious mummy!
 
Wiebke said:
All the best! You'll get there, a you are a very caring and conscientious mummy!
Click to expand...
Thanks! He's going back to the vet on Monday for his fungi, so I'm hoping to ask her about impaction, too, if I can't figure it out on my own.
 
Wiebke said:
I don't think that your boy has any if he has lost of a lot of weight and bum is sticking out.
Have a look our impaction guide and you'll see what it is like: Impaction Recovery - How To Help Your Guinea Pig.
Click to expand...

So looking at his bum over the last couple days, I think he actually does have some impaction. His little booty was plugged up this morning so when I get off work I'll be handling that.
 
Red Star said:
So looking at his bum over the last couple days, I think he actually does have some impaction. His little booty was plugged up this morning so when I get off work I'll be handling that.
Click to expand...

Make sure that you do this with open windows! All the best!
 
Wiebke said:
Make sure that you do this with open windows! All the best!
Click to expand...
Haha! I poked at him a little this morning and it stank already--I was running late though so I wasn't able to take care of it right then.

My current plan is to burn a scented candle while we do it, and have my roommate temporarily evacuate. LOL.
 
Maybe I should make a new thread for this, but I didn't want to keep posting new medical issues for the same piggy--

So Agent Nibbles is EXTREMELY sedentary. he litearlly doesn't move at all, whatsoever. He sits so that he can reach his hay, pellets, and water all from the exact same spot, and ifI don't physically move him then he literally does not move from day to day. If I pick him up and put him down somewhere else, he will only move so that he can get back to his favored spot.

He DOES have a little bit of issue with his legs; ever since he had his weird stroke (IDK if it was a stroke but the vets couldn't diagnose what happened to him, and the best I got was 'yeah it MIGHT have been a stroke but we dont' know'), he has had trouble keeping his legs tucked under him when he sits, and he has trouble walking.

Now, my question is... should I try and force him to exercise via putting his food in different areas of the cage? Should I take him out and try to encourage him to walk around any?

My worry is that he's old, and pretty sickly, so I dont' want to make him do things if all it's gonna do is exhaust and pain him. I want to make things easy for him, but I'm worried that his lack of exercise is just exacerbating his existing health issues (including the impaction).

P.S. - We were right and it was an impaction, and we got it removed pretty easy! It stank to high heaven though LOL.
 
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