How Do I Keep My White Piggy Clean?

[Laaaauren]

Hello everyone,

Just a quick question: I have a white long-haired sow (Cookie) and she’s an absolute nightmare to keep clean. We trim the fur on her back-end as often as she needs it, the cage is spot cleaned every day, and it has a full clean out twice a week. However, no matter what I do, her bottom always ends up dirty!
We bathe her maybe once every few months, but as she gets stressed quite easily it’s not always the best option. Is there any way I can keep her clean? Or is it just the curse of white piggies to have a dirty bottom?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Maui & Marigold]

Although I haven't had a long haired piggy, ( yet! ) I have a rainbow bridge pig, my sow Maui, and she was white and grey, and she would occasionally get a very dirty bum. I would spot clean the cage every day and clean the whole thing every other day. If her bum wasn't too bad, I would wipe the area with a damp, soft cloth. If it was quite bad, I would try to give her a short bath!

Hope this helps!

Here's Maui. She had grey on her right ear and grey on half of her bum!

 

[Free Ranger]

Have you had her a while or is she new to you? And is she an old girl? White pigs do show the muck but it depends on what you mean by 'dirty'.

My girl Louise has long fluffy hair and when she pees it soaks in and wicks up to the roots meaning she's prone to urine scald on the back feet if untrimmed and she smells a bit. So she gets orangey-yellow staining but if she's cropped (and I do go properly short) she doesn't. I don't want her drawing the flies! Bum baths wouldn't be much use as the very next pee would start the problem all over again.

But if Cookie is an old girl - or if you've not had her very long - she might have an underlying problem. Urine infection can cause them to drip pee meaning they are wet all the time and so look dirty. Or they dribble when they pee because it hurts to pee normally and they are trying to let it out bit by bit. The other signs would be hunching and/or squeaking quietly in pain when she pees. I didn't spot one in a short-haired white sow for a while because she'd been going outside in the summer and I thought her dirty bottom was from sitting in a soil patch... she didn't show pain but she was constantly wet and then the penny dropped and we had to get antibiotics. Louise recently seemed wetter than usual but she did have a problem a few weeks back with gritty pees so it might have been that. She's recently had an all-over haircut and the orange staining I was worried about disappeared after a day or two of being able to groom properly. If it had remained I would've been off to the vet. She's on a glucosamine supplement now in case grittiness recurs. Here's a before-and-after of her recent trim:

So you can see that unless her back end is properly short she's bound to pee on her own fur when she goes. Hubs mourns her floof but Louise likes it short - esp as, like me, she's got one of those fringes that just grows forward over the eyes!

 

[Maui & Marigold]

Very true Free Ranger. I forgot to add things about older piggies and newbie pigs because of health conditions. And Louise is adorable! I love her little eye fringe on her before picture! ❤

 

[Maui & Marigold]

Also could you please post a picture of Cookie? It might be easier to determine...

 

[eileen]

I have a coronet piggie that's always yellow round her bum,if I don't chop back end very ,very, short.she is white all over.

 

[Free Ranger]

I love her little eye fringe on her before picture! ❤

Hubs thinks she looks like a 'Bovver Boy' after a trim - but the hair grows at a terrific rate and she really is happier after. 8 wheeks later we have to do it all again!
In the 'before' pic she's actually had a fringe trim to see her through to her main cut. Otherwise she's blindly sniffing out lettuce like this!

 

[My Piggies]

Both my white piggies Daisy and Oscar have light staining on their bums. Honestly, there's not much I can do about it other than make sure their cage is clean unfortunately

 

[poggle]

One of my RB piggies was white and long-haired. She died about 20 years ago now so I don't remember all of the details clearly, but I do remember that we gave up trying for perfect!

She was part of a litter born into a petting zoo-type situation - a (not quite large enough) run full of rabbits and guinea pigs, all available for unsupervised kids to pester, without any true shelter. I file this under "madness that used to seem quite normal" and am very glad that such places are no longer acceptable in the UK. As a result of perhaps her own stress, stress experienced in the maternal environment, or just a very reasonable conclusion based on her own experiences of humans (or all three), she never did like us very much after we rescued her - not so much 'not cuddly' as often openly hostile, at least in the early days. We tried to minimise handling to avoid stressing her, so keeping her clean was a nightmare; for bonus points she was an outdoor piggie with access to a grassy run.

Our approach was to clip her fur back to reduce the 'skirt' trailing along the ground, as often and as much as she would tolerate, usually every two months or so to tie in to her nail trimming. She would also get a full bath 3-4 times a year as at the time we weren't aware of the harm this could do, so I don't recommend that (occasional bum-baths seem to be the most people advise these days) - she was scruffy again in no time, anyway. Between trims we'd just keep their run as clean as we could and kept an eye on her to make sure scruffy wasn't edging into unhygienic, but beyond that there wasn't much to do except accept that she would never be pristine white!

Not sure who chose to breed long-haired white guinea pigs but it really wasn't the most practical combo to go for

 

[Merab]

My Priscilla is long haired and despite keeping her bum fur short and using baby wipes on her, the cram and white fur seems to be permanently stained.
It looks mucky but I know she’s clean

 

[Laaaauren]

Have you had her a while or is she new to you? And is she an old girl? White pigs do show the muck but it depends on what you mean by 'dirty'.

My girl Louise has long fluffy hair and when she pees it soaks in and wicks up to the roots meaning she's prone to urine scald on the back feet if untrimmed and she smells a bit. So she gets orangey-yellow staining but if she's cropped (and I do go properly short) she doesn't. I don't want her drawing the flies! Bum baths wouldn't be much use as the very next pee would start the problem all over again.

But if Cookie is an old girl - or if you've not had her very long - she might have an underlying problem. Urine infection can cause them to drip pee meaning they are wet all the time and so look dirty. Or they dribble when they pee because it hurts to pee normally and they are trying to let it out bit by bit. The other signs would be hunching and/or squeaking quietly in pain when she pees. I didn't spot one in a short-haired white sow for a while because she'd been going outside in the summer and I thought her dirty bottom was from sitting in a soil patch... she didn't show pain but she was constantly wet and then the penny dropped and we had to get antibiotics. Louise recently seemed wetter than usual but she did have a problem a few weeks back with gritty pees so it might have been that. She's recently had an all-over haircut and the orange staining I was worried about disappeared after a day or two of being able to groom properly. If it had remained I would've been off to the vet. She's on a glucosamine supplement now in case grittiness recurs. Here's a before-and-after of her recent trim:
View attachment 198276View attachment 198278
So you can see that unless her back end is properly short she's bound to pee on her own fur when she goes. Hubs mourns her floof but Louise likes it short - esp as, like me, she's got one of those fringes that just grows forward over the eyes!

A lot of very helpful points, thank you!

Cookie is about 2.5 years old and we’ve had her since Dec 2019 so she’s a mature piggy. By dirty I’d say it’s similar to what you described for your girl Louise, in that it seems to stain the fur and smells a bit.

We do trim Cookie often but she gets stressed easily and has a bad habit of nibbling one of her paws during the trim, even when offered food as a distraction. I’ve never noticed her squeaking/hunching when she urinates, but I do sometimes find calcium pee deposits (although it could be her or one of our other two piggies).
Either way I’m going to book her an appointment with our exotics vet, just to be safe.

(Edit: our piggies are kept inside 24/7 except for when they have outdoor playtime, so we’re fortunate that flies aren’t as big of an issue. But in the summer we keep their fur as short as possible regardless so they’re cool and keeps the dirt/flies away!)