Male occassionally drags himself

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HI! one of my guinea pigs is about 9 months old...his name is kirby. about one month ago I added my other guinea pig to his cage (i am not sure if this has anything to do with why he is doing this...they get along fine).....Kirby popcorns a lot, sometimes he falls over while he is popcorning and looks like he is still popcorning, but on his side. he also will occasionally quit using his back two legs and pull himself alongg with his front legs. is this normal? if not, is there something wrong with him? I have taken him to the vet and they didn't find anything wrong, but I thought i would ask you all if you have ever seen this before. Kirby is quite the character, it wouldnt surprise me if he was just doing this for no reason, but I want to make sure. thanks!
 
how's his urine looking? if it's leaving a white, chalky looking stain, it could be that he has too much calcium i think
 
I wouldnt worry, he sounds perfectly ok.He sounds like he is just happy popcorning around his cage!Unless he goes off his food/water or starts to squeak whilst dragging his legs, I would not worry.
 
When he does it does he leave a smell behind? He sounds like he is scenting to me which is normal :)
 
yes it seems normal george drags him bottom on the ground when I have cleaned him out in a protest to having a smell free cage :)) Also sometimes when piggies get really excited and popcorn loads it can look like a small fit!
 
Pedro did this when he was teeny tiny, especially when he was sitting on my lap (aww!) but his popcorning is a little less crazy now. I did have a sow though once who did the exact same thing when I had got her a playmate. He's just extremely excited to have a new friend!
 
Thanks for all the replies- he marks his scent sometimes for sure, but this is a bit different- he looks like he is army crawling....his back legs drag and his belly is rubbing on the ground. I figured it was just him being silly but i thought i would ask you experts ;) to make sure
 
kam0917 said:
HI! one of my guinea pigs is about 9 months old...his name is kirby. about one month ago I added my other guinea pig to his cage (i am not sure if this has anything to do with why he is doing this...they get along fine).....Kirby popcorns a lot, sometimes he falls over while he is popcorning and looks like he is still popcorning, but on his side. he also will occasionally quit using his back two legs and pull himself alongg with his front legs. is this normal? if not, is there something wrong with him? I have taken him to the vet and they didn't find anything wrong, but I thought i would ask you all if you have ever seen this before. Kirby is quite the character, it wouldnt surprise me if he was just doing this for no reason, but I want to make sure. thanks!
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My guinea pig was injured about a month or so back, he would drag himself with his front legs only, took him to the vet, and she said that he had a spinal injury! We didnt know if one of our cats had gotten to him or Odie (the other gp in the cage with him). He had small scabs. You might want to check him of those signs. The vet gave us meds to give to him and in a few weeks he was to his normal self again! :)) But then right after we had to take him to the vet again. This was because he had fur missing underneath his chest. The cause was because he was dragging himself on the ground. But she also gave us meds and a speical shampoo for that and now hes perfect again. But I would recommend that you should get a second opinion from another vet just incase. :)
Oh and I forgot to metion that his back legs were sticking out, and at first we thought it was survey. But yeah it was an injury alright. Have your piggies at all by any chance had a small fight?
 
I have never seen them fight, but it is certainly a possibility. Kirby is always climbing on things- i used to put up shoe boxes for him to hide in but i had to stop because he was always climbing on top of them.....so I have to use higher boxes now. He may have fallen off one of those. would that do it do you think? if it is an injury would he just do this occasionally- or would it be more often than that? thanks again!
 
kam0917 said:
I have never seen them fight, but it is certainly a possibility. Kirby is always climbing on things- i used to put up shoe boxes for him to hide in but i had to stop because he was always climbing on top of them.....so I have to use higher boxes now. He may have fallen off one of those. would that do it do you think? if it is an injury would he just do this occasionally- or would it be more often than that? thanks again!
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Our gp would lay on his side when he would be still. He wouldnt really go for the food, and couldnt get to the water. BUT when we would place the things in front of him he would eat. So it wasnt an "inside" problem. Also when he would be on the move, he would almost always use his front legs to drag himself, and his back legs would just kinda follow. He wouldnt squeak or whisle when lifted although he would just kinda dangle, and let us lift him. He didnt seem like he was in any pain, but the vet we had said that he indeed was. :(
 
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