Possible illness or overweight?

[ljgstretch]

Hi everyone! I have a two year old female guinea pig named Honeybee. She is an Abyssinian and the vets have told me she is slightly overweight. I weighed her and she was 1191 grams. Now my first question is this an acceptable weight? She is bottom heavy according to the vets, but I took her to two different vets that have said the same thing. They both either gave her an x-ray or ultrasound to see if she had any blockages, cysts, or anything of the sort. Both vets found nothing which is good. They said that she doesn't have a UTI either.

But my next question is that she has a dirty butt too. It is just brownish pee, no poop at all. Vets have both said that she may be overweight and that's why she can't clean back there or she is cold and pees on herself. My house is decently warm and she lives on fleece too so I highly doubt that. This problem has been very on and off for at least the first year of her life. Her diet consists of unlimited orchard grass hay, a cup of greens a day, and 1/8th of a cup of Oxbox Garden Sleect pellets, to substitute pellets, I give her half of the Oxbow Vitamin C treats.

She moves around and chuts throughout the cage so she doesn't show signs of pain. She doesn't make any noises of pain when she goes to the bathroom.

What I have been doing for her is cleaning her butt with this foam body wash for animals that are hard to bathe. You rub it in, wait 30 seconds, and wipe it off and repeat if the stains are still there.

My question is should I take her in for blood work or make sure she exercises? If exercise, how can I make sure she's active? She has plenty of enriching toys and a 10 sq foot cage (she has a friend too btw who doesn't show any dirty butt or possible illness). I just want to do the best thing for her and not wait if it is something serious.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Weight, ie the number on the scales, is not a determining factor of whether a piggy is overweight. We cannot say whether the weight you mention is overweight for your piggy as we do not have access to your piggy.
Average weights range from 800-1500g with some piggies being perfectly healthy on either side of that range.

It’s their heft which is the Important factor to consider here - piggy BMI. You or the vet, will need to put your hands around her ribs. If you can feel the ribs with a nice layer of fat but still able to feel the ribs, then that means piggy is fine for her size. If you cannot feel any ribs at all and can only feel fat, then piggy is overweight. If you feel every single rib and all spaces, with no fat at all, then piggy is underweight.

It’s normal for sows to be pear shaped.

Weight - Monitoring and Management

You cannot make piggies exercise. You can provide lots of enrichment such as boxes, tunnels etc (toys are generally of no interest to piggies) , opportunity to get out of the cage into a run or free roam a safe space, but ultimately in middle aged piggies, you cannot make them run about.

Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

It may be a good idea if you could use some pee pads in high traffic areas ie the areas she likes to sit, so you can change them out more regularly so the area is always clean and dry.

If she absolutely must be washed, then it’s best to do so with plain water where possible.
What colour is your piggy? If she is white, and she has yellowy pee stains, then that is not likely to ever come off.

Bathing (including cleaning grease glands)

 

[ljgstretch]

Weight, ie the number on the scales, is not a determining factor of whether a piggy is overweight. We cannot say whether the weight you mention is overweight for your piggy as we do not have access to your piggy.
Average weights range from 800-1500g with some piggies being perfectly healthy on either side of that range.

It’s their heft which is the Important factor to consider here - piggy BMI. You or the vet, will need to put your hands around her ribs. If you can feel the ribs with a nice layer of fat but still able to feel the ribs, then that means piggy is fine for her size. If you cannot feel any ribs at all and can only feel fat, then piggy is overweight. If you feel every single rib and all spaces, with no fat at all, then piggy is underweight.

It’s normal for sows to be pear shaped.

Weight - Monitoring and Management

You cannot make piggies exercise. You can provide lots of enrichment such as boxes, tunnels etc (toys are generally of no interest to piggies) , opportunity to get out of the cage into a run or free roam a safe space, but ultimately in middle aged piggies, you cannot make them run about.

Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

It may be a good idea if you could use some pee pads in high traffic areas ie the areas she likes to sit, so you can change them out more regularly so the area is always clean and dry.

If she absolutely must be washed, then it’s best to do so with plain water where possible.
What colour is your piggy? If she is white, and she has yellowy pee stains, then that is not likely to ever come off.

Bathing (including cleaning grease glands)

Her color is a ginger and brown agouti coloring with white. Where her butt is it is white. Her toys consist of a tunnel, a Oxbow toy that you put treats in and she moves it about to get the treats (she loves that), and she has a tiny litter box that I just fill with hay that she plays in. She has more that I switch out every cage cleaning but that is the general idea of what I mean by toys. I know it's nearly impossible to make a guinea pig run about, but I only asked was because she likes to be a lap guinea pig and loves to sit and be petted.

What kind of pee pads would you recommend? Like doggy pee pads or white wooly fleece (what the vet suggested). When I apply a little pressure to her sides, she makes small nervous noises, but doesn't scream in pain. Is that normal? She is a vocal one too.

 

[Piggies&buns]

As I say, yellowy staining on white piggies is very common and in itself doesn’t mean there is a problem, particularly if there are no signs of a UTI and a vet has cleared her.

All you can do is give her the opportunity for plenty of exercise both inside and outside of the cage.
The green links I added in above provide further ideas.

People often use little squares of fleece (just like the fleece cage liners but much smaller). Pop it under a hide or where she likes to sit and change it out every day.

I cannot comment on the noises specific to your piggy. It may be because she simply doesn’t like being touched there. Only a vet can determine whether she is in discomfort

 

[ljgstretch]

Got it! Thank you so much for your help! Here's Honeybee, my potato for your gratitude.

 

[weepweeps]

Hello and welcome to the forum. She’s gorgeous .

I’m pleased the vets found nothing from the xrays and scans. And she doesn’t have a UTI. Do you think she is poorly? Is she acting poorly? I just wondered why you took her to the vets.

 

[ljgstretch]

No she doesn't act poorly at all. She's a very happy guinea pig, always chutting and popcorns when I refill the hay feeder. I only took her to the vet for several reasons, one being that I didn't trust the closest exotic vet since they were kind of shady in my opinion. Another being that I'm in this Australian cavy group on Facebook and even though they mean good and overall have good information on guinea pigs, they kind of act snobby sometimes and make you feel bad if they see something like that. They told me the dirty bum could be a bigger problem like a maggot infection (it has a specific name but I forgot at the moment). Plus I noticed my other guinea pig doesn't have that problem so I thought it was abnormal.

 

[Piggies&buns]

No she doesn't act poorly at all. She's a very happy guinea pig, always chutting and popcorns when I refill the hay feeder. I only took her to the vet for several reasons, one being that I didn't trust the closest exotic vet since they were kind of shady in my opinion. Another being that I'm in this Australian cavy group on Facebook and even though they mean good and overall have good information on guinea pigs, they kind of act snobby sometimes and make you feel bad if they see something like that. They told me the dirty bum could be a bigger problem like a maggot infection (it has a specific name but I forgot at the moment). Plus I noticed my other guinea pig doesn't have that problem so I thought it was abnormal.

I think you are referring to flystrike. This is where bottle flies lay eggs usually around the back end. The maggots then hatch and eat the piggy’s flesh. This condition can kill but as you have been to the vet, then they would have noticed that immediately.
This is our guide on the issue. Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike

If you could post a picture of the issue, we may be able to help further. if it is staining of her fur, then keeping bedding clean and her hair short around her bottom is best

 

[weepweeps]

Ah ok. I’m sorry your facebook group worried you. Hopefully it’s just staining and she will be fine now. Hope the extra pee pads help.

 

[ljgstretch]

I think you are referring to flystrike. This is where bottle flies lay eggs usually around the back end. The maggots then hatch and eat the piggy’s flesh. This condition can kill but as you have been to the vet, then they would have noticed that immediately.
This is our guide on the issue. Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike

If you could post a picture of the issue, we may be able to help further. if it is staining of her fur, then keeping bedding clean and her hair short around her bottom is best

Yeah I can post a picture of it once she has eaten her greens.

 

[ljgstretch]

This is what it looks like when it's clean and not full of pee. But as you can tell from the back view, part of the hair looks like it's choppy or missing.

 

[weepweeps]

Looks good to me.