Red area / sore on foot ... possible bumblefoot?

[Fluffbabies]

Hello,
as a disclaimer I have already booked a vet appointment for my soonest day off to get this checked out by a cavy savvy vet. I thought I would post this anyway as reference for other guinea pig owners on here who may have a similar concern. I have been searching the forums myself and did not find one that looked quite the same so thought it could be useful!

Our Oreo has a bright red area on the bottom of one of her hind feet. And a slightly red area on the other hind foot. I have noticed a very slight redness on some of their hind feet like it in the past but just upped our cleaning and it resolved itself.

However, a few days ago I noticed Oreo was limping and not putting much weight on this foot. I checked her leg thinking she might have pulled something and didn't think to look at the base of her foot! I kept an eye on her and after 24-36 hours later she was no longer limping so I didn't think much of it until I was trimming the long hair around her bottom and noticed this on her foot. That explains the limping I think as it does look sore.

I think it may be the start of bumblefoot so I've booked her a vet appointment. Our piggies are on fleece liners with extra pee pads under their hay and in the corners where they pee the most. Pee pads were changed each day along with sweeping out the poops and then a full liner change every other day. We've now upped the full liner change to every morning and sweeping poops/pee pad changes at night too keep everything as dry as possible. Hopefully it will start to improve because of this. She isn't showing any other signs of being unwell or in pain but we know what pigs are like!

 

[Fluffbabies]

I also checked my other three pigs. Leia also has a red swollen area on one of her feet. So she's coming to the vet too! The other two are perfectly fine. I've now added check bottoms of the feet to my weekly health check.

 

[Claire W]

What are they bedded on? It looks rather like urine scald to me but could be the beginnings of bumble foot. Good that you have them booked in at the vets

 

[Fluffbabies]

What are they bedded on? It looks rather like urine scald to me but could be the beginnings of bumble foot. Good that you have them booked in at the vets

They’re on fleece liners with an absorbent inner layer and extra pee pads on top in the areas they pee in the most and under their hay. I’m hoping it’s nothing and like you say it’s just where they have been on wet bedding. We keep it as dry as possible but they will always go and stand/lay in wettest spots *eye roll*

 

[Fluffbabies]

M

 

[piggieminder]

If your vet confirms it's urine scald I suggest using vet bed pieces where they lay instead of the fleece pee pads. I have a boar who gets sore feet, he's a big drinker and so often has a wet bed. I put a newspaper pad in his sleeping places with vet bed on top. The news paper gets soaked the vet bed locks the wet underneath so the top and the piggy stays dry. You can buy off cuts of vet bed on ebay quite cheaply and cut it to the size you want.

 

[Fluffbabies]

If your vet confirms it's urine scald I suggest using vet bed pieces where they lay instead of the fleece pee pads. I have a boar who gets sore feet, he's a big drinker and so often has a wet bed. I put a newspaper pad in his sleeping places with vet bed on top. The news paper gets soaked the vet bed locks the wet underneath so the top and the piggy stays dry. You can buy off cuts of vet bed on ebay quite cheaply and cut it to the size you want.

Oh thank you.. I’ll definitely look into that! They’ve been okay for almost four years but the bedding does seem to be wetter quicker lately