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Strange thing come out of guinea pig?

Freya1234

Freya1234

Teenage Guinea Pig
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So not sure if this is the right place to post this but I was just holding my guinea pig, Smokey and all of a sudden this awful pooey, cabbagey smell came from him so bad that I put him back in his cage and had to leave the room. Once I had left I realised that the smell was also on my clothes where I had been holding him so I went upstairs to change my clothes, I had taken my jacket off when I noticed the weirdest thing on the floor, I thought it was a dried up leaf but then upon closer inspection (and a few sniffs later) I realised it had something to do with the smell. It almost looks like a clump of shavings (my guinea pigs live on shavings) and poo all mixed together but it smells, the same as he did. I am unsure whether it was just stuck to him or if it has come out of him?! - it is about 1cm long and maybe 1/2cm wide, so quitebig for a guinea pig. Does anybody know what it is? I should also mention that I think there are bits of hay sticking out of if.949C798F-E903-4109-A269-BC8158969A36.webp0C805CD0-1625-4033-B496-2A88459C83D6.webp
 
I should also mention that I think that the smell is to do with that thing as the smell isn’t in the room where the guinea pigs live anymore
 
Hi, no he is actually short haired, i am not sure whether that thing was stuck to him or not as I didn’t notice it until I had gone upstairts to change my clothes but I will check him over and have a look at the link thank you19F7F1D8-C29D-42B1-9494-9AC2A476EC62.webp
 
No I haven’t but I will do - if that is the case what causes it and is there anyway to prevent it happening in the future?
 
So I have read the links on impaction and it sounds a bit like constipation for guinea pigs - is this right? and if he does have it I remove the poo and then regularly check him and repeat if necessary. I do have one question though, if this is impaction will it eventually sort itself out or will I just have to keep cleaning and removing the poo?
 
Freya1234 said:
So I have read the links on impaction and it sounds a bit like constipation for guinea pigs - is this right? and if he does have it I remove the poo and then regularly check him and repeat if necessary. I do have one question though, if this is impaction will it eventually sort itself out or will I just have to keep cleaning and removing the poo?
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No it’s not the same as constipation. Constipation doesn’t occur in piggies - If they aren’t pooping it’s because they aren’t eating enough not because they’re constipated. Impaction is where the muscles cannot push the poops out properly. There are things you can do to minimise it, such as plenty of exercise, but it’s a failure of the muscles which loosen with age.
 
Oh I understand - can the strength of the muscles be rebuilt with exercise after the guinea pig has had impaction?
 
With impaction it can be more likely in older piggies when the muscle strength lessens but if you find your guinea pig is impacted it is essential that you take them to a vet. Impaction can very often be a secondary condition to something else underlying which you may not be seeing symptoms of. I would always get him checked out first to rule out underlying health problems before considering regular cleaning to manage it.
 
So I have checked him and his bum isn’t swollen and it doesn’t feel hard at all, but I think I am going to just regularly check him and keep an eye on him and if I notice anything or feel anything different then I will take him to the vets to have him checked, is impaction considered an emergency at the vets because I think that my vets is only seeing emergencies?
 
I'm not sure if it's classed as an emergency, but you do have to help them clear it out when it happens.
 
So it has been about a week since I found that thing which I assumed had come out of a guinea pig, however since I wasn’t sure if it had come out of him or was just stuck to him I have been keeping an eye on him and checking him daily he has been fine up until today when I checked him by sort of turning his bum inside out (as the impaction guide suggested to do) and found another smaller clump - similar to the first one that I found, so this has confirmed to me that it has infact come out of Smokey. However, I cleared it out of him and cleaned him up then put him out on the grass intending to book him a vets appointment later today. I showed my mum the clump of stuff and she suggested that it just looks like a clump of shavings (similarly to the first one which did also have some poo in) and also suggested could he be eating the shavings,so I decided to check his cage mate who is also 3 years old thinking well if it is impaction then surely it would be very unlucky if they both had it but since they both live on shavings then they could both have shavings blocked in their bum and low and behold Smudge has the same thing however it isn’t as bad a Smokey’s and I struggled to clean his out alot more but managed to get some of the shavings out. My guinea pigs have unlimited hay so I don’t think that they are eating the shavings in large quantities however they could have eaten them when they get stuck to their veg. My piggies have lived on shavings all their life though and I have only noticed this recently, I have taken them off of shavings completely for now and I think that I am going to buy them some fleece cage liners to stop this happening in the future. My question is if your guinea pigs are housed on shavings can they eat the shavings and then get blocked up like mine have or is it something to consider speaking to the vet about as I would have thought that the shavings would have been digested like the rest of the things they eat are?
 
Freya1234 said:
So it has been about a week since I found that thing which I assumed had come out of a guinea pig, however since I wasn’t sure if it had come out of him or was just stuck to him I have been keeping an eye on him and checking him daily he has been fine up until today when I checked him by sort of turning his bum inside out (as the impaction guide suggested to do) and found another smaller clump - similar to the first one that I found, so this has confirmed to me that it has infact come out of Smokey. However, I cleared it out of him and cleaned him up then put him out on the grass intending to book him a vets appointment later today. I showed my mum the clump of stuff and she suggested that it just looks like a clump of shavings (similarly to the first one which did also have some poo in) and also suggested could he be eating the shavings,so I decided to check his cage mate who is also 3 years old thinking well if it is impaction then surely it would be very unlucky if they both had it but since they both live on shavings then they could both have shavings blocked in their bum and low and behold Smudge has the same thing however it isn’t as bad a Smokey’s and I struggled to clean his out alot more but managed to get some of the shavings out. My guinea pigs have unlimited hay so I don’t think that they are eating the shavings in large quantities however they could have eaten them when they get stuck to their veg. My piggies have lived on shavings all their life though and I have only noticed this recently, I have taken them off of shavings completely for now and I think that I am going to buy them some fleece cage liners to stop this happening in the future. My question is if your guinea pigs are housed on shavings can they eat the shavings and then get blocked up like mine have or is it something to consider speaking to the vet about as I would have thought that the shavings would have been digested like the rest of the things they eat are?
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I've always kept my pigs on shavings. That's upwards of 25 years. I've never come across this. When my piggies eat veggies, their lips stop them eating any sawdust stuck to any food. I tend not to scatter it on the sawdust, I use a dish or a metal skewer that I attach to the bars.

Hope you get this issue sorted
 
Piggylove82 said:
I've always kept my pigs on shavings. That's upwards of 25 years. I've never come across this. When my piggies eat veggies, their lips stop them eating any sawdust stuck to any food. I tend not to scatter it on the sawdust, I use a dish or a metal skewer that I attach to the bars.

Hope you get this issue sorted
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Thank you, I think that I am going to buy them some fleece cage liners as I don’t want to put them back onto shavings and have this issue happen again. I‘ve never thought to use a dish for veggies, as I do tend to just scatter them but that is quite a good idea and probably prevents them from eating any shavings.
 
Hope they’re both ok and it sounds a good idea not to use sawdust - you can make your own fleece liners and there are other bedding materials that are safe for piggles 😊
 
Ah sorry this has happened, it must have been worrying for you. I had a piggie who had impaction but this was due to an underlying health issue (bone disease) but I think you are doing the right thing in removing what you think is the problem first, seeing if it resolves itself and if not, speaking to your vet just to rule out anything else. It is strange its occurred with both of them and you have found shavings in there too so hopefully thats the problem.

That said, I scatter my piggies veg on the wood shavings and I've not had any issues like that. I did try a few bowls (I have 6 pigs) but one flick of the paw and the veggies are snatched and dragged across the wood shavings anyway...very competitive piggies 😂

Good luck x
 
I've had a lot of boar guineas over the years and what you're describing seems very normal to me, boars bums need cleaning regularly as they can build up secretions in there which stink to high heaven, this can harden up if left. Impaction is basically the soft poops not being able to get out of the anal sack as the muscles weaken, from the photos I would say it doesn't look to me like impaction as the substance is a creamy colour. Saskia from LA guinea pig rescue has some great videos on YouTube of cleaning boar butts and bits, you'll see that the substance is completely normal. I hope I've worded everything okay, I'm not quite sure on the technical terms for boar secretions.
 
The problem is probably your piggie dragging his bum along the floor of the cage, scent marking and scoupinh up a bit of sawdust. This May be getting stuck in his bum. I would ditch the sawdust/wood shavings and try something else. You could test it out with newspaper or fleece/large towel for a week or two and see if this helps x
 
Boars anal sacks pick up all sorts of debris as they rub their scent glands in the ground, my longer haired ones seem to get a lot of hair in theirs. This mixes with natural secretions and poop and absolutely stinks! I second watching Saskia cleaning the sacks and explaining what it's all about, she makes it all look so easy! One of the reasons I went over to fleece from shavings was because Spike and Peanut often had bits of shaving stuck in their sacks and penises.
 
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