White crusts on female genital area

[CarrotHouse]

Hi everyone,

I was looking for help as my 1 year old female pig has been having this for about a month. She gets a white crust type discharge, stuck to her genitals and they come off if I wipe her. They're quite hard and small.

I have taken her to the vets for this and they did urine samples etc. and no infection was found. They advised that it could be calcium crystals so she's on different pellets now and less and only fed peppers, cucumber and lettuce. She drinks normally and seems absolutely happy in herself.

I've been watching like a hawk and she doesn't strain when peeing and no blood or anything. I was wondering if anyone had any advice?

I will take her back to vet if she's ill but I wanted to know if anyone had experienced this before going through further vet options if they were exploratory.

She weighs 1kg and hasn't lost weight during this. Everything about her seems normal otherwise. I've never had this in pigs and I've had a few!

Help appreciated. Thanks

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

Your vets suggestion of it being calcium is a very feasible one and one I would also suggest (albeit without having seen any images of the deposits).

Most calcium comes into the diet via pellets and drinking water. Pellets should ideally be low calcium variety but the reality is any pellet is supplementary and should be fed just one tablespoon per pig per day.

Be aware that if you restrict her diet too much and go too low in calcium content then that can also cause just as many problems with calcium deposits as it being too high - the balance is still wrong, it’s just wrong in the other direction.

It’s about finding a balance which is working for you.
I live in a hard water area so my piggies water is filtered. I barely feed pellets at all - just 5 pellets per pig only twice a week. That gives me leeway in the veg part of their diet so I do feed more than one cup of veg and I do feed higher calcium veggies on occasion such as kale and parsley. So we have a balance which works for us and we don’t see calcium deposits hardly at all.

Are you seeing any white deposits on bedding?

Thread 'Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones'

May 29, 2024

1 The Urinary Tract
2 Pees
- Water intake changes
- Pee discoloration
3 Infections
- Bacterial urine infection (UTI)
- Bacterial cystitis
- Sterile cystitis (interstitial cystitis or IC)
4 Stones, Sludge and Crystals
- Crystals, stones and sludge
- Stone and sludge removal
5 Kidneys...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Wiebke's Guides to the Body

Thread 'Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets'

Jul 14, 2014

1 The recommended ratio of food groups
2 Hay and fresh grass
3 Vegetables, fresh herbs and fruit with an illustrated balanced sample diet
4 Special dietary needs
- Urinary tract infections, bladder stones and sterile IC (non-bacterial interstitial cystitis)
- Diabetes and long term digestive problems
- Impaction in boars
- Pregnancy and nursing dietary tweaks (only visible to registered members who have accepted our no intentional breeding policy)...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 7
• Forum: Diet

•