No discussion of HEALTH for Guineas would be complete without a guide to prevention and early diagnosis by the owner themselves!
You should regularly check your boars over yourself to ensure that all is well and to help you recognise if there is a problem. With guinea pigs, when something is wrong its not always immediately obvious especially if you don;t regularly examine your piggy and get used to what is 'normal'. And often time is of the essense so spotting symptoms early could save your pig Use the links below to browse our pages on Health checks to help you do this!
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General once over- Labled diagram of general parts of your boar & what to look for. Click on the title to go there! |
| Skin- Have a good rummage about in their coats and note any scaly skin, dandruf, bald apatches, thinning hair etc. Give your pigs a good brush and comb. Remember if you have Rex pigs need to brush in the opposite direction "bum to neck" rather than the other way round as Rex's hair grows the opposite way and should be brushed the way it grows. Please see our Skin Problem page. Bath if montly to prevent problems. Please see Bathing & Grooming page. |
Nail trims. Do it yourself if you are confident if not get someone else to do it or show you how. Clean ears ( very gently ) only the bits you can get to easily without digging in the bud. See our Bathing page which has tips on this. |
Weigh your piggys to check they are not loosing or gaining too much weight- a good indicator of overally health. See our Bathing page which has futher details. |
| Teeth Check- Check front teeth once weekly. Look for any bits of food stuck in there and that the teeth are broken or have overgrown. If you suspect a back teeth problem see a Rodentologist. |
| Intimate Cleans- These should be conducted regularly to keep your boars 'bits' nice and clean and prevent infection. WARNING: These pages contain images of boars intimae parts. If you think you may be offended by this. Please do not visit this page! See Intimate Cleans Page |
