Guinea Pig Impaction

[scats]

Murray is now 3 and seems to be suffering from lack of muscle tone in his anal sac. I’m now having to empty this for him every 1-2 days. My god it stinks! I’m guessing this is it for the rest of his life now? He’s still happy and healthy, just having problems with emptying.
Ive never had this with any boar before but wondering if anyone has any experience?
He has a diet of pretty much ad lib hay, a small amount of pellets a day and fresh veg each morning (a leafy green, peppers and then something like cucumber, baby corn etc, on a rotation)

 

[Highmileagecob]

Yes, this happened to one of the children's pigs, and he needed 'emptying' twice daily as he could not poo. Vet thought it might be something to do with the prostate gland, but was reluctant to investigate further. It was like a sticky, cheesy plug that had to be removed, followed by poo pellets.
He lived to be seven years old with no ill effects.

 

[scats]

Thank you. I don’t mind doing it, apart from the smell, I just feel so sorry for him as it must be uncomfortable. There seems to usually be a big round ball of poo with some pellet-style poops behind it.
He’s such a good lad and seems to know I’m helping him.

 

[Highmileagecob]

I think I would increase the frequency to at least every day, twice if you can manage it. Just to stop anything nasty building up. Good luck, I hope he goes on to a long life.

 

[scats]

So I’m clearing him at least once a day now, often twice. I can tell by his back end how things are looking. He still seems happy enough and has accepted this new way of doing things.
Here he is


He’s a funny pig because I got him in a pair with his brother and he was always the more shy so I struggled to bond with him. Then his brother died very suddenly and it was just me and him and he really came out of his shell. I wonder if his brother was actually dominating him a bit (I never witnessed anything though). I managed to pair him up with a new young boar and they are good mates but thankfully Murray has continued to be very affectionate towards me and run over for his kisses every day. I’m rather fond of him, even when I’m clearing his bum!

 

[Baywonder]

Oh my, he is so adorable! ?

 

[Highmileagecob]

We ended up taking ours on holiday with us in a cardboard box, because I didn't feel I could ask anyone to do this twice daily.

 

[Kat_Bath]

He is so cute!!! His little piggy lips!

Both of my boars (now sadly no longer with us) suffered hugely from impaction from about the same age, despite a big cage for exercise and a high fibre diet. They too needed daily cleaning and hated it, so it was a challenge, to say the least!

My vet did say at one stage they could be neutered to try and help, but they were 5 by that point and it was risky. I'd also have need a piggy-savvy vet as they are exotics.

I did a lot of research into whether it was preventable with anything in food, to help, but concluded there wasn't. When one of mine got very bad, the vet gave him something to try and help (I can't remember what it was, but it was an oral medicine), but it made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

It's funny you say about him coming out of shell - I had the same when my more characterful boy, Bernard, died. Manny then came right out of his shell! But they lived very separate lives when together, and there was never any signs of bullying or anything. It was odd, but kind of nice!

 

[scats]

We ended up taking ours on holiday with us in a cardboard box, because I didn't feel I could ask anyone to do this twice daily.

I did think about this yesterday. I never go away, but it crossed my mind that it wouldn’t really be fair to leave anyone else to do this job because it’s quite gross. Think he’d have to come with me!

 

[scats]

He is so cute!!! His little piggy lips!

Both of my boars (now sadly no longer with us) suffered hugely from impaction from about the same age, despite a big cage for exercise and a high fibre diet. They too needed daily cleaning and hated it, so it was a challenge, to say the least!

My vet did say at one stage they could be neutered to try and help, but they were 5 by that point and it was risky. I'd also have need a piggy-savvy vet as they are exotics.

I did a lot of research into whether it was preventable with anything in food, to help, but concluded there wasn't. When one of mine got very bad, the vet gave him something to try and help (I can't remember what it was, but it was an oral medicine), but it made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

It's funny you say about him coming out of shell - I had the same when my more characterful boy, Bernard, died. Manny then came right out of his shell! But they lived very separate lives when together, and there was never any signs of bullying or anything. It was odd, but kind of nice!

I’ve never had it with any of my boars before and I’ve definitely not done anything differently with this one. I did read that it can be a genetic thing. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest but my friend who has boars said she would no way be able to do that, so it does concern me how many people just wouldn’t be prepared to deal with this everyday. Perhaps it’s something that should be made clear to people when they buy boars.

The smell is pretty bad, I have to admit. It’s like walking into a cattle shed that hasn’t been cleaned out in about a year. How a piggies bum can smell that bad I’ll never know!

 

[Kat_Bath]

I’ve never had it with any of my boars before and I’ve definitely not done anything differently with this one. I did read that it can be a genetic thing. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest but my friend who has boars said she would no way be able to do that, so it does concern me how many people just wouldn’t be prepared to deal with this everyday. Perhaps it’s something that should be made clear to people when they buy boars.

The smell is pretty bad, I have to admit. It’s like walking into a cattle shed that hasn’t been cleaned out in about a year. How a piggies bum can smell that bad I’ll never know!

The smell is truly awful, even if done twice daily! And yes, I couldn't agree more - it should be more widely spoken about when considering ownership. It's very common, I think, but not many people seems to know about it... Until it happens!