Health of guinea

Question
I have two female guinea pigs. When bought i was told they had already been living together and were sisters. as a first time owner i noticed that they were different breeds. after having them for a while i have noticed them starting to bite each others ears and fur. The smaller one of the two now has what i think of as little chunks out of her ears and is missing large patches of fur. Please help. What should i do ?

Answer
Hi Robyn,

I think these two conditions are likely to be unrelated, as whilst guinea pigs do barber (pull each other's fur) this is a dominance ritual and usually does not result in large patches of missing fur. If there are bite wounds, and the bald patches are around them, then that of course is a different story.

Even the closest of cagemates will scrap from time-to-time; knicks in the ears and sores around the mouth are the most common war wounds. Make sure there's no blood and keep a close eye to make sure the injuries don't get infected. The ears won't heal, but they won't bother your girl at all.

As for the missing fur, it is probably due to either a skin condition or mites, or an allergy. Is your other guinea pig missing any fur? If it's mites, they'll both be suffering; have you noticed them scratching recently? There are two options for treating mites; take them to the vet for an injection each, or give them an aromatherapy bath at home (I can advise).

Try changing the bedding in their cage and see if this helps; it could be that you have a piggy with allergies, in which case you will need to use a bedding such as Megazorb.

Hope this helps and if you have any other questions, just ask!

Jenny.