My babies

Question
I am so worried about my babies. I have five guinea pigs, a mommy, daddy and three babies. well their not babies anymore, their over 1 year old, Anyway the mommy and daddy are having hair loss. the male started about a month ago. His hair falls out at the touch and looks like the hair is broke at different lengths all over his back end of his back and butt. It looks like he has bad dandruff. the female has showed signs in the last week. she is showing no dandruff, just a quarter sized spot of broken off short hair. neither are tender in that area, but the male isn't as social as he used to be. Iv narrowed it pretty much to mites though there are no sores or do i ever see them scratch, or barbering. iv taken the male out for a week to see if  it was barbering, but there was no improvement, but also no worsening. they have normal appetite, but the male has always seemed to be the big drinker. His fur all over also seems to be not as soft and seems oily. If its mites, why no scratching and sores? Iv also heard about cushings disease, which matches their symptoms. they also seem to have swelling in the abdomen. what can i do? i cant afford ivermectin, especially to treat all 5 of them. Is there anything you can recommend. I took him to the vet. they pretty much told me all they don't know and can treat for mites to see if it might work. Please help. Thank you!

Answer
Hi Alisa,

I'm a little concerned that all of your piggies are living together. Unless they have been neutered, you are going to be inundated with babies! You should really separate them; daddy and male babies in one hutch, mummy and female babies in another. If the babies are over a year old, I'm guessing that they perhaps have already been split according to gender, otherwise you'd have had more babies for now!

Hair loss and "dandruff" are both strong signs that your guinea pigs have mites. It's unusual for them not to be scratching, but perhaps they just aren't very bothered! They could also be grooming each other to relieve the itching, rather than scratching themselves. Sores only appear if bites get infected, so these are not always present. If they are ordinary mites, you can treat the piggies at home, by giving them a bath in special shampoo called Lice N Easy, available from www.gorgeousguineas.com - this is much better than insecticidal shampoo; it is not as harsh, smells lovely, and I have found it to be more effective than the shampoos you can buy in pet shops!

Guinea pigs do not like being bathed and it is always a tricky process; you will need someone else to help you. You will also need to bath one guinea pig at a time, so it could be a lengthy process as you have five pets. The best thing to do is to find a large, clean bowl (like the one for washing up) and line it with a flannel. Get someone to hold piggy1 in this bowl. Wet him/her with warm water (test it first) by either pouring it over him/her gently (not on his/her face!) or squeezing it over him/her them using another flannel. Rub in the required amount of shampoo being careful not to let your guinea pig lick himself/hersself (for this bit, you can take him/her out of the bowl and get your helper to hold them on a towel on their lap) and then wrap your guinea pig up in a towel (to keep him/her warm, and stop him/her licking) for five minutes. Then return him/her to the bowl and rinse away the shampoo; the mites should fall off too! Dry your guinea pig with a towel, and once he/she is just damp, you can finish off drying him/her with a hair dryer if you like (some piggies love this, some hate it). Give him/her a nice groom and pop him/her back in his/her cage (but only once he/she is clean and dry).

You will need to clean out the cage (and spray it with a general safe animal cleaning spray) before returning your piggies to it, as some of the mites will be living in there too. Similarly, you won't be able to put clean piggies in with dirty ones. The best thing to do is to put them together (single-sex) in a plastic box with their bedding in, and clean out their cage. Take them from the box one at a time to bath them, and return them to their cage only once dry. The mites should then be gone, but if it's a bad case, they may need a second bath.

Have a good examine of your piggies for mites after his bath, and keep an eye on them. Unless you see the mites, and then see that they are gone, you can't be sure that this is the problem. They could be allergic to their bedding. Have you changed the stuff you use to line their cage, recently? If you've noticed your guinea pigs having fits, or they seem hot to the touch, they could have mange, and a trip to the vets and a course of injections will be necessary, as mange can be fatal. I've never heard about cushings disease, but if they have swollen abdomens I recommend a vet visit ASAP as this can be a sign of serious internal gastro issues.

Good luck and best wishes,
Jenny.