Stressed out guinea pig?

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LillyGirl38	Stressed out guinea pig?		Lead	[-]
Posts: 16 12/06/07 03:21 AM	Tags : pebbles, stress Hello, I'm not sure this is the right place to put this but.. here it goes! I recently posted that we adopted a 3rd guinea pig named "sarah" and she seems to be settling in quite smoothly. Though she still cries if you try to pick her up.. hehe. Anyway, getting to my concern.. Our guinea pig "pebbles," whom was our second piglet has been loosing a lot of her hair and getting a few bites here and there on her back and other parts of her body. We took her to the vet and he comfirmed it was bites. We don't know if she's doing this to herself due to stress or what. This didn't start happening UNTIL sarah moved in with them. We have no clue whats going on with her. My sister thinks it will be better once we upgrade the cage into something a little bigger but I'm still worried Will pebbles be okay?
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AimBaim5		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 42 12/06/07 07:19 AM	Has there been any fighting? They do tend to pull out lumps of hair from each other if they really get into it, but typically you would see damage to her ears as they tend to get ripped in a fight. If it is stress your sister may be right, more space to escape the newbie should ease things. This should also help if fighting is the cause as they won't be in each others way so much.
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PooksiedAnimals		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 4114 12/06/07 07:48 AM Moderator	I agree with AimBaim5 that fighting is a real possibility. Where does Pebbles exist on the pecking order? Is she bottom pig? Or somewhere in the middle? Stress can also cause an outbreak of mites. I know this sounds weird. Mites can exist on a healthy pig and not cause any symptoms, because they have a healthy enough immune system to keep them dormant/in check. But stress can cause the symptoms to appear, which include hair loss and sores. Also, does the hair appear to be thinning out? Or is it missing in clumps? Is it completely gone, or suddenly much shorter in areas. Pigs have been known to barber (snip off) or pull out hair of other pigs. A clean clump of missing hair would probably indicate she's not only getting bitten, but having her hair pulled. How big is their cage? Reading back through your posts, you stated before that Pebbles was losing hair, back in September. Actually, you reported it a few days before you got Sarah. Did you address it then? Did it ever go away? Or has it just been getting worse since then? Did you ever treat your pigs for mites?
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LillyGirl38		#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 16 12/06/07 02:38 PM	They haven't ever gotten into any huge fights or anything like that. They'll somtimes peck at each other and do the high nose contest thing but thats about it. As for the hair loss she had like a bald patch on her back. It was sorta hidden under some fur. Its growing back now but I found another bite. Our cage is pretty big maybe not big enough for three guinea pigs but thats why my sister and I are going to add a second level to it. We figured a new cage would help her. And we know pebbles was under stress back in september because my friend who was watching them neglected to feed them most of the time. So we know about it. Since then it never happended this badly until sarah arrived. The vet told me if it was mites then the other guinea pigs would be loosing hair too. But they are fine. It just seems to be my poor pebbles :( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxnoFr0on9g heres a video of the cage. Last Edited By: LillyGirl38 12/06/07 02:45 PM. Edited 3 times.
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PooksiedAnimals		#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 4114 12/06/07 04:28 PM Moderator	My girls, when I introduced Willow and Pippin to Vicky, never got in huge fights (other than initially). But Pippin would bite and pull out Vicky's fur any time that Vicky got too close to Pippin. "Pecking" at each other can do plenty of damage, including the war wounds and missing hair. The vet is right that if one pig has mites, they all do. But some pigs have a better immune system than others, and will not show symptoms as much as others. A 2x3 cage can be a bit small for three pigs, unless they're really chummy.... which it sounds like yours are not. More space couldn't hurt!
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LillyGirl38		#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 16 12/06/07 07:45 PM	PooksiedAnimals wrote: My girls, when I introduced Willow and Pippin to Vicky, never got in huge fights (other than initially). But Pippin would bite and pull out Vicky's fur any time that Vicky got too close to Pippin. "Pecking" at each other can do plenty of damage, including the war wounds and missing hair. The vet is right that if one pig has mites, they all do. But some pigs have a better immune system than others, and will not show symptoms as much as others. A 2x3 cage can be a bit small for three pigs, unless they're really chummy.... which it sounds like yours are not. More space couldn't hurt! Your absolutely right! More space couldn't hurt at all. And that's what we plan to do. Give them more space! adding a second level is our plan at the moment. I need to wait until I get paid though.
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sweetmisery2003		#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 34 12/06/07 09:40 PM	Hi! I'm the 'sister' lol. What baffles me is that Pebbles still eats like crazy and is perfectly normal except for the bites. And she's the one bugging Sarah!. I haven't seen any fighting, just a lot of rumblestrutting and squealing on Sarah's part. Our cage is defiantly too small and we're going to build a bigger cavy cage once my sister gets paid (I'm a poor student with no income) and I'm hoping that'll help. Here's what she looked like after a trip to the groomers. Her hair has grown back pretty good since then.
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PooksiedAnimals		#7	[url]	[-]
Posts: 4114 12/06/07 09:47 PM Moderator	How odd! It looks like a ring all around the middle? Is it just around the middle like that, or is she missing it in other places too? (like rump, or shoulders). Does she have bite marks anywhere else?
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LillyGirl38		#8	[url]	[-]
Posts: 16 12/06/07 11:14 PM	PooksiedAnimals wrote: How odd! It looks like a ring all around the middle? Is it just around the middle like that, or is she missing it in other places too? (like rump, or shoulders). Does she have bite marks anywhere else? It just appeared to be in that general area. Thats the only places we found the bites. She had one or two in places where there was no missing fur but thats about it. The bites are gone now but I noticed a new one the other day. It seems to be the only one. heres a picture of the bites she had all around the bald area. (its grown back quite nicely now but its still a little baldy,) Its hard to see cause its a cell phone picture. Best I could get. It was a little bigger yesterday cause I think it was fresh but its better now. Last Edited By: LillyGirl38 12/06/07 11:40 PM. Edited 1 time.
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sweetmisery2003		#9	[url]	[-]
Posts: 34 12/06/07 11:48 PM	Well it started at the top of her back and went down one side, the other side was fine. Of course her being a long haired piggy we didn't know the extent until we took her to the groomers.
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LillyGirl38		#10	[url]	[-]
Posts: 16 12/06/07 11:50 PM	sweetmisery2003 wrote: Well it started at the top of her back and went down one side, the other side was fine. Of course her being a long haired piggy we didn't know the extent until we took her to the groomers. I just noticed a small bald spot on her side by her leg. The skin seems to be like flabby there too. Last Edited By: LillyGirl38 12/07/07 12:11 AM. Edited 1 time.
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PooksiedAnimals		#11	[url]	[-]
Posts: 4114 12/07/07 09:36 AM Moderator	Its hard to tell with that shaggy hair cut if she's getting barbered as well as hair pulled. The ring almost looks self inflicted. One dry winter, my pigs got very dry skin. I knew it wasn't any kind of mite or parasite - had treated for the mites regardless. But they both had a V-shaped bald spot on their back, and watching them on day, I realized they'd pulled out the fur there in an attempt to scratch the middle of their back with their teeth. A humidifier and some aloe fixed that. I also had one girl pull a whole huge patch of fur out on one haunch. It took me a while (way too long) to realize she had pulled it out because of pain (she had bladder issues, and I think she was trying to get at what was painful). The bites and the random bald spots looks like wounds inflicted from another pig. This could be triggered, too, if she's not feeling well. Guinea pigs will sometimes try to drive out a sick pig from the herd, to keep the rest healthy. This doesn't seem to be the case, since she's otherwise looking good and eating well. If Pebbles is picking on Sara, it may be that the two of them are still vying for who's more dominant. Someone is pulling hair when you're not looking.... heh... including Pebbles herself. In most cases, especially the self-inflicted stuff, I've seen it stop and clear up in a few months. I don't know what else to tell you. Very strange!
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LillyGirl38		#12	[url]	[-]
Posts: 16 12/07/07 10:04 AM	PooksiedAnimals wrote: Its hard to tell with that shaggy hair cut if she's getting barbered as well as hair pulled. The ring almost looks self inflicted. One dry winter, my pigs got very dry skin. I knew it wasn't any kind of mite or parasite - had treated for the mites regardless. But they both had a V-shaped bald spot on their back, and watching them on day, I realized they'd pulled out the fur there in an attempt to scratch the middle of their back with their teeth. A humidifier and some aloe fixed that. I also had one girl pull a whole huge patch of fur out on one haunch. It took me a while (way too long) to realize she had pulled it out because of pain (she had bladder issues, and I think she was trying to get at what was painful). The bites and the random bald spots looks like wounds inflicted from another pig. This could be triggered, too, if she's not feeling well. Guinea pigs will sometimes try to drive out a sick pig from the herd, to keep the rest healthy. This doesn't seem to be the case, since she's otherwise looking good and eating well. If Pebbles is picking on Sara, it may be that the two of them are still vying for who's more dominant. Someone is pulling hair when you're not looking.... heh... including Pebbles herself. In most cases, especially the self-inflicted stuff, I've seen it stop and clear up in a few months. I don't know what else to tell you. Very strange! Thanks for all your help! I appreciate it. Pebbles and sarah often sleep in the same pigaloo I don't know what is up with them~!
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