Piggy First Aid Kit
Did you know your piggy is likely to pick up an illness or develop a condition that you can treat at home? Of course it is important to seek a vets advice if you are not confident that you can help your piggy yourself. Over the years, we have developed our own piggy first aid kit with the basics to treat common ailments. Hope you enjoy!
This first product is one every guinea pig owner should have handy! When the time comes to trim your piggies nails, it may result in a bit of bleeding. If so a styptic pencil applied to the nail will stop the blood and prevent infection. Alternitavely a used tea bag, or flour should also stop the flow.
Click here to read our post on nail clipping.
Sudocrem is also a neccesity at Swilkinsons. If a piggy has been bitten, this antiseptic cream will sooth and heal the area, as well as preventing infection. In cases of bad ringworm, where the skin is particularly raw, a layer of sudocrem is very soothing.
Ringworm is common in large groups of piggies, particularly in summer when the warmer weather brings the fungal spores alive. Imaverol should clear up bad cases of ringworm. The pig should be completely dunked in a solution of 1 cap of imaverol with 50 caps of warm water (quickly).
Click here to read more about our experience treating ringworm.
Sticking to the topic of ringworm, if caught early canesten cream is also used to treat it. You may already have some in the cupboard as canesten is a human product used to treat athletes foot. If applied 2-3 times a day it should clear up early ringworm within afew weeks.
Insecticidal shampoo is a brilliant one for summer. It prevents/kills mites lice and fleas keeping your piggies coats shiny and healthy! For long haired boars I always use this one. If you have piggies suffering from lice, its a good way to clear it up! Alternitavely you could use baby shampoo, but you would have to apply a lice spray afterwards to have the same effect.
A first aid staple is small syringes. If you've been given these by your vet for prescription medication, it's always a good idea to hang on to them. If you have a weak, or underweight pigggy its a good idea to make up a solution of warm sugar water to hydrate them. If your guinea pig is off their food, I'd reccomend 'critical care', which will return nutrients to their bodies!
Ivermectin is a spot on mite treatment for small animals. The bottle pictured is only 5ml and with this highly concentrated anti-parasite a little goes a long way!
If your pig has been bitten or wounded, hibiscrub is a brilliant disinfector, preventing infection and killing surface bacteria. Hibiscrub is used on other animals aswell as humans so is availible in drugstores.
Insecticidal spray provides long lasting protection against common parasites such as lice and fleas. I'm sure you all have this already but it is another summer staple for our piggies!
To keep track of your piggies weights it is important to have a good set of scales! Because guinea pigs are prey animals they are good at hiding any illness so any change in weight can indicate a problem.
Another ringowrm prevention/cure is mycozole. This can be used directly on to the pig. The number of sprays you use will depend on the weight of your guinea pig (another reason to have a good set of scales!). The information is all included.
Optrex is an eye wash. It is very useful to have some sort of eye wash or lubricant for when a pig has dry eyes or a peice of hay lodged in there. A hay poke can be very irritable to the piggy and an eye wash can re-hydrate the eye.
For wounds or bites another antibacterial powder is vetzyme, which prevents infection. It is a good idea to have something like this handy if you have piggies who may fight.
I hope you enjoyed this post and manage to put together your own first aid kit- you never know when it'll come in handy! Happy Easter x
