There once was a pig from Peru,
Who fell asleep in a comfortable shoe,
He slept for a while,
And made a small smile,
And then, it was covered in poo.beautiful
(via centrosaurus)
My guinea pig, Inara, had something weird on her feet. I panicked and took her to the vet right away. It turned out to only be spurs.
Everything I’m about to tell you was information told to me by my vet.
What are they?
Spurs are made out of the same sort of tissue that calluses are made out of. They’re just extra pieces of skin. They never stop growing and therefore can’t be pertinently removed.
What do I do?
Spurs can be cut down just like a pigs’ nails can. You have to be careful not to cut too close to the piggies’s foot. Personally, I feel a lot more comfortable taking my pig to the vet to get them removed. Our vet cuts it down when we bring her in to get her nails done. However, some people do cut them at home using nail clippers.
Does it hurt the pig?
No, spurs do not hurt the piggy.
What can cause spurs?
According to my vet, using the wrong type of bedding, not using enough bedding, or not changing the bedding enough can cause spurs. Carefresh bedding or fleece bedding are the two best types of bedding to use for guinea pigs. Bedding should be at leave 4 inches thick and fleece bedding should be as fluffy as possible. (When I used fleece bedding I had one waterproof layer, 2 layers of towels, and 2 layers of fleece.) Sometimes spurs can just happen for no reason. If you’re guinea pig gets spurs talk to your vet to try and figure out the cause.
Even if you decide to cut the spurs yourself you should still make at least one trip to the vet to make sure their spurs and try and figure out what is causing them. Better safe than sorry.
Pictures:
I just realized I never actually wrote what happened with Inara. I made a video but I promised to write something to in case people didn’t watch the video.
Long story short, everyone who wrote to me was correct. It was spurs. The vet said since none of the other pigs had it that it probably just happened to Inara for no reason. Inara is fine. :) Spurs grow like toenails so the vet will just keep trimming them when we take her to get her nails clipped. Since there’s not much online about spurs I’ll write a post about them in a few minutes. I’ll also write a post about what happens at the vet when a piggy gets a checkup.
Thank you to everyone who kept me sane that day. :)
I didn’t feel like typing but I knew you guys would want to be updated. Inara is fine. You were all right, she has spurs. I’ll type out something when I have more time. Thanks to everyone who kept me sane yesterday! <3
Thank you! That’s what Kieri said too. You guys are definitely helping me calm down. I just got a text from my mom saying that she’s going to pick me and Inara up and take us to the vet at 3:30.
Inara’s nails grow faster than my other pigs’ nails. So rather than make a special trip to the vet for her I just do hers an extra time by myself sometimes. I was getting ready to trim them and I noticed these weird things on her feet. I haven’t noticed them on my other pigs. The only foot related piggy sickness I know about is bumblefoot. I have them in a flat-bottom cage, though! Here are some pictures. It is on both her front paws. What do I do?
The piggies and my boyfriend were so tired after an hour of floortime. (Yes, my boyfriend actually fell asleep.) Too cute. <3
