Below are some brief outlines of guinea pig illnesses.
Extremely Soft Stool or Diarrhea
A guinea pig can die within hours from suffering from diarrhea.
Sometimes this condition can be caused by feeding your pet guinea pig too many wet or vegetable foods. A good way to correct this digestive balance if you feel it is food related is to feed it more hay.
Another thing you can do is go to a health food shop or even a chemist and buy some lactobacillus acidophilus in capsule form. You should easily be able to get this as you do not need to have a prescription. It can be purchased at the counter.
Losing its Hair
There a quite a few reasons your guinea pigs hair may fall out. One of these is that it might have mites.
A guinea pig with a cut or bit will lose its hair around the affected are. This condition is completely normal and nothing to worry about unless the wound gets infected.
If your bit suffers from tremendous hair loss this could be caused by ringworm.
Another cause of this can be ovarian cysts.
Unless you know that the hair loss is due to a cut or mites you need to call your vet to see how to proceed.
Eyes That Water
Watery eyes are usually because you guinea pig has irritants in the eye. These could be excessive dust or bits of hay.
Another cause of watery eyes could be allergies.
In this case it is best to call you to find out directions on how you might best rinse the irritants from your guinea pigs eyes eye.
On occasion these eye sores can be from eyelid cysts. These will irritate the eye and should be removed by a qualified vet as they can be quite serious and cause a lot of pain for your guinea pig pet.
Stiff Joints
This usually comes about because of scurvy. Scurvy is just a severe lack of Vitamin C. It should be treated immediately. Call your veterinarian to make an appointment to see them.
To ensure this does not happen to your pet guinea pig make sure he is taking at least 10 mg of calcium per day!
Tilting Head Often
Sometimes a guinea pig will tilt its head to one side. This is usually accompanied by having trouble walking. These symptoms indicate a middle-ear infection.
You should take your pet to the veterinarian quickly as this condition has been known to damage if not deafen guinea pigs hearing. You must get him treated, do not put it off.
Seizures
Two types of seizures can be described. If his body is aligned normally with head in the hair straight (that is head is not tilted to one side.), this is just mites. Mites can burrow under the skin and this can affect the nervous system. Take him to a veterinarian to take care of this, and he will be ok.
If however your guinea pig pet is tilting his head to one side or his body is curling during the seizure it is a more serious guinea pig illness and could come from any number of things.
In this case take him to the vet quickly to get some blood tests done.
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