Dr. Karen Emerson of the Emerson Animal Hospital in West Point stresses the importance of spaying or neutering your guinea pigs because rodents are known to have high rates of testicular, prostate, ovarian, and mammary cancer.
A simple operation can add years to your guinea pig's life.
Dr. karen emerson: good morning, sunrisers.
I'm dr. karen emerson and this is my associate dr. stevenson, and this is actually his guinea pig, merlin.
Merlin came in a few weeks ago for a checkup.
We checked his eyes, his nose, his teeth.
It's so important to have your guinea pigs checked after you get them because sometimes they can have diseases known as ringworm where you'll actually see hair loss on the guinea pig.
It's very important for us to check their ears to make sure they don't have any ear mites or have any infections.
And then of course we check their teeth yearly to make sure their teeth aren't overgrowing or they don't have any type of dental abscesses.
Dr. karen emerson: but merlin actually came in to get castrated.
He was actually neutered and dr. stevenson performed the procedure.
He did great during surgery.
It's very important for us to talk to you about guinea pigs and either spaying or neutering them.
By doing that, you're actually adding extra time with your guinea pig and you're preventing prostate cancer, testicular cancer.
You're also preventing ovarian cancer and mammary cancer, which just means mammary tumor cancer, which we see a lot in rodents.
So we also spay guinea pigs here.
Dr. karen emerson: merlin has done great since his surgery.
I think that as soon as he woke up he was feeling good.
The next day he did great.
He didn't try to fool with the incision.
It's also very inexpensive to have them neutered.
It also helps with aggression as they age and spraying.
Male guinea pigs like to, as they sexually mature, spray urine outside of the cage to mark their territory.
And let me tell you, it smells terrible.
So if you decide to get a male guinea pig, this is something that's very affordable, very easy to schedule and very, very safe.
But, of course, before we would do the surgical procedure, we'd like to have them in to do that exam.
And another thing it helps with, if you wanted to put merlin with a female that wasn't spayed, you wouldn't have to worry about reproductive issues of having babies very, very often.
Dr. karen emerson: so if you have a guinea pig, you're thinking about getting a guinea pig, you have any questions, give us a call.
We're very, very knowledgeable and we can set you up on the right path of good nutrition, good healthcare, and good just management of your guinea pig.
So please give us a call today and i promise your pets will thank you.
Announcer: wcbi animal health with dr. emerson was brought to you by emerson animal hospital in west point.
Dr. Karen Emerson and Dr. Stevenson shares valuable info on taking proper care of a Guinea Pig.