One of your most important jobs as a guinea pig owner is to make sure your guinea pig lives in a healthy and clean environment. While this obviously involves keeping their cage clean and tidy, it also means you must wash and clean your guinea pig. Today’s article will discuss specifically how to clean guinea pig’s ears.
What do you need to clean a guinea pig’s ears?
For starters, you must gather all the necessary materials. Luckily, all you need to clean a guinea pigs ears are:
- Two cotton pads
- Two cotton buds
- Olive oil
- A syringe without a needle (not mandatory but it makes your job a lot easier)
How to clean guinea pigs’ ears?
The first step to clean your guinea pigs ears is to set him/her down on a dry towel. This will help keep them calm and relieve their nerves. You should then rest your hand on the back of their neck to help keep them in place.
Do not squeeze or push down too hard where your guinea pig is uncomfortable, but make sure they are firmly in place.
Next, fill up the syringe with around 5 ml of olive oil. If you do not have a syringe, you can use a straw or a spoon to apply the oil to the ear. Gently squirt the oil into the outer parts of your guinea pig’s ear. Make sure that the oil does not go inside their ear canal. Your guinea pig might be anxious and start to squirm around when you do this. If this happens, rest your other hand underneath the guinea pig to keep them in place.
Once the oil is on their ear, gently massage their ear with your hands to spread around the oil. Make sure you wash your hands before you do this. Also remember to avoid the ear canal.
Once the majority of the ear is damp from the oil, take the cotton pad and rub it around their ear. You should notice dirt, wax, and dry skin that attaches to the cotton pad. After applying the cotton pad, gently use the cotton bud to spot clean the ear. Be very gentle with the cotton bud, and do not go near the ear canal.
After you have used the cotton bud, you are done with ear number one. You can now move on to the second ear. Make sure to use a new cotton pad and cotton bud. When you are done cleaning the other ear, make sure you thoroughly wash your hands with warm soap and water.
How often do I need to clean my guinea pig’s ears?
The answer to how often you should clean your guinea pig’s ears is dependent on their living conditions, as well as the breed of the guinea pig. If you have multiple guinea pigs, they will get dirtier quicker. This means you should probably clean their ears 3-4 times per year.
If your guinea pig lives alone, you only need to clean their ears twice a year. If you should always clean your guinea pig’s ear if you notice they have a crusty ear. The crusty ear can be cause by a wide range of things, including dry skin and wax.
Some breeds of guinea pigs will need to have their ears cleaned more frequently. For example, both Rex and Peruvian guinea pigs are known for having dry skin. This results in more wax and dead skin accumulating in their ears. Therefore, you should clean a Rex or Peruvian guinea pig’s ears at least 4 times per year.
Guinea pig dry ear treatment
Sometimes, your guinea pig will naturally have dry ears, and cleaning won’t be able to solve the problem. One easy way to treat dry ear in guinea pigs is to use Dr. Gold’s Ear Therapy.
These ear drops cleans and disinfects your guinea pig’s ears. It can help fight against both fungal and bacterial infections. It does not contain alcohol, so it will not sting your guinea pig when you apply it to their ear. You should apply Dr. Golds to your guinea pigs ear once a day until the dry skin goes away. You can buy Dr. Gold’s here for under $10.
It is important that you do not confuse dry ear with parasites. It is very common for ringworm and mites to infect your guinea pig’s face, including their ears. When this happens, your guinea pig will likely develop a rash that resembles dry skin.
If you suspect your guinea pig has ringworm or mites, you should check out my article on Guinea Pig Skin Issues.
Guinea pig ear infections
While ear infections are not common in guinea pigs, they still do occur. They are usually cause by bacterial infections or respiratory diseases such as pneumonia. It is very hard to treat a guinea pig ear infection at home, so you will most likely need to bring him/her to the vet.
They will likely apply some disinfectant ear drops, and in some cases they may give your guinea pig some antibiotics to fight off the infection.