Bugs in the Cage- ahhuughghh

[shekinah]

I am freaking out. I have been a bit slack in keeping up with regular cleaning of my guinea pigs' cage. I went in there tonight to change out the blankets to fresh ones, and I noticed something MOVING in the corner of their kitchen blankets. A tiny little worm :sick

I kept cleaning and noticing MORE of them!! I am horrified. Ashamed. I had gotten them a new water bottle that leaked all over, so the blankets were wet, and combined with some hay mess that they urinate on and some poo... uughhh recipe for disaster, I guess? Something must have been on the garden produce I have been feeding them. I just settled for shaking off lettuce leaves and stuff before throwing it into their cage rather than thoroughly washing. Just teeny tiny little crawly worms. :cry2

Their entire cage and room have been sanitized now. I threw out their blankets and will get some new fleece tomorrow. DH is home from work, and he said we can give them a hair cut. I am terrified of finding worms in their fur, but I will feel better knowing they are fresh and trimmed. I want to pull an all nighter and scrub my entire house down. I feel sick.

:sick:yuck:cry2:eek:cry:shiver:cry2:pout Ugh ugh ugh. Grace is for pet owners too, right? :(

Please tell me stories of your pet owner failures? Please tell me I'm not the only one who has done something awful like this?

[Rabbit]

What did the worm look like?

---------- Post added at 01:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:10 AM ----------

Because I suspect it's maggots, that flies laid eggs in the poop or the wet food, and they hatched into larva, which are maggots. White rice looking worms.

---------- Post added at 01:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 AM ----------

And in looking up what flies do to guinea pigs, it's an emergency. Don't wait to check the pigs.

[shekinah]

I think you are right. I wondered if it could be maggots, because we had some flies in the house this week after accidentally leaving the front door open, but I didn't think that would be long enough for them to hatch. They didn't look as big as maggots either; they were so tiny. But they were white. Maybe I caught it early enough. :s I just looked up flies and guinea pigs.. ahh ahhh. We cut their fur, and I didn't notice anything unusual. I'll keep looking up what to do and see if we need to take them to the vet. Thank you for suggesting that!

[Rabbit]

Flystrike seriously reads like an urban legend. Maggots aren't generally scary. I found out this summer they like the glue backing on foam letters used by a little Brownie scout to decorate her fridge picture frame. :sick

[shekinah]

Yikes. That would be pretty unnerving!

This flystrike is absolutely horrifying. I am reading though that house fly maggots don't cause a problem, just the green/shiny flies. Hoping it has only been house flies in here, or at the very least that I caught it early enough before they could do anything. I mean, the cage wasn't THAT bad, just, not what it should be, a couple days of not sweeping plus the water mess. The worms were only in one corner in their kitchen, and the pigs mostly hang out in the main area of the cage which is separate. I'll be checking them like crazy and sweeping up the cage twice a day just to be safe.

I'm trying to convince myself they'll be okay, heh. I am finding posts on guinea pigs forums of others with maggots whose pigs have been fine. So maybe it's one of those things that CAN happen but doesn't always. Ick ick ick.