[Gpdd] [HEALTH] Smelly urine

[Dr Kay Dudman]

Can I ask what the smell is?  If it is ammonia, you will want to clean the
area more often, as that can be damaging to little piggy lungs.

What might have happened is that there is a dried residue on the bottom of
their housing that gets reactivated when fresh urine is on top of the
same area.  What I would recommend is giving the housing a thorough
scrubbing out (maybe use vinegar or lemon juice to remove any dried urine
deposits, but don't use anything with phenol in it) say once a month, and
then cleaning out the housing by replacing the bedding on a daily basis.
Spot cleaning might work with a thorough clean every few days after
a monthly scrubbing out.

I clean my piggies out everyday; I use paper kitchen towel underneath,
then some sheets of newspaper on top, and safe bed bedding and fresh hay
on top of that.  If you can't clean them out every day, what you could
try is extra sheets of newspaper, then roll up the top sheets with the
droppings and place a fresh sheet on the top with fresh bedding.  Then
change the whole lot after a few days.

I use the kitchen towel in order to soak up the urine, and replace it
daily... this avoids leaving a deposit which could become smelly later.

Whatever you do, don't use a room freshener to hide the smell, as that
could be a problem for little pigy noses.

best wishes

Kay

> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 15
> Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 22:14:59 EDT
> From: RundlettDR at aol.com
> Subject: [Gpdd] [HEALTH] Smelly urine?
> To: gpdd at gpdd.org
> Message-ID: <27.75accc56.2fff3ba3 at aol.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> Hi!  I have 2 males that are about 2 1/2 years old.  Lately (past  month or
> so) their cage has been getting extremely smelly very quickly.  I  used to be
> able to spot clean daily and thoroughly clean every 6 days, but  lately there's
> been an awful smell by the 3rd day.  I usually use aspen,  changed to
> Carefresh (didn't help - even shorter "smell time" then the aspen)  and back to
> aspen.  I line the bottom of the cage with paper towel prior to  the
> aspen/carefresh.  The towels are extremely wet when I change  them.  I'm wondering 2 things
> and would like some feedback. 1)   Piggies seem fine - playing, talking,
> eating up a storm.  Any reason for  health concern for the smell?   2)  Has anyone
> ever put cat  litter under the paper towel/aspen to absorb smell?  I read it
> in a Guinea  Pig book, but have never noticed it mentioned on the gpdd site.
> Thanks so  much for your info!
> Donna, Jazzy & Skwirt
>