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What to do for guinea pig compacted anus? Is castor oil safe?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Small Animal | Unknown - Small Animal | Male

I think he has a compacted anus can I put castor oil on it to help him or let him ingest a small amount?

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Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on April 14th, 2018

Do not feed your guinea pig castor oil, it can kill it. Also putting castor oil on the impacted anus will not help. You will have to manually remove the feces. Often older male guinea pigs get weak anal muscles and are not able to expel fecal pellets effectively. You will need to remove those regularly by hand. Here is a great article on how to do this: http://www.guinealynx.info/impaction.html

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