Your Prairie Dog Vet-Prep Sheet
Hayfold a warm home for small-pet folk · hayfold.com Prairie Dog — Vet-Prep Sheet
🔍 Find an exotic-mammal vet — before you need one
- Search the AEMV find-a-vet directory (the Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians), or, in the UK, the RCVS Find-a-Vet tool — or search “exotic / small-mammal vet near me”.
- Call ahead and ask the key question: “Do you see small / exotic mammals?” Not every vet does. Ask the exam fee while you’re on the phone, so the cost is one less panic in a crisis.
- Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.
📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis
Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.
🚨 Is this an emergency now?
See a vet promptly if you notice any of these:
- Facial or jaw swelling, or difficulty eating — often dental disease (incisor pseudo-odontoma is common); see an exotic vet
- Discharge from the eyes or nose, or laboured breathing — possible respiratory infection
- Diarrhoea, or wetness around the bottom
- Weight loss and emaciation — or the opposite, obesity (which predisposes to fatty liver disease)
- Any new lump, or signs of external/internal parasites
When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.
🚗 On the way / while you wait
✅ Do
- Keep it warm — small mammals chill and dehydrate fast, and cold makes almost everything worse.
- Bring it in its own bedding/carrier with some familiar food.
- For rabbits and guinea pigs, keep offering their normal hay, greens and water — a gut that stops is an emergency.
- Bring a fresh dropping or urine sample if you can.
- Keep it calm and quiet.
⛔ Don’t
- Don’t give any human or OTC medicines — some common antibiotics are fatal to rabbits and guinea pigs.
- Don’t withhold food from a rabbit or guinea pig.
- Don’t let it get cold.
- Don’t handle it more than necessary.
🎒 What to bring
- A fresh dropping or urine sample, if you can collect one.
- Photos and a short video of the behaviour or symptom — it may not show it in the clinic.
- A note of your setup and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
- A note of eating, drinking and toileting over the last day.
- The animal in a secure, warm carrier.
🗣️ What to tell the vet
A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:
- Enclosure
- As large an enclosure as you can give — in the wild their burrows run 4–5 ft deep, so even a big cage is modest by comparison. It must be chew-proof (stainless steel or plexiglass — never wood; a standard rabbit cage isn’t strong enough), genuinely escape-proof and lockable (determined escape artists), with high sides (they fling bedding) and at least one open/ventilated side to prevent odour and respiratory disease. Provide 6–12 inches (15–30 cm) of safe bedding to burrow. They do NOT climb, so shelves and climbing gear aren’t needed.
- Companionship
- Highly social colony animals. Keeping a single prairie dog is not advised unless you can give it a very large amount of daily interaction. Neutered males can live together; females can live together; a male–female pair needs the male neutered to prevent breeding. Pregnant or nursing females can turn aggressive and may need separating.
- Temperature
- Comfortable around 70°F (21°C) with 30–70% humidity; avoid extremes. Heat risks fatal heatstroke; cold makes them sluggish (a “pseudo-hibernation”). They do not truly hibernate, but may be less active in cooler weather.
- Substrate
- A deep layer of safe bedding for burrowing and hiding — wood shavings, paper-based/recycled bedding or commercial pellets. Avoid sand and mud, and never use cedar (the fumes can be toxic). Spot-clean droppings and urine daily and change the bedding at least weekly.
- Enrichment
- Provide hiding places, nest boxes and tunnels, plus untreated wood or safe non-toxic material to chew. Daily supervised out-of-cage exercise in a safe “playroom” (boxes, large PVC-pipe tunnels) helps prevent obesity — but they’re very fast and shouldn’t have free run of the house (injury risk). Adequate exercise is critical for weight control.
- Diet
- Grass hay (timothy, orchard or brome) available at all times is the foundation — they’re hindgut fermenters needing high fibre, like rabbits. Give only a small amount of timothy-based pellets (roughly one to two blocks a week, mainly for young animals), plus dark leafy greens (kale, parsley, cilantro, collard greens, dandelion, carrot tops) as treats — treats no more than about 5% of intake. Cut rich alfalfa hay after one year of age. Never feed iceberg lettuce, dog/cat food, nuts, raisins, animal protein or table scraps. Fresh water always available. Diet-related conditions are the single most common health problem in captive prairie dogs.
- Supplements
- None needed — no supplements have been developed for prairie dogs, and a correct grass-hay-based diet doesn’t require them.
⚕️ Small mammals are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so any change in eating, droppings, drinking or behaviour is urgent — in rabbits and guinea pigs, not eating or passing no droppings for 12–24 hours can be a life-threatening emergency (gut stasis). They also chill and dehydrate quickly, so keep it warm. Tell the vet about your diet and any remedies you’ve used, and ask for exotic-mammal-safe medicines and doses — several antibiotics that are routine in other pets are dangerous to rabbits and guinea pigs.
Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.
❓ Questions to ask
- Do you routinely see small / exotic mammals? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
- What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
- What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
- How do I prevent this from happening again?