Sebesteny A
Vet Rec. 1976 May 22;98(21):418-23. doi: 10.1136/vr.98.21.418.
Information on diseases of guinea-pigs is generally available in research institutes and breeding establishments. When dealing with an individual patient it is tempting to extrapolate from this pool of information, without realising that a number of factors can affect the disease situation in a colony which need not apply to the individual animal kept as a pet--or vice versa. Thus diseases may appear as an explosive outbreak in a group of cavies kept under uniform conditions while a single animal may be exposed to amateur management (Townsend 1975) and suffer in consequence. The diseases generally encountered in this species are dealt with here as they appear clinically.
豚鼠疾病的相关信息在研究机构和繁育场所一般都能获取。在处理个体豚鼠病例时，人们往往会不假思索地从这些信息库中进行推断，却没有意识到许多因素会影响豚鼠群体中的疾病情况，而这些因素并不一定适用于作为宠物饲养的个体动物——反之亦然。因此，在统一条件下饲养的一群豚鼠中，疾病可能会呈爆发式出现，而单独一只豚鼠可能会受到非专业的照料（汤森德，1975年）并因此患病。本文将按照临床出现的情况来探讨该物种常见的疾病。
