Are These Mites?

[MelyH]

I bought Reptar in December, he was a perfectly healthy guinea pig, no issues at all. In February I brought Maximus home, he has a lot longer and thicker hair. When we brought him home we noticed scabbing on his foot, the Vet told us it could be an injury or mites. She warned me that if Maximus did have mites, he would spread them to Reptar. A couple months passed, Maximus never liked being petted, picked up or scratched. Well yesterday I discovered this scab on my Reptar's mouth. They have an appointment today but I just wanted to reach out to other guinea pig owners for some counsel. The idea of a pet store selling me a guinea pig with mites just makes me sick. I feel really helpless and I feel like I failed Reptar as his guinea pig mom by bringing him a cage mate that possibly had mites.

 

[helen105281]

That looks more like fungal to me, there are many types but only Ringworm tends to show up if the vet attempts to culture it. Here is our Ringworm guide which outlines the hygiene measures which should apply to all types of fungal. If they are living together you will most likely need to treat both boys. It is not uncommon for pet shop pigs to arrive with fungal sadly but it is possible that it was not the new pig that brought this with him, any pig can succumb to it at any time.

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/ringworm-hygiene-and-pictures.115402/

For info, the closest product to Itrafungol in the US is Sporanox.

 

[Deleted member 114675]

Don't blame yourself - you spotted the problem and you're doing something about it .


I hope they both get better soon.

 

[MelyH]

That looks more like fungal to me, there are many types but only Ringworm tends to show up if the vet attempts to culture it. Here is our Ringworm guide which outlines the hygiene measures which should apply to all types of fungal. If they are living together you will most likely need to treat both boys. It is not uncommon for pet shop pigs to arrive with fungal sadly but it is possible that it was not the new pig that brought this with him, any pig can succumb to it at any time.

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/ringworm-hygiene-and-pictures.115402/

For info, the closest product to Itrafungol in the US is Sporanox.

Hi Helen, the vet diagnosed Reptar with fungus and possibly mites, it turns out my Maximus wasn't the root of the issue. The Vet also said he sees many piggies sold from the same pet store Reptar came from. My poor piggy had to have a skin scraping as well as an injection for the mites. If the skin scraping comes back positive for mites he will have to continue with the injections. I wish I knew how he developed them... I'm worried Maximus might contract something but the Vet said that since they've already been housed together that it would be okay to keep them together. Thanks for the advice!

 

[helen105281]

Glad he is having the injections as they are much more effective than spot on type treatments. What is the vet treating the fungal with?

 

[MelyH]

Glad he is having the injections as they are much more effective than spot on type treatments. What is the vet treating the fungal with?

He has a topical anti fungal I put on his scab twice a day, Clotrimazole I believe. And he also has an oral prescription I give him, Fluconazole. He also had the Ivermectin injection. Maximus had some irritation around his grease gland and the Vet is having rub some Neosporin on there. I found an Exotic Animal vet with over 30 years of guinea pig experience and it's been such a relief!