Bacterial Skin Infection

[Annette Bessant]

Hello my name is Annette and I live in Borneo.I have a cross bred Abyyssinian/Peruvian guinea pig called Izzy who is 2 years old. Recently she suffered from chelitis and has scratched herself under the chin until the wounds bleed. I treated the wounds with an iodine wash then was told by a friend who is a trainee vet that one should rub the area with the iodine for 5 minutes to get into the skin. I have been doing that 4 times a day for the last 2 weeks and Izzy is now free of sores. I have also been putting aloe vera on her sore skin to try to stop the itching and that seems to have helped.I am sharing this as when I saw the vet here he told me to wash with iodine but did not mention the need to rub for 5 minutes and that is what seems to have made the difference. Unfortunately guinea pigs are not common here so the vets are not so familiar with how to treat them. Most of what I have found out has been through forums such as this so hope me sharing this helps someone else.

 

[helen105281]

Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing this information. I am glad that it has helped. Did your vet give you any other medication to treat the Chelitis?

 

[Annette Bessant]

yes the first time I went the vet gave antibiotics but he did say that they were not good to take long term so I decided to try the iodine first to see if that worked.