amzybabes
Junior Guinea Pig
We brought home two 12 week old female guineas this month. About 10 days ago we noticed that one, Crumble, scratching like crazy and squeaking. Following this there was some blood on her, and we found a 1-2cm patch with a sore scratch and scab and some hair missing. This was behind her left ear.
We took her to the vets who diagnosed mites (although not a particularly bad case), and we then administered invermectin onto her skin (we have another dose to apply in 4 days time). After this Crumbles skin began to heal, she only scratches occasionally (what I think is a normal amount for guinea pigs), and seemed happier within herself.
However, today we noticed that the bald patch has gotten bigger – now approx 3cm by 1.5cm in size. The skin seems almost completely healed where the wound was, and the rest of the skin seems perfectly healthy to look at. The patch is clear, with no broken hair. She doesn’t react to us touching the area, so it can’t be particularly sore. We can’t find any other areas of hair loss on her.
She has seemed perfectly happy – eating with enthusiasm, chasing around the cage with her cage friend at top speed, and generally running and popcorning all over the place. Her cage friend can be a bit ‘bossy’ and might push her on occasion, but Crumble has never been injured by the other guinea, and seems happy in her company (they play together), so I can’t see that she’s particularly stressed.
We’re feeding them lots of hay, some specific guinea pig pellets with stabilised Vit C, and daily veggies (we’ve built up to about half a bowl).
Any ideas? Could this still be mites, despite the lack of extreme itching and soreness? Should we continue with the second dose of the treatment?
Advice needed please! We will take her back to the vets if things don’t improve in the next week, but would appreciate your thoughts/help. Thanks!
We took her to the vets who diagnosed mites (although not a particularly bad case), and we then administered invermectin onto her skin (we have another dose to apply in 4 days time). After this Crumbles skin began to heal, she only scratches occasionally (what I think is a normal amount for guinea pigs), and seemed happier within herself.
However, today we noticed that the bald patch has gotten bigger – now approx 3cm by 1.5cm in size. The skin seems almost completely healed where the wound was, and the rest of the skin seems perfectly healthy to look at. The patch is clear, with no broken hair. She doesn’t react to us touching the area, so it can’t be particularly sore. We can’t find any other areas of hair loss on her.
She has seemed perfectly happy – eating with enthusiasm, chasing around the cage with her cage friend at top speed, and generally running and popcorning all over the place. Her cage friend can be a bit ‘bossy’ and might push her on occasion, but Crumble has never been injured by the other guinea, and seems happy in her company (they play together), so I can’t see that she’s particularly stressed.
We’re feeding them lots of hay, some specific guinea pig pellets with stabilised Vit C, and daily veggies (we’ve built up to about half a bowl).
Any ideas? Could this still be mites, despite the lack of extreme itching and soreness? Should we continue with the second dose of the treatment?
Advice needed please! We will take her back to the vets if things don’t improve in the next week, but would appreciate your thoughts/help. Thanks!
