Bald spot seems to be growing? Advice please!

[amzybabes]

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!

 

[Connie]

Hi there! First of all, your in the right place for advice and others will be far more helpfull than me.

I think, it is normal for a small amount of the hair around the bald patches to fall out as it heals as it(the hair) Is attached to dead skin. But others will I'm sure be able to confirm this.

Did you treat her cage mate at the same time as treating her?

 

[amzybabes]

Apologies, I now realise this should have gone in the health section, and have posted it there too, but can't see how to delete this version instead! Feel free to reply to either post, thanks.

 

[amzybabes]

Thanks, let's hope that's what it is. We didn't treat her cage mate as the vet advised us not to due to Crumble's mite infestation not being very bad. I did wonder if we should, but followed the advice given! We disinfected and cleaned the whole cage.

 

[Connie]

Its great that you have cleaned the cage, that will definatly help but i would be treating her cage mate as well if i were you (so next treatment you give crumble, give one to the other piggy aswell, even if its preventative it shouldnt do the piggies any harm) /obviously make sure you use the right dose and consult the vet at the same time, but the trouble is if her sister/cagemate doesnt show symptoms for another 2 weeks then crumble may get re infected and youll be back to square one.

Also, just a footnote, most common vets (as in cats and dog vets) are not trained in and guinea pig specifics as guinea pigs are classed as exotic pets, so sometimes the exotics vets are the only ones who really have any piggy experience.

 

[sharonS]

I would personally treat them both, then you can be sure that they are both clear.

 

[amzybabes]

Ok, think we will do the second treatment tomorrow then, and treat Biscuit (the cage friend) at the same time. Fingers crossed Crumble's on the mend soon!

 

[Pepperdog]

My rex has a baldish patch where she scratched herself silly through lice, I treated her as soon as I noticed it, the patch in her case got worse as she also gets irritated by the chemicals in ivormectin and 3 weeks on she is now showing signs of hair regrowth. She looks awful as she did in the summer when they had lice and it took a few weeks for her hair to return but it did return. Didnt stop me feeling like an awful slave for having a patchy pig, but now I know its an issue with her I will be preventing lice as much as possible to help her.

I treat all 4 at the same time, best to be safe than sorry, and in my case its for crystals benefit as she really does have a rough time.

The skin on your piggie does look clean and fresh and ready for regrowth if that helps

 

[Connie]

I would just like to add, please keep to the set time for second treatments etc as they are set i believe due to the life cycle of the mites (abit like headlice)

sorry, so much confusing information!

 

[Wiebke]

Ideally, guinea pigs should have a full course of 3 and (in more severe cases) 4 rounds of ivermectin treatment, spaced 10-14 days apart to make sure that you kill off any mites hatching from eggs buried in the skin - those are what actually causes the skin irritation/pain and hair loss and that interval is designed to catch them most effectively. Always treat all guinea pigs living together to prevent a return.

If you wish, you can give a gentle bath after the last treatment to help getting rid of any dead skin and help to regenerate it. Bathing during the mites infestation can irritate inflamed skin further, unless it is necessary to treat other skin complaints at the same time.

Mites are not at all rare; they can come in hay or make an unwelcome reappearance whenever a piggy is very stressed or its immune system lowered after an illness. They are not a problem as long as they get diagnosed and treated with a good quality ivermectin product promptly.


Here is more information about mites: http://www.guinealynx.info/mites.html

 

[amzybabes]

Thanks for your advice and ideas. We also gave the vets a ring and they said to leave it another week and if area is still growing to pop her back in (it's got a little longer but no wider so far). We did the second dose of ivermection yesterday, so need to give that time to work. She still seems fine in and of herself, and has gained 65grams in weight over the last fortnight, so is obviously not feeling too under par! We even noticed a very, very fine layer of hair on the lower bit of the bald patch today, so fingers crossed it's growing back!

 

[amzybabes]

Great news! Crumble's 'bald patch' is now covered all over in a growing layer of fluffy white fur :-) Yay, seems she'll be ok, and must have just lost a bit of extra hair before the new stuff could grow back.

 

[Claire W]

Yay, that's fanboy news