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Could my piggy have a fungal infection?

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Charlie84

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Hi all,

I was around a bit last year when we sadly lost one of our 2 boars. I took him to vedra but sadly he still passed.

I have a question about our other boar, Bear.

He is a rex, and so has always moulted quite a bit whenever you hold him. Recently I have noticed that when I stroke him onto his back and down towards his bottom, he acts irritated, makes a bit of a noise and bobs his head as if to be cleaning his chest? He does this whenever you stroke that area.

I have had a thorough look and there are no scabs, or bald patches, only a very very few little flakes of dry skin. I pulled gently at his hair and a about 7 hairs came out at once with a little bit of dry skin on the end, but that was all, no more.

Could this be the start of a fungal infection?

If so, what would be best to treat him with? I have not ever bathed my pigs, they never seem to need it to be honest, they never get greasy or smell bad.

Can anyone help? Thank you!
 
Hi there

From your description is sounds quite likely that it is fungal. Rex coated pigs are more prone to skin problems like fungal. If you are at all unsure how to treat or bathe then I suggest your pay your vet a visit.

There are a variety of treatments people use depending on the severity of the infection.
Shampoos - vetsect, gorgeous guineas, malaseb
Dips - Imaverol
Sprays - Mycozole
Oral meds - Itrafungol

Your vet should be the best person to advise you - if you don't have a cavy savvy vet yet give your location and hopefully one can be recommended in your area.

HTH

Suzy x
 
That's great, thank you.

I am wondering as his skin is still in pretty good condition and he has no sores or baldness, should I get some shampoo from gorgeous guineas or actually take him to the vet and risk them giving him stuff that may be too strong?

Would it be better to just take him to the vet or to try treating with shampoo myself first?

My vet seems to know about small animals, which is great. So I would feel comfortable taking him there I suppose.
 
My rex appears to get reoccuring fungal problems but its never got to the point of baldness, scabs, open sores etc as I just give him a nizoral shampoo bath say once a month and then he is fine.
 
Luckily I just called my vets and they can fit him in at 6pm this evening, so I'll pop him along and see what they say :)

Thanks for your help and I'll let you now the outcome!

I wonder if he will enjoy a bath? :))
 
Ok,

So the vet doesn't think it is fungal - She had a really good look at Bear and said he was lovely :))

She said it was more likely to be mites or parasites? I cant remember the name exactly, I think it began with a k.

She put a topical cream on him on the back of his neck and said it should clear up his flaky skin, which is common when the parasite is just getting a little out of control.

Does this sound correct? I wasn't aware that piggies have parasites all the time and that they can get a little worse if the piggy gets stressed.

She said to keep an eye on his skin and if it doesn't clear up after 2 weeks, then to come back for another dose.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated x
 
To be honest I'm not sure, she was foreign and quite hard to understand - she didn't actually tell me what it was she used, but it was in a little white tube.
 
my piggies use gorgeous guineas shampoo and i honestly would recommend it, its great for my guineas and very affective!:)
 
I have had a look and they do look lovely - is there any in particular that I should use? Would using one for fungal type conditions do them any harm even if it's not a fungal complaint?

Trying to work out how to upload a pic of bear for you all to see :)
 
When I believed Milo had a fungal infection. I used the Micro-neem, with the manuka shampoo, along with a manuka and neem lotion. Milo's skin was quite inflamed.

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Turned out not to even be fungal when I got a fungal culture done it came back negative, I do think the Manuka and neem helped soothe it though.

If you want to treat for Mild fungal, then I would recommend either using the Manuka neem shampoo, with a fungal melt, or you can do a Micro-neem treatment followed by a shampoo (Manuka and neem).

I also have used Nizoral for treating a fungal infection.
 
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Thats great, thank you - I will have a look!

I actually make handmade cosmetics for a living, so I may well have something in my own stock - I just wasn't sure about using the different things on animals - I don't really know why!

Bear's skin does not look like that at all, just a little flaky and dry. I think I'll get some shampoo anyway and give them a little wash with that too :)
 
Charlie84 said:
Thats great, thank you - I will have a look!

I actually make handmade cosmetics for a living, so I may well have something in my own stock - I just wasn't sure about using the different things on animals - I don't really know why!

Bear's skin does not look like that at all, just a little flaky and dry. I think I'll get some shampoo anyway and give them a little wash with that too :)
Click to expand...

I would be careful about what you use on him, Milo didn't have a fungal infection, I ended up getting a fungal culture by the vet done as it wouldn't shift. No idea what was actually wrong but I know it wasn't fngal, but I do think GG soothed it, if anything.

He's all healed now :).. xx>>>
 
I use nizoral on Lentil - he does get a dandruffy coat every now and then so I give him a nizoral bath and then give him Ivermectin 2 - 3 days later for 3 weeks and then he is fine.
 
I forgot to mention, as Hannah stated mite treatment should be left 48hrs befor prgressing with the next treatment did the vet give you some mite stuff to reapply?
 
Hi,

The vet said to keep an eye on his skin and if it hadn't improved after 2 weeks to come back?
 
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