• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Dandruff? and pain when touching

Linzig33

Linzig33

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 12, 2017
Messages
79
Reaction score
23
Points
220
Location
Glasgow
Hey all, I posted a few months back about my guinea pigs skin. Vet checked him over and advised on possibly being dry skin. I have done what was advised, bowl of water in the room, have the central heating down low in their room etc. Today I was trimming one of my boys hair and noticed all of his rosettes have dandruff and are causing him pain when I touch it. It’s quite a lot and one patch looked black until further inspection. I’m now concerned it’s mites rather than dry skin? Can anyone advise, pic below. I want to avoid and unnecessary trip to the vet if I can as it’s a good bit of drive away for us to be told it’s again just dry skin. Thanks in advance :)ABFFAC03-AB90-4882-94E2-D1D556B2CBB7.webp312FED10-F821-4A60-B3B9-1447D96252F5.webp8C0F3DA4-54F5-420F-AA57-22559547F2A8.webp
 
It could be several things and is impossible to diagnose just from a photo, so I am afraid another visit to the vet really is necessary.
When Eddi had small scabs and seemed in pain when we touched the fur on his back it turned out to be mites.
Thankfully it was easily treatable and he improved quickly, so hopefully it will be the same for your boy.
Even though our vet couldn't detect any parasites, she was able to prescribe a proper strength treatment which did the trick nicely.

I hope your boy feels better soon.
 
Yep I'm afraid it's back to the vets. Don't be tempted to buy off the shelf low dose stuff for treating mites as it may not be mites and they won't cure it but mask the symptoms making it hard for the vet to diagnose what the problem is. The off the shelf low dose stuff doesn't work anyway.
 
I would be tempted to go to a different vet. Did the last vet actually do a skin scraping to check for mites as they are too small to be seen by the human eye. As they are extremely common with piggies I'm surprised your vet felt it was more likely they had dry skin
 
Betsy said:
Yep I'm afraid it's back to the vets. Don't be tempted to buy off the shelf low dose stuff for treating mites as it may not be mites and they won't cure it but mask the symptoms making it hard for the vet to diagnose what the problem is. The off the shelf low dose stuff doesn't work anyway.
Click to expand...
No definitely not, I always take them to the vet, I wouldn’t forgive myself trying to treat something to make it worse. Thank you :)
 
Lady Kelly said:
I would be tempted to go to a different vet. Did the last vet actually do a skin scraping to check for mites as they are too small to be seen by the human eye. As they are extremely common with piggies I'm surprised your vet felt it was more likely they had dry skin
Click to expand...
The vet was recommended on here as guinea savvy but they are no longer on the recommendation list for whatever reason. Vet is really lovely and loves guinea pigs so I’m hesitant to change but would be a lot easier to have one closer by. Last time it was mostly because his skin appeared quite pink/red and had light dandruff throughout, this is worse and he’s clearly in pain when I touch it :(.
Will get an appointment today, thank you :)
 
Linzig33 said:
The vet was recommended on here as guinea savvy but they are no longer on the recommendation list for whatever reason. Vet is really lovely and loves guinea pigs so I’m hesitant to change but would be a lot easier to have one closer by. Last time it was mostly because his skin appeared quite pink/red and had light dandruff throughout, this is worse and he’s clearly in pain when I touch it :(.
Will get an appointment today, thank you :)
Click to expand...

If your vet doesn't seem keen to check for or treat a mite infestation it might be worth asking them to do a scraping. Whenever I have had one done they just popped it on a slide and checked it out the back so it didn't add any cost to the consultation or mean any wait for a result. I hope you get to the bottom of this because it does sound like hes in discomfort bless him
 
Lady Kelly said:
If your vet doesn't seem keen to check for or treat a mite infestation it might be worth asking them to do a scraping. Whenever I have had one done they just popped it on a slide and checked it out the back so it didn't add any cost to the consultation or mean any wait for a result. I hope you get to the bottom of this because it does sound like hes in discomfort bless him
Click to expand...
Would I be best taking him to the closest vet for this treatement? My worry is not to stress him too much in the 40minute car journey. There is a pets 4 vets less than ten minutes away, although I have no idea if they are guinea savvy?
 
Linzig33 said:
Would I be best taking him to the closest vet for this treatement? My worry is not to stress him too much in the 40minute car journey. There is a pets 4 vets less than ten minutes away, although I have no idea if they are guinea savvy?
Click to expand...

If you have a good experience with your vet and then seem to know piggies I would stick with the one you have been too. I hope my first comment didn't appear rude but obviously on a forum we only get a snippet of what happened and weren't at the consultation to experience the vets knowledge and expertise first hand
 
Lady Kelly said:
If you have a good experience with your vet and then seem to know piggies I would stick with the one you have been too. I hope my first comment didn't appear rude but obviously on a forum we only get a snippet of what happened and weren't at the consultation to experience the vets knowledge and expertise first hand
Click to expand...
No not at all, I appreciate all help. I didn’t explain properly that when I first took him it was more for overall dry looking skin whereas this is much worse and pain involved. The vet really is lovely and I feel totally at ease that she adores and has great experience with Guineas. I’ll stick to the same one as then I know they will be familiar. Thank you again :)
 
Linzig33 said:
Would I be best taking him to the closest vet for this treatement? My worry is not to stress him too much in the 40minute car journey. There is a pets 4 vets less than ten minutes away, although I have no idea if they are guinea savvy?
Click to expand...
My local vets 4 pets are very good. I trust the vets there with my piggies. I have recommended them and they are now on the Forum's Vet Locator. That said not all of them will be the same. It's also good that they don't charge exhorbitant out of hours fees for weekends and Bank Holidays as the normal working hours are when Pets At Home are open.
 
Betsy said:
My local vets 4 pets are very good. I trust the vets there with my piggies. I have recommended them and they are now on the Forum's Vet Locator. That said not all of them will be the same. It's also good that they don't charge exhorbitant out of hours fees for weekends and Bank Holidays as the normal working hours are when Pets At Home are open.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I did see that one had been recommended but nowhere near me unfortunately (I’m in Glasgow). It would really need to be trial and error to see if the one closest to me was good with Guineas. I have an appointment Saturday for my little guy and I might try the vets 4 pets for any future minor things and see how they go :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top