Ear Mites Turned Into Ear Infection.

[AnnaB]

Hi all, I would love to ask for some help please.

My 4 months old piggie Rigsby had ear mites about two months ago. I immediately got him to vets and got proper drops. I did the 4 week course and the mites seem to have gone but left the ear a bit crusty. I thought nothing of it until yesterday his head dropped to the side and he hardly moves, he still eats though.

Took him to vets who said its ear infection caused by ear mites, even though they the infection probably already started. He was given antibiotics another course for mites. She told me to keep him where he is with his cage mate -outside in the hutch with a run.

Questions:
Should I bring him inside and keep a close eye on him? Or is it too much stress to be put into new place and without him friend.

Should I be giving him any kind of drops?

Please somebody tell me this isn't fatal and he'll recover?

Anything else I can do to help him?

Any stories will be appreciated.

Here is a photo of him. He is the sandy colour. The other one is Cedric -also known as my biggest bundle of joy.

 

[Chief Guinea Pig]

Poor Rigsby. I hope he recovers soon.
xx

 

[AnnaB]

Double post.

 

[AnnaB]

Poor Rigsby. I hope he recovers soon.
xx

Thank you.

 

[Chief Guinea Pig]

@helen105281
@Pebble
@Abi_nurse

 

[helen105281]

I would bring both him and his friend inside if you can.

If it is an infection he should hopefully start to respond to the antibiotics, is it Baytril? My Phoebe had an inner ear infection recently and though I put up a fuss about being given Baytril it did actually work. You may find though that he needs a different type of antibiotic if you don't get any improvement.

I would also recommend pain relief as this really helped Phoebe.

If he is on Bayril please give probiotics at least an hour after each dose to help the gut.

There are other issues that can cause a head tilt though such as a stroke or E-Cuniculi. Has he ever been near rabbits?

 

[Pebble]

Agree with bringing them both in - we are experiencing massive changes in weather ref temperature and pressure at the moment so keeping him as stable an environment as you can will help him.

Please can you tell me the name of the ear drops he was given originally? Has he also had ivermectin injections or have you just been given a topical "spot-on" treatment for his neck?
Ivermectin is only really effective at treating ear mites if given by injection....the ear drops serve to reduce the risk of secondary bacterial infection and inflammation from the mites.

I have had 4 piggies present with head tilt - and I have a very thorough exotics vet who won;t prescribe any treatment unless they have thoroughly investigated and diagnosed the cause (to the detriment of my bank balance!) . One had mites (visible to the vet but not me) and the other 3 were found to be clear of mites but had pus in the ear canal indicating a bacterial infection.

The one with ear mites did recover without further complications following a course of ivermectin injections and antibiotic/anti-parasitc/steroid ear drops (we were worried about a secondary bacteria infection occurring as it is not uncommon for ear mites to cause this), The good news is that Rigsby is now on baytril which is a very effective antibiotic at getting into inaccessible spaces (like ear canals) to try and eliminate the bacteria. He may however be in quite a lot of pain (ear infections are VERY painful) and this may stop or reduce his food intake so you need to be weighing daily, monitoring his poo output (another reason to bring him in and put him on fleece/puppy pads etc) and syringe feedijng if necessary. He may not be able to drink water from a bottle because of the pain, so a bowl of water (and a bowl of softened nuggets) in his "hospital cage" may help.
You will also need to consider pain relief and metacam in its own might not be sufficient (in the case of a painful ear infection my vet now prescribes both tramadol for the pain together with metacam for the anti-inflammatory properties) . If his poo output slows down or his poos become ms-shapen then you may also need gut stimulants. It is this attention to observation and the supportive care of pain relief with assisted feeding that helps get our guinea pigs through their illnesses. Our syringe feeding guide is here

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/complete-hand-feeding-guide.115359/

However - a word of caution. With my 3 pigs that had bacterial infections, my vet took cultures before prescribing anitbiotics and it was a good job he did so. The bug was found in all cases to be Pseudomonas aeruginosa and resistant to baytril, septrin, marbocyl, azithoromycin and in fact every antibiotic guineas can have except gentamycin which can only be given by injection. Although it's unlikely that Rigsby has this particular bug - if there is no imporvement within 72 hours on baytril I suggest you print out my post and take him back to the vet, get a culture done, and discuss whether to give an additional antibiotic.

HTH
x