Honey and Blossom
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi, so I have noticed that my 11 week old girl's left eye has some white crust around her eye. She has not been loosing weight. What do you advice I do and do you know what it is?
Thanks
Hi, thank you for all of this information! I have had her seen at the vets and she has ringwormHi!
Please see a vet for potential ringworm (a very contagious fungal skin infection that can also affect human). You can reclaim the vet fees from the seller as part of your customer rights when you present your sales receipt together with the vet bill. The time between infection and actual outbreak is 10-14 days. Unfortunately we have been seeing quite a rise in pet shop piggies with ringworm in recent years.
New guinea pigs: Sexing, vet checks&customer rights, URI, ringworm and parasites
DO NOT TOUCH AND DO NOT CREAM - your vet will curse you for doing the equivalent of wiping the crime scene and making a proper diagnosis impossible. The most effective treatment is prescription-only.
You will need to treat all piggies and - in order to avoid turning it into a long running saga - need to follow the very detailed step-by-step advice in our ringworm hygiene guide link so you can get through this once and for all. Good hygiene on all levels is absolute key.
Ringworm spores are invisibly tiny, shed in their thousands and can stay live for around 2 years. In nearly 15 years of existence, we have found all the angles of transmission the hard way and have had time to work out how close them off.
PLEASE take the time to read our comprehensive practical guide link, follow the advice and order some vet grade disinfectant like F10 immediately after you book a vet appointment. The guide also contains pictures of how an acute outbreak runs because once you have ringworm spot, it has to run its due course. To help you assess when the acute phase is over, the last chapter contains relevant pictures.
Here is the link: Ringworm: Hygiene And Pictures
All the best! The good news is that if you do it right, you can get through the thick of it once and for all in about 2 weeks.
Hi, thank you for all of this information! I have had her seen at the vets and she has ringworm. She is on medication for 2 weeks and because only one is showing symptoms they have to be separated. I bought another cage to put the ill one in. I bought them from a breeder and the vet said it was probably from them. Thank you for all the help! ♥
Thank you for the help but the vet told me to separate them and we did ask if the other one could go on the medication but she said that she can't. It's a shame for them but they are in the same room but far apart. ThanksPlease don’t separate them. There is no need to do so - your other piggy has already been exposed to it given incubation is 10-14 days. Its best to treat both piggies (treating the piggy not showing symptoms now can stop an outbreak in the companion piggy) and leave them together in the same cage. The stress of separation can lower the immune system.
There is further information about this in section 2 of the ringworm guide which has been linked in shove
UPDATE: I have had her seen at the vets and she has ringworm. She is on medication for 2 weeks and because only one is showing symptoms they have to be separated. I bought another cage to put the ill one in. I bought them from a breeder and the vet said it was probably from them
Thank you for the help but the vet told me to separate them and we did ask if the other one could go on the medication but she said that she can't. It's a shame for them but they are in the same room but far apart. Thanks
Hi, thank you for all of this information! I have had her seen at the vets and she has ringworm. She is on medication for 2 weeks and because only one is showing symptoms they have to be separated. I bought another cage to put the ill one in. I bought them from a breeder and the vet said it was probably from them. Thank you for all the help! ♥
Hi, thanks for the help but the vet told us to separate them but last night we noticed ringworm on the other piggie so we are going back to the vet today. The vet prescribed '. Itrafungol oral solution'. ThanksPlease do NOT separate and READ THE HYGIENE GUIDE. It is very clear on when to isolate and when not (i.e. never in a way that you end up with single piggies).
Ringworm: Hygiene And Pictures
Your second piggy is most likely already infected anyway since exposure and infection will have likely happened at the breeders.
This link here gives you an impression of what a separation looks like from the point of newly arrived baby guinea pigs. The added stress from the separation will lower the immune system further and make fighting ringworm more difficult.
Arrival in a home from the perspective of pet shop guinea pigs
Unfortunately, anybody can call themselves a breeder or a rescue without licensing and supervision. You can report the breeder to their local council over trading standards; anybody who sells anything is subject to them.
Can you please tell us what medication you have been prescribed? This is also important for any advice re. to prevent an acute outbreak in your second piggy, which is still in the 10-14 days incubation period.