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Floofy bum barbering?

PigglePuggle

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Been taking a short break from GPF but Jezebel asked me to post about her bum fur :) and who am I to refuse a beautiful floof request?
So on Saturday I noticed that someone has presumably barbered Jezzy's face, she's lost her Boris Johnson/Donald Trump comb over forward quiff which is no bad thing as it got in her eyes and made her run into things and if I had dared take a pair of scissors that near her eyes I'd have trimmed it myself. She has a new punk short spiky fringe where her face rosette was which rather suits her.
But on Sunday I noticed a new little bald patch in the middle of her main bum floof rosette with a small scab. I'm totally paranoid about skin infections and parasites and I really upset the poor girl by turning her upside down under a bright light and going through her bum fluff with a fine comb (she got a big piece of cucumber as compensation) but there's nothing visible except another small scab to one side, no redness or inflammation or signs of scratching, nothing wriggling or crawling and no specks or flakes, and this is in at the base of her back where she can't really reach to scratch or bite herself being quite a plump girl.
I think and hope it's a bit of over-enthusiastic grooming and barbering from one of her friends, but I'm so worried its something awful and I'm imagining all her fur falling out and everyone else's fur falling out and getting an expensive skin parasite epidemic that infects the whole herd...
Is it worth a vet trip or if there's nothing visible except a bit of missing fur (probably only noticable to someone who sees her every day) and 2 small scabs is it better to watch and wait? I've examined all the other piggies and all their bedding and hay and there's nothing to see at all, everyone else is very shiny coated and have no scabs or patchy fur or anything, just Jezzy floofy pants.
I wonder if putting the heating on at night for the benefit of the slimmer shorter haired piggies might have triggered her to moult or start scratching at all? She's the fattest and floofiest piggy and always bags the warmest fleecy hidey house... but I don't want little 730g short haired Puggle feeling the cold!
 
Welcome back.
Just remind me - is Jezebel a teddy/Rex? They can have quite dry skin.
Any chance of a photo of her bum?
 
Jezebel is an Aby/crested mix of some kind. She looks like a punk white sheep with rosettes and a ginger face, rather like Merab's slave's beautiful Merab. She has very pale skin which seems to mark easily, and her white fur is very fine although its quite long in places (she has a crest of a few very fine long white hairs 5 or 6 inches long on her back and bum that sometimes stick straight up) otherwise I'd probably not have have spotted the scab if it wasnt red-on-white and in the middle of a rosette! I saw a red dot and absolutely freaked out. I'll get a cucumber bribe and ask her for a picture...
 
Doesn’t sound like she’s got the teddy/Rexy dry skin. I know you don’t think she’s able to reach it to bite it herself. Is it somewhere she can reach with her back feet for a scratch?
 
Jezzy's barbered face (missing the usual white tuft over her left eye) and Jezzy's poor barbered/balding/scabby bottom. It looks quite minor now but there's definitely a bit of hair loss and 2 scabs... she's pleased about the bonus cucumber though :)
 

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I think I’d ask the vet to check her over as there is a bit of hairloss there, too. Whilst it’s not a typical place for mites I’d be suspicious of mites (invisible to the naked eye). Had anything changed in her routine/accommodation/surroundings?
 
Nothing has changed at all (except Theo finally persuaded Lady Puggle to mate with him after 2 months of patient courtship and romacing and getting his ears bitten- and Clover has become much more friendly and stopped limping since she slimmed down and started exercising a lot on soft flooring) so all the piggies are getting on very well generally. Jezebel has developed an odd habit of sleeping in the toilet tray the past few days but I clean it and fill it with fresh hay every day and disinfect it twice a week and none of the hair loss or scabs is where she lies down or stands in there, and she also sleeps in the fleecy tubes and haycube too, but she's quite into the toilet tray this week. So a bit of late evening and early morning central heating (thermostat is set at 19 degrees, and timer from 10-11pm and 4-5am, so not too hot) and a slight toilet tray fixation is all that's different... here's Jezzy in the toilet tray again. We have vets appointments at late october half term for nails clipped anyway but I"m not sure whether to try book her in this weekend...
 

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Doesn’t sound like any major changes there, then. Have you seen her scratching at all?
 
Nice to have you back on the forum! I've missed the adventures of your herd!
 
Nice to have you back. Hope lovely Jezebel is ok. She. Is a very pretty piggy. ❤️
 
Not seen her scratching at all but everytime I see the others scratch I'm picking them up and examining their fur, they are getting a bit fed up with it! I've examined everyone's skin and fur and climbed in the C&C cage and examined all the hay and bedding and thrown out all the old cardboard and grass furniture and hot washed the fleecy things and generally made a paranoid nuisance of myself... I clean and disinfect everything twice a week and we've not had any new hay or bedding or animals or visitors so its a bit of a mystery unless she is ill or stressed, but she seems very happy- lots of adorable chubby zooming and popcorning, just now with some bald bits and 2 scabs...
 
Good to be back, just wish Jezebel's floofy pants weren't worrying me in term time... unless she's missing her slaves giving her lunchtime veggy snacks so much it's caused some sort of chubby piggy psychological trauma and withdrawal symptoms! But they get fed veggies and pellets twice a day and they always have plenty hay and lots of space and lots to do :)
 
Been taking a short break from GPF but Jezebel asked me to post about her bum fur :) and who am I to refuse a beautiful floof request?
So on Saturday I noticed that someone has presumably barbered Jezzy's face, she's lost her Boris Johnson/Donald Trump comb over forward quiff which is no bad thing as it got in her eyes and made her run into things and if I had dared take a pair of scissors that near her eyes I'd have trimmed it myself. She has a new punk short spiky fringe where her face rosette was which rather suits her.
But on Sunday I noticed a new little bald patch in the middle of her main bum floof rosette with a small scab. I'm totally paranoid about skin infections and parasites and I really upset the poor girl by turning her upside down under a bright light and going through her bum fluff with a fine comb (she got a big piece of cucumber as compensation) but there's nothing visible except another small scab to one side, no redness or inflammation or signs of scratching, nothing wriggling or crawling and no specks or flakes, and this is in at the base of her back where she can't really reach to scratch or bite herself being quite a plump girl.
I think and hope it's a bit of over-enthusiastic grooming and barbering from one of her friends, but I'm so worried its something awful and I'm imagining all her fur falling out and everyone else's fur falling out and getting an expensive skin parasite epidemic that infects the whole herd...
Is it worth a vet trip or if there's nothing visible except a bit of missing fur (probably only noticable to someone who sees her every day) and 2 small scabs is it better to watch and wait? I've examined all the other piggies and all their bedding and hay and there's nothing to see at all, everyone else is very shiny coated and have no scabs or patchy fur or anything, just Jezzy floofy pants.
I wonder if putting the heating on at night for the benefit of the slimmer shorter haired piggies might have triggered her to moult or start scratching at all? She's the fattest and floofiest piggy and always bags the warmest fleecy hidey house... but I don't want little 730g short haired Puggle feeling the cold!

Hi! Please take a deep breath!

Dry indoors air can cause increased scratching for a few days initially, but it should not end in scabs.
That said, whatever it is a) very minor and b) at the observation stage. Any vet will be guessing as much as we are. Being a very observant owner can sometimes be a bit of hindrance, as you notice the smallest changes that are so minute that a vet will struggle with diagnosing too. ;)

If the bald area is getting noticeably larger over the next few days and any scratching is becoming very frequent and a lot more intense, then please see a vet for mange mites. They are usually not a problem in well kept guinea pigs when properly treated and will never get past nuisance level.

if it stays like this and the hair will grow back again, then it is just one of these things.
 
Thanks, I know I'm probably stressing Jezebel and all the other piggies as well as myself now by obsessively examining their fur every evening and throwing away their favorite stinky cardboard and grass hidey tubes... I would hate to have mites or ringworm in a whole herd though and I've never seen hair loss or scabs before, however minor- and it shows up so much on Jezzy!
I hope/suspect/hope that this might just be inappropriate barbering/grooming by mad piggy Piggle who doesn't know when playing and friendship spills over into crazy harassment, especially when she's in season... she doesn't bother Jezzy particularly, but Jezzy is very well mannered and polite and doesnt run away into the loft like Puggle and Theo, or rumblestrut Piggle down then knock her on the chin a few times and sit on her like Clover does... Jezebel isn't really a natural at herd life and although she likes the company and loves little Puggle and licks Theo's ears a lot she doesn't really know what to do if somepig (always mad Piggle) isn't nice to her! Theo normally intervenes but his first matings with Puggle have distracted him, they are usually romancing in the loft together unless food appears :)
 
Thanks, I know I'm probably stressing Jezebel and all the other piggies as well as myself now by obsessively examining their fur every evening and throwing away their favorite stinky cardboard and grass hidey tubes... I would hate to have mites or ringworm in a whole herd though and I've never seen hair loss or scabs before, however minor- and it shows up so much on Jezzy!
I hope/suspect/hope that this might just be inappropriate barbering/grooming by mad piggy Piggle who doesn't know when playing and friendship spills over into crazy harassment, especially when she's in season... she doesn't bother Jezzy particularly, but Jezzy is very well mannered and polite and doesnt run away into the loft like Puggle and Theo, or rumblestrut Piggle down then knock her on the chin a few times and sit on her like Clover does... Jezebel isn't really a natural at herd life and although she likes the company and loves little Puggle and licks Theo's ears a lot she doesn't really know what to do if somepig (always mad Piggle) isn't nice to her! Theo normally intervenes but his first matings with Puggle have distracted him, they are usually romancing in the loft together unless food appears :)

Please take a DEEP breath.
Normal good care and healthy piggies are the best prevention against skin problem. Those scabs can easily be from a misjudged dominance nip; these things happen in a group as do elbow pokes or playful little shoves in a human group. ;)

Ringworm is usually carried in by a new not quarantined/already infected shop piggies or an other species pet (cats, dogs). Otherwise is pretty rare to get an outbreak.

Mange mites - if there are any - are usually kept under control by a fully working immune system. If they happen through illness/frailness or stress, in a well kept herd they are very easy to get on top of with a full three applications course of good quality ivermectin. If your other piggies are healthy, they don't need a lot of help to fend them off. They only ever get past nuisance level in neglect/no or under-treatment conditions. ;)
The same goes for lice - they are pretty rare in good conditions and you have usually a working immune system in your well kept piggies on your side. Most cases we see are again in new arrivals.

Hay mites have become a bit of nuisance in recent years due to a change in large volume harvesting/processing combines that churn up a lot of soil and allow bugs to get into imported chain shop hay bags. But they are comparatively harmless. You can easily get rid of most of the eggs that are fixed simply by giving your piggies a short shave and then deal with the rest with ivermectin/selamectin and a bath.

Skin parasites are a fact of life with any pets; however in good conditions there is no need to panic or to overreact.
In 15 years I've never had lice and only one case of hay mites that never got further than the affected piggy. ;)
 
Thanks @Wiebke I would just feel horrified and like a bad piggy slave if my most friendly floofy piggy had a skin infection, I know they happen and its nobody's fault necessarily but I am so careful with cleaning and sourcing hay and examining it before it even goes in the same room as the piggies! I might take daily photos of Jezzy to check if the scabs and hair loss get better or worse, then we have the vet anyway for nail trims in 2 or 3 week's time and I'll have a better idea what's going on and I can mention it. When Jezzy got that little nose bite then scratched at it when we introduced her to Theo it looked really awful too so I think it's the blood-on-white contrast that is scary looking, plus the fact she's just so... nice natured! And so friendly and peaceful and not equipped for herd politics at all. Good job she's a big girl, very tall (about 35cm standing up on her hind legs) and even though she has a very nice slim waist now she's still well over a kilo... otherwise I'd worry more!
 
Thanks @Wiebke I would just feel horrified and like a bad piggy slave if my most friendly floofy piggy had a skin infection, I know they happen and its nobody's fault necessarily but I am so careful with cleaning and sourcing hay and examining it before it even goes in the same room as the piggies! I might take daily photos of Jezzy to check if the scabs and hair loss get better or worse, then we have the vet anyway for nail trims in 2 or 3 week's time and I'll have a better idea what's going on and I can mention it. When Jezzy got that little nose bite then scratched at it when we introduced her to Theo it looked really awful too so I think it's the blood-on-white contrast that is scary looking, plus the fact she's just so... nice natured! And so friendly and peaceful and not equipped for herd politics at all. Good job she's a big girl, very tall (about 35cm standing up on her hind legs) and even though she has a very nice slim waist now she's still well over a kilo... otherwise I'd worry more!

If it is a skin problem, you should see a deterioration within days, not weeks. My feeling is that it is rather just a little misjudged interaction wound that is going to heal without issues.

Skin parasites are not the sign of a bad owner; they are a matter of fact in a furry pet's life. The sign of a good owner is that these things never get past nuisance level and are promptly and correctly treated once they have been diagnosed. I don't think I am a bad owner but I have still had my share of ringworm carried in and I have/have had piggies with mange mites and the occasional weaker immune system. You just deal with it as and when and it never going much further than the affected piggy.

You get these piggies that can't stand up for themselves and you get the Genghis Khan Wannabes... Piggies are as diverse in their personalities as humans. That is what is making them as fascinating as they as they are. As long as your girl has her special boarfriend to snuggle up with, she is feeling loved and is happy. ;)
 
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