Fungal Infection help please

[Alicia]

Amber has a fungal infection on her ear that I have treated with a melt and shampoo from Gorgeous Guineas (thought because the fungal is just on the inside of her ear I didn't get much foam on the infection like it told me to mainly because I forgot!) but it says on the back of the bottle to repeat after a week so I'm doing that again on Friday. On the other side of her ear it is quite dry but no fungal infection, I've been told that plain vaseline is good for moisturising guinea-pigs skin and could I put a bit of plain vaseline on that side of her ear? It's on the same ear as the fungal infection but on the back of the ear where there is no sign of infection.

 

[missy]

Sorry to hear that you're having such a bad run of luck at the moment, you poor thing!

My guinea pig recently had a fungal infection around his ear. The Vet prescribed Surolan drops to rub onto the skin (normally for Cats/Dogs but very effective on guineas also). This cleared up the infection very quickly but there was still an area of dry skin nearby, which I put Bepanthen (nappy rash cream) on to soothe/moisturise the skin and it worked very well. Bepanthen is cheap, easily picked up in the Supermarket/Chemist and is very useful to have - I'd recommend that for minor skin conditons.

I'm sure Vaseline will be ok to use on skin that's just dry. Are you sure it's just dry skin though and not the start of more fungal infection? Perhaps Daktarin cream would be good to use on the infected part of her ear as well as the dry bit, just in case the fungal infection has spread a bit. I've seen Daktarin recommended here often.

Daktarin contains miconazole, which is one of the ingredients in the Surolan drops, so I'm sure it'll be very effective but I'd be really careful that you don't get any inside the ear canal. Also if you think Amber may be able to wipe off the cream with her paw (and then lick her paw) then I'd go for the Daktarin Oral Gel, rather than the cream version.

Really hope it clears up soon x