Hi guys,
We have two guinea pigs, both Himalayans and both have what we think is called fungal nose stripe.
Having scowered the internet, I don't think this is cheilitis because that seems to effect the lips, is in patches and frankly looks much worse than what my boys have got which is like a bobbly stripe down the centre of their noses. I don't have a pic but the picture below from another user shows it exactly.
It's only midly contagious because one of them had it for almost a year before we started to see the tiniest amount appearing on our other piggy. It definitely grows and gets worse if left but it was left for a long time and it's still just a stripe, albeit a slightly wider one. And finally, it doesn't seem to upset either of them in the slightest. They don't itch it or paw at it and they're perfectly well in themselves.
The vet has taken a good few samples and run them for tests but can't find anything. In the end, they concluded that it was "definitely fungal" and so gave us some Daktarin cream to treat twice a day. They HATE it. We've now done this, twice a day for 2 weeks, so 28 good treatments and it's definitely NOT getting any better. At best, it looks slightly different but i reckon that's because we've essentially been moisturising their noses twice a day. So it looks like it might not even be fungal after all as surely this would have had some effect after 28 rounds?
We're booked back into the vets tonight but everyone's at a bit of a loss now and it's costing a lot to test for a condition which obviously needs attention but isn't even upsetting them!
Any help or input would be great.
We have two guinea pigs, both Himalayans and both have what we think is called fungal nose stripe.
Having scowered the internet, I don't think this is cheilitis because that seems to effect the lips, is in patches and frankly looks much worse than what my boys have got which is like a bobbly stripe down the centre of their noses. I don't have a pic but the picture below from another user shows it exactly.
It's only midly contagious because one of them had it for almost a year before we started to see the tiniest amount appearing on our other piggy. It definitely grows and gets worse if left but it was left for a long time and it's still just a stripe, albeit a slightly wider one. And finally, it doesn't seem to upset either of them in the slightest. They don't itch it or paw at it and they're perfectly well in themselves.
The vet has taken a good few samples and run them for tests but can't find anything. In the end, they concluded that it was "definitely fungal" and so gave us some Daktarin cream to treat twice a day. They HATE it. We've now done this, twice a day for 2 weeks, so 28 good treatments and it's definitely NOT getting any better. At best, it looks slightly different but i reckon that's because we've essentially been moisturising their noses twice a day. So it looks like it might not even be fungal after all as surely this would have had some effect after 28 rounds?
We're booked back into the vets tonight but everyone's at a bit of a loss now and it's costing a lot to test for a condition which obviously needs attention but isn't even upsetting them!
Any help or input would be great.
