Hair loss - Please Give Advice

[MaiaB]

Hello!

I have a 2.5 year old piggie named John. He is a teddy bear breed, and we were told to bathe monthly with baby shampoo. We did so for the first year of his life until Nov. 2024, when we took him for a routine vet visit, and she told us he had dry skin and we should stop bathing him. So we did.

Flash forward to the past couple of months, I started noticing hair clumps attached to skin coming out of his rump every now and again. The dry skin and flakiness persisted, but only really on his back half. Took him to the vet about 2 weeks ago and they performed a skin scrape, found no mites but put him on Revolution (Selamectin) anyways since the mites could be underneath the skin and non- detectable).

Week 2 after his first treatment (today) we find this bald patch on his back with a ton of hair clumps falling out from the same spot. Skin seems to be a little red and irritated.

Also, his grease glad was matted with grease that appeared orange (I know orange pee is sometimes common for males- I’ve only seen him actually pee orange once), and the bald spot is not surrounding the grease gland, but slightly above it, near. He doesn’t have any other dry skin or bald patches on his body.

Do you all think this is the work of mites? Could it also be the overactive grease glad causing hair loss, since we stopped bathing him altogether? Please help I am worried sick for my poor piggy .

 

[MaiaB]

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

Guinea pigs should never be bathed routinely - it is bad for them and can really disrupt the skin microbiome and strip it of healthy oils. I'm so sorry you were told to bathe him at all.
A healthy guinea pig never needs a bath. The only time they may need to be bathed is when they are elderly and no longer able to clean themselves (and sometimes not even then, not all piggies have that problem).

Teddies are known to have an issue with dry skin and hence why bathing can be even worse for them. I can only guess but I would imagine the bathing has really disrupted his skin, particularly as mites have not been found.

Mange mites do live in the skin. I’m not sure on the dosing of revolution as it’s not the most common one used here - is it a three treatment course?

Please could you add the pictures directly to this thread by pressing attach files - I’m not prepared to click on third party links.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I see you have now added the pictures directly

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome

Please do not overbathe and have the grease gland vet checked; the hair loss is clearly localised around the gland. Overbathing can also overstimulate the grease gland oil production to compensate for stripping the skin constantly.

Some piggies can suffer from condition called 'teddy skin' but the hair loss pattern is different, genetically determined and cannot prevented or controlled by bathing. Overbathing and disrupting the skin microbiome (a vital part of the immune system) won't help and can cause some major issues - overproduction from the grease gland is just one possible side effect.

I am very sorry that you have been given very outdated advice.

Boar Care: Bits, Bums & Baths

 

[MaiaB]

Welcome to the forum

Guinea pigs should never be bathed routinely - it is bad for them and can really disrupt the skin microbiome and strip it of healthy oils. I'm so sorry you were told to bathe him at all.
A healthy guinea pig never needs a bath. The only time they may need to be bathed is when they are elderly and no longer able to clean themselves (and sometimes not even then, not all piggies have that problem).

Teddies are known to have an issue with dry skin and hence why bathing can be even worse for them. I can only guess but I would imagine the bathing has really disrupted his skin, particularly as mites have not been found.

Mange mites do live in the skin. I’m not sure on the dosing of revolution as it’s not the most common one used here - is it a three treatment course?

Please could you add the pictures directly to this thread by pressing attach files - I’m not prepared to click on third party links.

Shoot that makes me so sad for him. Revolution is 6 treatments, one per month. It is pretty routine here for mite treatment I guess.

Do you believe the hair loss is due to grease gland activity? Dry skin? Mites? Is there anything I can do to stop the hair loss? We stopped bathing Nov. 2024 and apparently his skin has not recovered

 

[MaiaB]

Hi and welcome

Please do not overbathe and have the grease gland vet checked; the hair loss is clearly localised around the gland. Overbathing can also overstimulate the grease gland oil production to compensate for stripping the skin constantly.

Some piggies can suffer from condition called 'teddy skin' but the hair loss pattern is different, genetically determined and cannot prevented or controlled by bathing. Overbathing and disrupting the skin microbiome (a vital part of the immune system) won't help and can cause some major issues - overproduction from the grease gland is just one possible side effect.

I am very sorry that you have been given very outdated advice.

Boar Care: Bits, Bums & Baths

I am just confused, as this has all happened since we stopped bathing him. We did not bathe him since Nov 2024 when the vet told us to stop. The skin has seemed to worsen since then.

In your opinion, do you think the hair loss is due to grease over production? Have you seen it fall out in clumps like this? The bald patch is actually above the grease gland and not around it, so I just want to be sure. He has a vet appt next week, but she’s not a specialist in exotics, so I don’t know how much more info she will have for me this time compared to last when she prescribed Selamectin.

Is there anything I can do for him at this point to stop the hair loss?

 

[MaiaB]

I also saw someone suggest Malaseb shampoo for spot cleaning these areas- they said that using this shampoo on spots where the hair was falling out with skin clumps cured them in those areas. And the skin does look red and irritated… thoughts?

 

[Piggies&buns]

I would think and agree with everything both myself and wiebke have said.
Overbathing can strip the skin and cause
grease gland to go into overdrive

Malaseb is for fungal infections. I would not bathe him with this - unless the vet confirms a fungal infection

 

[MaiaB]

I understand. The bathing stopped as soon as the vet told us to stop in Nov 2024.

Can I do anything at this point? Should I wash around the grease gland to get away the matted grease? Should I apply coconut oil to skin to help dryness? I’m trying to prevent things from getting worse.