help help, itchy pig?

[fur & buzz]

Furby is white, wit pink skin eyes etc, no bother...until i took him out about an hour ago for a quick run about before bed.....and when i lifted him up i noticed that all along one side, sorta under him, but not his belly, the haair is almost gone, and the skin looks like ezema? cant spell that, but it's the best description... it doesn't seem to be too itchy, and i haven't noticed him scratching....
their bedrooms have vet bed and the rest of the cage is newspaper with hay, i've had them on these for several weeks, so i am not sure that that is the cause.....but i'm just guessing that it could be something he's rubbed it on, ie: bed or hay.....
the hay they are on is pretty good hay, not dusty and it's clean....good quality, their vet bed gets de-pooped every day and washed (without detergent) and sun dried every 4-5 days depending....
help? what should i change him onto? i've taken out the vet bed and just left hay.....the only other thing i have is wood shavings, and the hay is softer than that.....should i put him on fleece? he's not used to it?
Should i bath him tomorrow?? he hasn't had a bath before, but maybe it'll help?? they get the best food i can buy, they get a good variety of veg, could he be allergic to one of the veg, they usually get cucumber, broccoli, parsley, carrot, baby corn, the odd mangetout, a bit of grass, nothing unusual....

 

[Niki]

It could be mites, i'd take him to your vets who will diagnose properly. If it is mites xeno 450 or Ivermectin work a treat

I personally would leave the vetbed in & not use shavings

 

[fur & buzz]

yeah i'll ring the vet in the morning, he may not think it necessary if i called him now! even if i do.....
i dont think it's mites, but haven't seen them before, but i could find nothing at alllll on him, and the other two got a seriously close look and they are perfect.....i am also very sensitive to all biting insects and didn't notice anything..(although i am scratching now, but only at the thought....)..where could he get mites? could they have been on the hay if it is? hmmmm....will call the vet tomorrow...
i'll leave the vet bed out for tonight and give it a double wash just in case....it was due to be washed anyway...
poor furby.....:0

 

[gp lover]

Sounds kinda like what happened to my piggie when his back legs werent working correctly. I think his legs got damaged or his spine we dont exactly know how this happend to him, but we ended up taking him to the vet and she said to give him meds. So we bought them, about a week later we lifted him and noticed that the underbelly part was completly missing his fur! You could litterally see his skin. She said it was because of all the crawling he had to do to get from point a to point b. When we took him to the vet, she gave us some meds and a shampoo called "Malaseb" we used it as recommended. He began to get his fur back almost immediately! Hes doing great now! Hes got all his fur back and everything! I would recommend you ask your vet and then ask for the shampoo if he/she can diagnose it as what might have been wrong with ours. Hope all works out with your piggie.

 

[fur & buzz]

yeah i checked that too, cause i had a partially paralised pig bofore, he's acting normal in every way....that's what's weird, but it's more on his side that his belly....he has very little hair under his belly normally, cause it's pink and his hair is quite rough, i dunno, his belly is just never as hairy and the others, never has been.....maybe he waxes!!
i'll def get him to the vet, and probably get some shampoo, ivermectin and anything else she thinks......thanks everyone....gosh but it's great to have so many nice people to ask for help! i should be in bed, but i just had to get the laptop out after i noticed it.

 

[fur & buzz]

just thought of something.....furby is living with wallace, and benny is in a cage beside them.......i cant exactly bring them all along for the spin...but should i bring wallace with furby?
will they be more upset if i split them up, and if i split them up will they go back together ok? especially as furby will smell different?
if i bring the two will benny be ok on his own?
obviously it'll be a bit stressful for them to travel etc, so is it fair to put wallace through that when he's ok?
oh the stress.....(on me!)

 

[Niki]

Mites aren't visible to the naked eye I would take Wallace with him, i take my buns together when only one needs treatment & now i have piggy pairs will do the same. Benji should be fine for the short while they're away

 

[fur & buzz]

thanks for your help, i took him straight to the vet this morning, she gave him ivermectin and spot on as well...she agreed it didn't look quite right for mites, we think the hay must not be soft enough for his soft pink skin, she also thought that it could be caused by stress tho, if he was getting bullied...while i haven't seen him get bullied, i have noticed the last few days that he's been sleeping out on the hay, and not in one of their two houses, where the vet bed was, so for now i have given him his own cage, with lovely new bedding, it's a type of shredded tissue paper, he's having a ball burrowing around his cage in it....he got a shot of anti biotics too, because this morning when i went in he had a bit cut all down his leg, from his hip down, like a really bad graze, that must have bled a little...not sure how he did it, the only thing i can think is if they had a scuffle, he may have fallen from the upper level...i feel so bad, but it's good and i've put sudo cream on it, which i think he quite enjoyed....off to the pet shop tomorrow to get him a pressie, wallace is looking for him a bit.....i assume it'll be ok to leave them out on the floor together, they've been together for about 2 months....so i dont want to just split them permentantly....once furby is all healed i would hope they can go back, once i know there is no bullying going on...