Help Please - Hair Loss

[Teresa]

Hi all, I am looking for some advice / ideas.....I have 4 male guineas. I noticed something on the oldest who is 4. It looks as though his hair has been 'ripped' out. Not from the root, from kind of half way down the strand. It's like this all over his back end and sides. They all get along fine, the no sign of the missing hair anywhere and no matter how long I watch them for, I can't anything happening??

 

[Wiebke]

Hi! Please have your boy checked for mange mites. They can come on very quickly in older/weakened guinea pigs; yours sounds rather well developed. You will need a properly dosed ivermectin product, ideally by injection for best efficiency. Please be aware that shop brands are geared towards the prevention of mites and too low dosed for the treatment in an acute case.

Make sure that you are actually dealing with mites and not fungal - best with a trip to a good vet! We have got a piggy savvy UK vet locator on the top bar. Do not treat on spec as you can make things worse instead of better.

It would help us enormously if you added which country you are in as product names differ. Click on your username on the top bar, then go to personal details and down to location.

http://www.guinealynx.info/mites.html
http://gorgeousguineas.com/indentification.html
http://gorgeousguineas.com/photogallery.html

 

[helen105281]

I agree it sounds like mange mites as a typical sign is hair broken half way down the shaft. A vet visit is needed for diagnosis and treatment and fungal needs to be ruled out too.