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I think Oscar has an ear infection

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boureki

boureki

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We bathed them all on Saturday and didn't notice anything untoward, picked him up yesterday night and discovered his ear was all crusty with samall bloodied scratches on the outside and nasty crust inside. Have just come back from the vets (my usual guinea savvy vet is on holiday) and the other guy was nice but didn't know if it was mites or an infection. He also has a couple of teeny puss spots on his man bits too so that suggests to me he's got an infection. Does anyone know if these things can come on quite suddenly, as despite our worrying about our newly squabbling bonded boys the two singles have been given less attention, and I'm pretty gutted if I haven't noticed anything before it got that manky. :-\

Vet gave him 0.7ml Septrin and 50ml ivomec jab (50ml was written on the paperwork - it seems like a huge amount to me?!) which I dithered over letting him give, mainly because we only had them orally dosed at CCT last month :-\ but hopefully the Septrin will do the job. No ear drops though, I'm going back in a week to see my usual vet and hopefully we'll see an improvement...
 
Hope it is nothing serious Julie, does he have head tilt at all?
 
Well, he's a naturally quiet pig so it's hard to tell if his habits are signiificantly changed, but to me it looked like he had a slight tilt yesterday. I'm not sure if I was imagining it though as that's the first thing I was looking out for after we discovered his ear, I was looking so hard for it! his appetite is fine, he's not an overly social pig much of the time, but seems to be spending a lot of time in his stick house just sitting or lying on his side, but he doesn't appear listless or anything like that. I just wish my normal vet had been there :-\
 
I just wanted to add to Julie's initial post that I had him out on Monday night for a quick cuddle and didn't notice anything unusual then (it would have been hard to miss) so this has come on in less than 2 days. :(
 
I am sure Maryh will be on soon to advise. It is odd that his man bits seem infected too but hopefully the antibiotics will kick in and do their job. You got him to the vet quickly when you noticed so I am sure he will be ok :)
 
0.7mls of Septrin is very high, the most I would give is 0.4 mls.per day. Are you sure it5 was 50mls of Ivermectin!.

This sounds more fungal to me and Ivermectin will not cure this.

I have pmd you re this.
 
maryh said:
0.7mls of Septrin is very high, the most I would give is 0.4 mls.per day. Are you sure it5 was 50mls of Ivermectin!.

This sounds more fungal to me and Ivermectin will not cure this.

I have pmd you re this.
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Anne is on hols at the mo but Andy will be giving me a call shortly, I have also texted CCT, so hopefully between all of us we should get this narrowed down a bit!

Thanks for your input Mary.
 
Thanks both - there seems to be more puss balls forming on the inside of his other ear :'( hopefully the Septrin will start to work in a day or two. It must be really horrible for him and he doesn't take kindly to a syringe!
 
Sending hugs and wheeks from the gang, hope little Oscar is feeling a bit better today Julie? :smitten: :smitten:
 
Hi

Thanks for all the kind words.

Oscar's ears were much worse this morning so we took him up to see Vedra this afternoon. Vedra took one look at him and immediately said he had ringworm :(

She and her assistant cleaned out much of the puss that had built up inside and outside his ears and his 'man bits' which really distressed him, he was obviously in a lot of pain and she has now kept him in for the week. She said the ringworm was really bad but it didn't seem to have spread either internally or anywhere else externally so hopefully we have caught it in time, but she did warn us he may lose one of his ears. She also couldn't understand why the vet didn't pick up on the fact it was ringworm when we took him on Wednesday, despite Julie even suggesting to him that it may be fungal! :-\

We've got to bathe the other three boys every two days in some anti-bacterial shampoo (not sure how we're going to do Pepe, he freaks out every bath time) as precautionary measures and then take them up to see Vedra next week when hopefully we can pick our little Oscar up.

Julie and I are both quite upset, we can't understand how he's picked this up and how it came on so suddenly, there was no indication of any fungal infection up until a few days ago.

We will keep everyone informed when we hear how he is getting on, we're going to have a quiet evening together as we're both quite down.

Thank you all again for all of the good wishes.

Marty
 
This must be very distressing for you both, just wanted you to know that I'm thinking of you. I know you will miss having the little fella around for a few days but he's going to be just fine. You are both such good piggie parents please don't let this get you down. Everyone who has piggies (or indeed any pet) knows that sometimes these things happen, it's nobody's fault, nobody or nothing is to blame - all you can do is deal with it as soon as it becomes apparent - which you have. O0



Sending you both very BIG piggie (((HUGS)))

Let us know how you all are - I know it's going to be a very long week for you both but you'll get lots of support here xxxxxxxxx Be kind to yourselves :)

Love Louise x
 
Awww Julie and Marty I am so sorry to hear that yet again a vet has incorrectly diagnosed a GP :tickedoff:
You are both fantastic piggy parents and the fact you got him up to Vedra so quickly proves how caring you are. He will be just fine in her care and at least you now know what it is :)

Sending big hugs your way and big kisses to Oscar :smitten: :smitten:

Fiona
 
Thanks everyone :smitten:

I texted Vedra last last night to see if he was still traumatised . When she had to hold him down to scrape the puss out his inner ear he was squealing in pain :'( I've never heard anything like it, I can imagine how shocking and agonising that was for him. She texted back this morning saying that as she's got the worst of the infected stuff out he will be feeling a lot better, which I'm grateful for. So that's cheered us up a bit. We had no idea she would want to keep him in, especially for the whole week, but he's clearly in the best place now. Of course now we are under strict instructions to bathe the other three every other day in something calles Nizarol (I'd rather have used neem) for the next week so that will keep us well and truly busy ::).

It's just so frustrating, I commented to the vet about the possibilty of it being fungal but he just didn't respond at all :-\ I'm not going to get angry with him, but I would have hoped that skin infections were one of the first things that they learn to identify, but perhaps it threw him as it was localised to the ears and genital area, there was no other sign of infection, no scurfy skin or dandruff, nothing, even Vedra confirmed this. She said the Septrin was pointless as it was a fungal not bacterial infection and I believe she will be putting him on Intrafungal which I think contains a particular antibiotic effective to this. When we pick him up next Friday I will make sure I gather as much info as possible and pass this info on to my non-savvy vet as 'feedback' so hopefully this information can be used by them in the future to prevent another mis-diagnosis.

As Marty said she warned he will probably lost part of his ear. Well, if he's otherwise fit and healthy and can live with that, then so can we, we'll just love him even more :smitten: We'll have to tell fellow cagemate Dylan (he of the wonky head) not to tease Oscar! ;)

Thanks for your posts, everyone is so supportive on here, I realise it's not a big deal compared to what some of you go through, but it's always upsetting to have to leave them in hospital isn't it!
 
Oh Julie i've only just caught up with this, heres me banging on about Ralfie! Poor little Oscar having to go on hols for a week! at least he's in the best place now, fingers crossed he gets to keep all of his ear but as you say aslong as he's healthy. Aw is Dylan missing him? If he ends up with half an ear he'll be like Sephy, she had half of both of hers chewed off as a baby lol! Hope this weeks doesnt go on too long for you and he's back home soon xxxxxxx
 
jnenbnb said:
Oh Julie i've only just caught up with this, heres me banging on about Ralfie! Poor little Oscar having to go on hols for a week! at least he's in the best place now, fingers crossed he gets to keep all of his ear but as you say aslong as he's healthy. Aw is Dylan missing him? If he ends up with half an ear he'll be like Sephy, she had half of both of hers chewed off as a baby lol! Hope this weeks doesnt go on too long for you and he's back home soon xxxxxxx
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lol, don't be daft Emma, course you're not baging on about Ralfie, it doesn't matter what we do, they always seem to get sick despite our best efforts! I'm glad Ralfie is doing better :smitten:
 
Aw poor Oscar, what a nasty thing for him to go through. Thank heavens for Vedra though, and well done on spotting it so quickly! At least you know he is in the best hands now and will get better.
I'm not surprised you were both feeling upset - its horrible when a piggy is ill!
We will keep all our fingers and paws crossed here for you and Oscar, and hopefully he won't have to lose his ear.
Do you know how he picked it up?

Tiger and Jeremy said to send their love and wheeks!

x
 
Hope you're both ok today, little Oscar will already be feeling much better I'm sure. I bet he's got his flip flops out, sunglasses and towel by the pool already ;D ;D Just try to think of him at a health spa ! He'll be back with you both in no time ;)

Just to cheer you up I'll send you a piccie of a rex agouti I picked up last week - when I get time ! We've called him Dennis !

Love to Oscar xx
 
Hi Julie and Marty, what a shocker when I logged on, poor little Oscar and poor you too! At least you've got to the bottom of what the actual problem is and it is now being dealt with. I loved SL's picture of a holiday spa, I'm sure Oscar is already feeling heaps better now he's getting the right treatment.

Love to you both from me and the gang.
 
I spoke to Vedra just now and she said that he will probably be able to come home on Wednesday now :D It sounds like the infection has been sorted but she did confirm that he is certain to lose his ear. She's treating it with something which sounded like pupoiodine and will shortly start treating with and anti fungal spray. But as long as we have him back safe and sound he's an indoor piggie so hopefully the cold winds won't be whistling through it and causing him discomfort. As this came on so suddenly, I would definately encourage checking in the piggies ears very regularly, we did them every so often but clearly it wasn't enough and we have now learnt our lesson. Unfortunately it's also made us kind of paranoid!
 
Aw thats sad about his ear, but as you say aslong as he's healthy and its great he can come home wednesday! I'm going to start checking my lots ears, i dont do it very regularly x
 
Glad to hear that Oscar will soon be home with you Julie - it is frightening how quickly the infection got a hold. Oscar is going to be a piggy of distinction with his one ear!

I think you and I need to organise a private jet to transport us up to Cambridge - we both seem to be living up there recently! Take care x.
 
Caviesgalore said:
Glad to hear that Oscar will soon be home with you Julie - it is frightening how quickly the infection got a hold. Oscar is going to be a piggy of distinction with his one ear!

I think you and I need to organise a private jet to transport us up to Cambridge - we both seem to be living up there recently! Take care x.
Click to expand...

We sure do - I'm waiting to hear back from her about a convenient time to pick him up - did you need Snowy taking up at all? I'm sure we can fit another in if he needs to go!
 
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