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I'm at my Witts end

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piggieboys

piggieboys

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Need some advice, when I first joined this forum I asked advise bout my male piggy who was fitting and had a skin problem, after many trips to the vets, many shampoos meds, creams I'm still no nearer to solving the problem,

Last week I took him to the vets , they gave him gas and scraped all the dandruff away and his fur looked looked good, they gave me hibiscrub think its called to put on his skin, Just for this treatment cost me 55 pounds.

Now at 6 this morning he woke me up squeaking and running round his cage, now he has a wound which is bleeding and the dandruff type stuff is coming back, I'm gonna take him to the vets today make an appointment for this morning but to be honest, I'm finding it hard to pay the vets bills as I'm out of work.

This has been going on now for 8 months does anyone have any idea what it could be ?
 
I'm sorry i dont have any advice, except are you confident with your vets, could you get a second opinion?
 
They keep saying its mites she said when she took a scrape and put it under the microscope there was an egg, hes had 8 lots of paromec in the last 8 weeks as shes told me to give it him once a week, ive used nazorol shampoo to try and get rid of the dandruff in the past as well, now he must have the wound through scratching, dont know hows hes managed to get there as its at the top of his back near his neck.

Theres not many vets round here that specialise in piggies as I'm in a small town with other small towns surrounding it.

I have spent 300 pounds in the last 4 months on two piggies and a rabbit and lost two of my pets and to be honest I really cant afford to be forking out much more if it comes to it and they cant treat him I might have to have him put to sleep, 8 months is a long time for this to be carrying on and its not fair to him bless him.

Going to the vets at 9.40 so will see what she has to say
 
Have a read through this thread - I had a pig with very similar problems.
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=67134

Another pig that has just arrived -

I have a young female in just now who has been treated for mites and fungal infections for the last 3 months and she is still scratching so badly she is opening her wounds and screaming. The person who rescued her has run out of ideas and so she has come here for me to deal with her.

Her order of treatment is going to be 3 days with a bandage and jacket on - so she cannot scratch and becomes used to the jacket, then a mite treatment. Another 3 days with the jacket on followed by a bath in Sporal D Shampoo to cleanse, disinfected and soothe her skin. 4 days of jacket again before 2nd mite treatment, another 3 days of jacket. Only then will I see how she is without it.

P1220107.JPG


This is the story of another two pigs that had very serious skin problems. Read the link in the first post to get the full story and treatments given.
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=78285

HTH

Suzy x
 
Sorry if you have already said or someone has asked, i haven't read this thread fully, what bedding do you have him on?

I would also suggest a second vet opinion, skin problems can be treated, if you cant afford vet treatment, please dont have him PTS, take him to a rescue, there is no need to have an otherwise healthy animal put to sleep just for a skin condition. I can see you have tried your best, ut your little boy doesn't need people to give up on him. x
 
Sorry if you have already said or someone has asked, i haven't read this thread fully, what bedding do you have him on?

I would also suggest a second vet opinion, skin problems can be treated, if you cant afford vet treatment, please dont have him PTS, take him to a rescue, there is no need to have an otherwise healthy animal put to sleep just for a skin condition. I can see you have tried your best, ut your little boy doesn't need people to give up on him. x
 
Can you contact Chrissie at Gorgeous Guineas? She has a lot of experience in guinea pig skin problems and when my piggie Mario had a horrible ringworm infection I emailed her ( she has a Facebook page you can contact her on too) and she rang me straight away and gave me lots of advice. Mario is clear now, he had a combination of malaseb shampoo and then gorgeous guinea melts and manuka and neem treatments. Horrible to see your piggie suffering so much x
 
I too have always managed to get good results with GG products and they are very very good with the advice they give.Just out of interest though where do you get the little jacket that is shown in the photo? I don't think I have seen these before.
 
The medium sized Walk N Vest - not ever used as a harness and lead to 'walk' a pig as it is very bad for their spines, only used as a protective jacket for piggies that need the extra protection from scratching and to help keep bandaging in place.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Walk-N-Ve...pplies_Small_Animals&var=&hash=item8012f7931d

HTH

Suzy x

ETA From previous posts from piggieboys I can see that they have used GG products to try to rectify the problem.
 
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Update from coming back from the vets.

Shes pleased with his skin says the hibiscrub is helping with the dryness, she has given me cream for the wound have to bathe with salt water and apply cream twice a day, she said that if he has a low immune system then it can take a long time for the treatment to take effect, She has known some piggies to take a very long time to cure, shes given me more meds to give him once a week and to use the hibiscrub a bit more to 3 tiimes a week. Shes very sure he will get better.

Now ive tried Gorgeous guinea pig products before and they havent seemed to help, but I will look on facebook so I can contact and talk to them see what they think, dont really wanna be using there products on top of what the vet is telling me to do, might be to many products going onto his skin.

Ive changed his bedding last week as he was on wood shavings and it seemed to irritate his skin, since hes been on the fleece hes not as irritated been more chilled out than he was on the shavings. The vet said cause his skin is so sensitive the wood shavings could have been making it worse for him. so just gonna see how he goes on now.

The jacket is a good idea thanks for that
 
An yes wood shavings are known to cause problems, I also use fleece for indoors and megazorb in their trays. I agree with you not to overload him with too many products, it's great that the vet sees an improvement tho! Maybe one of the GG melts after his treatment will put back some of the oils and nutrients into his skin and stop any irritation that could have been caused by the harshness of the products? Bless him - you are doing all you can for the little guy, :-) xx
 
I echo the comments about Gorgeous Guineas, Chrissie is fantastic and will give out the best advice in conjunction with your vet. She is worth a call to disuss the problems. Here is the story of my lovely old boy Mr Melt (sadly now over the rainbow bridge) and what she did for him:

http://www.gorgeousguineas.com/documents/Mr Melt.pdf

I have also had two sows who came to me with lice and fungal and both of them recovered using just her products. Worth another go?

I know it can all be frustrating, I felt awful when I lost two in the space of 6 weeks and I gave up counting the vets fees. Just think how relived and happy you will feel once its sorted?
 
What a lovely story I will get hold of her on facebook and see what she says as I cant e-mail her from the site it wont let me. Like you say I can tell her what the vet is treating him with and go from there, thanks everyone x
 
Anyone got the correct link to the facebook page for gorgeous Guinea pigs to contact Chrissie on there please
 
Ive tried that way but for some reason it wont send the e-mail so thats why ive tried through facebook, thank you also for the link
 
piggieboys said:
They keep saying its mites she said when she took a scrape and put it under the microscope there was an egg, hes had 8 lots of paromec in the last 8 weeks as shes told me to give it him once a week, ive used nazorol shampoo to try and get rid of the dandruff in the past as well, now he must have the wound through scratching, dont know hows hes managed to get there as its at the top of his back near his neck.

Theres not many vets round here that specialise in piggies as I'm in a small town with other small towns surrounding it.

I have spent 300 pounds in the last 4 months on two piggies and a rabbit and lost two of my pets and to be honest I really cant afford to be forking out much more if it comes to it and they cant treat him I might have to have him put to sleep, 8 months is a long time for this to be carrying on and its not fair to him bless him.


Going to the vets at 9.40 so will see what she has to say
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Hi, I see you are in Warrington? Can you make it to Whalley Range, Manchester? There's a vet there Ashleigh - they are really good, been recommended to me by two other vets in Altrincham as the place they refer piggies to that they feel they don't have the expertise to treat. Appreciate it's a bit of a trek if you don't have a car - but it's not too far if you can get a lift and avoid rush hour. xx
 
Sorry - my post was a bit 'late in the day' but if you're not getting anywhere with your vet they may be worth a call at a later date if needed xx
 
There seem to be a lot of these piggies at the moment. I have 1 here (was 2 but one died) and she's still wearing bandages or she's back to scratching. Yep it's regular bathing, mites treatments and preventing her cutting herself.

Suzy I'm glad that lady got in touch, she rang here and I gave her your details. I hope your treatment planm works for her - I have just got a vest for Kitty and will step up her bathing and mites treatments I think - see if it helps.

It's such a frustrating thing as all regular treatment plans just don't seem to want to touch this skin disorder whatever it is...
 
piggieboys said:
What a lovely story I will get hold of her on facebook and see what she says as I cant e-mail her from the site it wont let me. Like you say I can tell her what the vet is treating him with and go from there, thanks everyone x
Click to expand...

Hiya

You can email Chrissie at [email protected]

She is usually very quick at getting back to people.

Thank you re Mr Melt, it was a lovely story and he spent three lovely years with us with a herd of girls whom he adored. Sadly he had a heart attack and passed away just before Christmas but his gift to other guineas is to share his story and help people with similar problems.

Good luck! x
 
Thank you Suzy for information on jacket. What a great idea.Never thought of that one. Sorry it's a bit late but been out most of the day.
 
I have an elderly sow Guiness who would chew the fur out in her belly and get little scabs that were very like mites. She was repeatedly treated, but the only way I could keep it under control was to bath weekly with gorgeous guineas neem and shampoo - which she absolutely hated. I felt like I was constantly torturing her. The senior vet at the surgery said it was an allergy rather than mites so we tried every bedding available to no avail.

Anyhow I tried ggs Kwench lotion more out of desperation than hope and it worked straight away - he fur has grown back and I continue to rub some in weekly which she is unimpressed with, but has stopped flinching every time I pick her up.

I wouldn't have believed it if someone had told me about it but it was damn near a miracle. So if anyone has a guinea that chews and hasn't responded to any treatment it's worth a try.

I keep meaning to print out some details and take them to my vets in case they ever see something similar again as it's that rare thin - a treatment with no bad side effects.

Paula
 
If you are not working please contact the PDSA animal hospital - they do have a freephone 0800 tel. no.- I was told the other day that if you are in receipt of housing and or council tax benefit you can apply to them for a one off payment to help with a veterinary bill of £40 or more and depending on their funds they will make a donation towards the cost of the vet bill (they pay the vet direct ) - it might be worth finding out if there is a PDSA hospital in your catchment area as you would probably be eligable for free treatment. - please do not have piggy pts as I am sure one of the lovely rescues on here would take him on as a last resort - you could always then just set up even a tiny standing order or paypal payment of even £1 or so every often to the rescue - hope this helps - and good luck xx
 
Thanks Tan I used the PDSA for my Rabbit a few months ago and the paid up the remaining mount after the 40 pound charge, these treatments have been about 55 a time or 40 so I'm not gaining much back plus the catchment area I'm not in so cant go directly to them either but thanks anyway for mentioning it
 
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