I'm calling for your help again please -fungal?

[Guinea pigs <3]

Ok, so recently I posted a thread concerned that my girls have mites. They were started on Xeno (6 drops each, every two weeks for six weeks). Well over the last two days I have seen small clumps of Dotties hair with dead skin on the end...very suggestive of fungal grrrr, which I know the xeno wont treat. I can't see any specific bald patches on her but she is clearly itchy when I try to look through her fur and she seems to be molting more than normal too. My question is could mites cause clumps of fur to come out with hair on the end or is this really only limited to fungal?

Next question...what do I do if it is fungal?! Stop the xeno? I'm going to order some shampoo from gorgeous guineas now. Ps, both pigs have only had one dose so far of xeno. I just want to get this sorted because I am so worried it's going to get out of control and I hate to think of my piggies in any pain grrrr

Please heeeelp!

 

[Suzygpr]

Were the mites confirmed by skin scrape? Mites are the most common form of skin problem and it is logical to treat fro them first, I would stick with the treatment for now and if after their second dose they are not making improvement then a call to the vet would be wise.

Suzy x

 

[Guinea pigs <3]

Were the mites confirmed by skin scrape? Mites are the most common form of skin problem and it is logical to treat fro them first, I would stick with the treatment for now and if after their second dose they are not making improvement then a call to the vet would be wise.

Suzy x

Thanks for your quick response Suzy. No the vet didn't do a skin scrape :{ she just assessed the skin and said it was mites...another case of not really a cavy savy vet ?/ They are due another dose of xeno on Tuesday, will complete the course and if it seems like it's getting worse will get her back to the vets and will ask for a skin scrape. In the mean time the gorgeous guineas shampoo should arrive and i'll make a start with that which should hopefully help. Thanks again.

 

[Wiebke]

Make sure that you leave at least two days between mites treatment and any baths.

Sometimes mites can cause very small patches of scales to come out with a few hairs attached - they are from places where the skin has been affected by mite eggs burrowing in. With fungal, there is usually a lot more scaly skin and the scales tend to be bigger. Any hair comes off really easy in swathes when you pull. Has the itching gone down over the last few days or not at all?

 

[Guinea pigs <3]

Make sure that you leave at least two days between mites treatment and any baths.

Sometimes mites can cause very small patches of scales to come out with a few hairs attached - they are from places where the skin has been affected by mite eggs burrowing in. With fungal, there is usually a lot more scaly skin and the scales tend to be bigger. Any hair comes off really easy in swathes when you pull. Has the itching gone down over the last few days or not at all?

Thanks Wiebke, very useful advice. Have been reading on the gorgeous guineas website regarding shampooing and when to do it after xeno. Her skin doesn't look very scaly or dry and the bits of hair that are coming out are only a few strands at a time, rather than a huge clump. If I lightly tug the hair it doesn't come out, it's just over the last few days it seems like more tuffs of hair are appearing in her cage which made me think that it is getting worse rather than better? In terms of itchiness i think it's at about the same level as it has been, it is hard to establish how itchy she is because she has never liked me looking through her hair or pushing it the wrong way so to speak! I have seen her scratch here and there, but I must admit she's not scratching all the time, it is more when I look through her coat she makes irritable noises and tries to turn around to stop me from doing it. Does this make it any more likely to be one thing rather than another? I feel slightly better knowing that mites can cause some hair to shed with scales attached. I'm washing their vet bed every few days on a 60 degree wash and their cage is regularly disinfected every week. I also now use Oxbow western timothy hay, where as previously I was using medow hay which was cheaper...

I will keep any of the bits of hair from now on that I find and will take a photo to put on here. I just want to make sure i'm doing the best thing because if it was fungal and then I left it to get really bad I would feel absolutely awful.