Ok so I took Manny to the vet and he charged me £54 for a bottle of shampoo whilst I stood their and diagnosed Manny myself....... these vets advertise themselves as exotic pet specialists!
He took a 3 second look at him and said - that's a vitamin c deficiency, very common get some vitamin effavescent from chemist and add to his water, he has scurvy! - that was it......that was his verdict, scurvy! Very nice chap, don't get me wrong, very pleasent but that was his medical opinion after 3 seconds, SCURVY. I was like listen mate, I'm more at risk at getting scurvy than these guinea pigs (atleast that's what I was saying in my head) {:|.
My actual response - (big clap to me as I'm usually a total whimp) was to say, 'I very much doubt that. He's on a high vitamin c diet, excel burgess nuggets, with lots of high vitamin c fresh vegetables every day - morning and night (my guinea's eat way better than I do) one of their favourite foods is broccoli which they gobble down, plus they also have a high quality muesli with extra vitamin C - to keep them interested in different dried foods - which they also eat. I accept that when anyone is poorly Vitamin C is a great vitamin to give to help boost the immune system - but what I'm looking at is not Scurvy!! This is either parasetic or fungal. I suspect fungal because it's around the eyes and nose, but the back looks parasetic which to me could mean a combination of both'. I then pointed to effected areas.
Then he said well where are you getting information from, trying to make out like he was the vet and I knew nothing - so I bluffed.......! {:| don't tell on me. I said the Cavy medical guide (which is true) then basically made out with some choice words that I have a wealth of background knowledge on guinea pigs by saying, the rescue centres I'm involved with..... (which well I'm involved, I'm on this site....).
So then he changed his tune and literally ran off into his little room - was there for about ten minutes and came back with a text book! Ok so atleast after this he went to check - but seriously, I have text books here at home! He then concluded I was right in my disgnosis but even he couldn't tell if it was fungal or parasetic - what the ***** am I paying him £54 for!! URGH SO ANGRY. But I whimped out at challenging him on that, I just paid it because I wanted to get Manny and Floyd home.
He gave me a bottle of Malaseb - which says it's for Dogs and Cats - I asked if it was safe for guinea's he said 'yeah we use it all the time on dogs and cats for mange' - I had no choice but to take it - but I'm not using it until I've done my research.
I went to my bl**dy chemist who had more of a clue than this vet!! He read the ingrediants and I asked about Nizoral and he agreed that with a sensitive gut flora Nizoral might be better - but atleast as a chemist he wasn't trying to make out like he knew! I asked if I could use some tea tree oil on the effected area, he said best not too, so we looked at Calendula cream - which I've also got.
Not going to use anything until thoroughly checked it all out though.
So what's the opinion?! People here used Malaseb shampoo on their guinea's or Calendula cream?
Much appreciate any help!
I just paid £54 to teach a qualified vet about guinea pigs when I've only had mine for 3 weeks........he didn't even know that fungal infections are more common around the eye and nose area.....
grrrr grrrr grrrr grrrr
He took a 3 second look at him and said - that's a vitamin c deficiency, very common get some vitamin effavescent from chemist and add to his water, he has scurvy! - that was it......that was his verdict, scurvy! Very nice chap, don't get me wrong, very pleasent but that was his medical opinion after 3 seconds, SCURVY. I was like listen mate, I'm more at risk at getting scurvy than these guinea pigs (atleast that's what I was saying in my head) {:|.
My actual response - (big clap to me as I'm usually a total whimp) was to say, 'I very much doubt that. He's on a high vitamin c diet, excel burgess nuggets, with lots of high vitamin c fresh vegetables every day - morning and night (my guinea's eat way better than I do) one of their favourite foods is broccoli which they gobble down, plus they also have a high quality muesli with extra vitamin C - to keep them interested in different dried foods - which they also eat. I accept that when anyone is poorly Vitamin C is a great vitamin to give to help boost the immune system - but what I'm looking at is not Scurvy!! This is either parasetic or fungal. I suspect fungal because it's around the eyes and nose, but the back looks parasetic which to me could mean a combination of both'. I then pointed to effected areas.
Then he said well where are you getting information from, trying to make out like he was the vet and I knew nothing - so I bluffed.......! {:| don't tell on me. I said the Cavy medical guide (which is true) then basically made out with some choice words that I have a wealth of background knowledge on guinea pigs by saying, the rescue centres I'm involved with..... (which well I'm involved, I'm on this site....).
So then he changed his tune and literally ran off into his little room - was there for about ten minutes and came back with a text book! Ok so atleast after this he went to check - but seriously, I have text books here at home! He then concluded I was right in my disgnosis but even he couldn't tell if it was fungal or parasetic - what the ***** am I paying him £54 for!! URGH SO ANGRY. But I whimped out at challenging him on that, I just paid it because I wanted to get Manny and Floyd home.
He gave me a bottle of Malaseb - which says it's for Dogs and Cats - I asked if it was safe for guinea's he said 'yeah we use it all the time on dogs and cats for mange' - I had no choice but to take it - but I'm not using it until I've done my research.
I went to my bl**dy chemist who had more of a clue than this vet!! He read the ingrediants and I asked about Nizoral and he agreed that with a sensitive gut flora Nizoral might be better - but atleast as a chemist he wasn't trying to make out like he knew! I asked if I could use some tea tree oil on the effected area, he said best not too, so we looked at Calendula cream - which I've also got.
Not going to use anything until thoroughly checked it all out though.
So what's the opinion?! People here used Malaseb shampoo on their guinea's or Calendula cream?
Much appreciate any help!
I just paid £54 to teach a qualified vet about guinea pigs when I've only had mine for 3 weeks........he didn't even know that fungal infections are more common around the eye and nose area.....
grrrr grrrr grrrr grrrr
