Ringworm treatment

[LucyP]

Hi all

I’ve read a lot of really helpful ringworm advice on this website (thanks loads) but just wanted to double check a few things.

We adopted two young female pigs (both under a year old) from a well established rescue centre. They’d been rescued from what sounds like a chaotic and stressful situation (massive over run family) before going to the rescue centre. They’re adorable. One is Betty and one is winnie.

We spotted a slightly dry and scaly/flaky area on betty’s ear. The rescue centre explained they had been treating them both for a fungal infection with athletes foot cream but they believed it had all cleared up.

We took them home and they were settling well (very skittish and shy but getting bolder as the days wore on and eating well and popcorning etc and we were careful to give them time to adapt and not over handle them etc)... but less than two weeks in the larger pig started to itch more and more and the scaly dry patch looked worse and more crusty (hard to see much as they have lovely glossy black hair). But the skin on the ear is very red.

It’s hard to tell if/where winnie has anything as there are no major signs visible but she is scratching lots and looks vaguely flaky in places (maybe) so assume she’s got it too.

We asked the rescue centre for advice and they said continue with athletes foot cream rather than oral meds, in case oral meds upset their system (esp as they are so young), so we went with that. 24 hours into that treatment and the scaly patches now look more red and scabby and they seem to be itching more than ever. Is this normal with cream treatment?

Do we continue with the cream as advised, or go to a dip and/or oral combination? Will the dip sting them because they’re now a bit scabby?

Happy to take them to the vet but since they were already diagnosed and since we are trying to not overly handle / stress them out, not sure what’s best. One of them will sit still for the cream but the other one isn’t happy being handled for this. They’ve had a lot of upheaval in their young lives so we don’t want to stress them more but really want to help them clear this. Horrible to see them suffering and scratching so much!

Following all the advice about hygiene and we’re aware will probably need to replace a lot of their brand new wooden furniture and bits. That’s a pain but the main thing is they recover from this, so any advice re how to approach next steps medically would be most welcome.


Edit- sorry I should add they were also treated by the centre with a shampoo although not sure which one.

Thanks very much
Lucy

 

[Wiebke]

Hi all

I’ve read a lot of really helpful ringworm advice on this website (thanks loads) but just wanted to double check a few things.

We adopted two young female pigs (both under a year old) from a well established rescue centre. They’d been rescued from what sounds like a chaotic and stressful situation (massive over run family) before going to the rescue centre. They’re adorable. One is Betty and one is winnie.

We spotted a slightly dry and scaly/flaky area on betty’s ear. The rescue centre explained they had been treating them both for a fungal infection with athletes foot cream but they believed it had all cleared up.

We took them home and they were settling well (very skittish and shy but getting bolder as the days wore on and eating well and popcorning etc and we were careful to give them time to adapt and not over handle them etc)... but less than two weeks in the larger pig started to itch more and more and the scaly dry patch looked worse and more crusty (hard to see much as they have lovely glossy black hair). But the skin on the ear is very red.

It’s hard to tell if/where winnie has anything as there are no major signs visible but she is scratching lots and looks vaguely flaky in places (maybe) so assume she’s got it too.

We asked the rescue centre for advice and they said continue with athletes foot cream rather than oral meds, in case oral meds upset their system (esp as they are so young), so we went with that. 24 hours into that treatment and the scaly patches now look more red and scabby and they seem to be itching more than ever. Is this normal with cream treatment?

Do we continue with the cream as advised, or go to a dip and/or oral combination? Will the dip sting them because they’re now a bit scabby?

Happy to take them to the vet but since they were already diagnosed and since we are trying to not overly handle / stress them out, not sure what’s best. One of them will sit still for the cream but the other one isn’t happy being handled for this. They’ve had a lot of upheaval in their young lives so we don’t want to stress them more but really want to help them clear this. Horrible to see them suffering and scratching so much!

Following all the advice about hygiene and we’re aware will probably need to replace a lot of their brand new wooden furniture and bits. That’s a pain but the main thing is they recover from this, so any advice re how to approach next steps medically would be most welcome.


Edit- sorry I should add they were also treated by the centre with a shampoo although not sure which one.

Thanks very much
Lucy

Hi!

Please have them vet checked and go for proper treatment - in the end, it will be cheaper if you have to do this battle only once and not have it turned into an endless battle.
Oral the most effective and the least stressful, especially in view of the delicate ear being rather badly affected, but you will have to give at least one bath to make sure that there are no more spores on their body that could cause a third outbreak after the end of treating the current one. Your piggies will make the connection with your medication and feeling better at some point.

Athlete's foot cream is not effective enough as you have found out to your own cost - otherwise your piggies would not have come already infected either again or with the original site not properly healed off.

Use our piggy whispering tips and plenty of encouragement, sympathy and praise; that often works well with skittish new piggies.

Working around prey animal instincts and using piggy social interactive body language to make immediate sense to them: Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering And Cuddling Tips
Safe bathing tips to avoid injuries from freak blind jumps: Bathing (including cleaning grease glands)
You have read it, but here is our ringworm care guide again with pictures of how an acute outbreak runs; it has to get worse before it gets better: Ringworm: Hygiene And Pictures

Unfortunately anybody can call themselves a rescue without licensing, and this can show in how well (or not) ringworm and mange mites are treated...

 

[LucyP]

Hi!

Please have them vet checked and go for proper treatment - in the end, it will be cheaper if you have to do this battle only once and not have it turned into an endless battle.
Oral the most effective and the least stressful, especially in view of the delicate ear being rather badly affected, but you will have to give at least one bath to make sure that there are no more spores on their body that could cause a third outbreak after the end of treating the current one. Your piggies will make the connection with your medication and feeling better at some point.

Athlete's foot cream is not effective enough as you have found out to your own cost - otherwise your piggies would not have come already infected either again or with the original site not properly healed off.

Use our piggy whispering tips and plenty of encouragement, sympathy and praise; that often works well with skittish new piggies.

Working around prey animal instincts and using piggy social interactive body language to make immediate sense to them: Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering And Cuddling Tips
Safe bathing tips to avoid injuries from freak blind jumps: Bathing (including cleaning grease glands)
You have read it, but here is our ringworm care guide again with pictures of how an acute outbreak runs; it has to get worse before it gets better: Ringworm: Hygiene And Pictures

Unfortunately anybody can call themselves a rescue without licensing, and this can show in how well (or not) ringworm and mange mites are treated...

Hi Wiebke

Thanks so much for such a speedy and helpful reply. Really appreciate this!

Very happy to go to a vet. I guess I just wanted to check out the best way to approach this, since they were already diagnosed by a vet local to the centre apparently and you sometimes hear on this site (and other sites) of vets making unhelpful suggestions or wrong diagnoses (or suggesting overly strong meds) and generally not being very cavy savvy, so I was in two minds. I agree it’s worth getting them checked out again, they clearly need a fresh look at their symptoms and the oral med sounds very effective.

The centre has been very apologetic and said they must have stopped the fungal treatment a bit too soon. They’re following up with us daily and are very keen to help us and to find out what’s happening, to be fair to them. They’ve also been clear all along that we can call them or hand the pigs back any time if we need to but we don’t plan to send them back.

I now know from reading this site that athletes foot cream is no longer considered by the experts here as an effective approach and this is very helpful to know- various websites still mention it as a valid treatment which is really confusing! We don’t want to be stuck in an endless ringworm cycle though, so will try to fix this via the vet.

I also really appreciate the guinea whispering pages etc- thanks. Considering their unstable start to life and the fact we’ve only had them a couple of weeks, they’re not doing too badly I don’t think- they’ll take food from us and they’ll come out for a nose and sniff around us when they’re having a run, and they’re happy to squeak loudly and run over if they think food is coming! But they’re jumpy at times and not keen on being handled, which is totally understandable, (I’d be the same!) but for their sakes it would be nice to help them grow in confidence, so those tips are really helpful for us and I’ll look at that properly tomorrow. Thanks!

We knew we were signing up to this with young rescue piggies but we wanted to do it that way. The ringworm was a bit of a bombshell so early on but it’s worth it...they’re such sweet pigs who needed taking care of and we feel we can give them a happy and healthy home, so onwards and upwards and at least we’ll learn from this.... ! This website helps a lot.

Thanks again

Lucy

 

[Siikibam]

Are they willing to help cover the vet costs?
Hopefully your girls will be better soon with the right treatment

 

[LucyP]

Are they willing to help cover the vet costs?
Hopefully your girls will be better soon with the right treatment

Thanks everyone!

Just to update..

The vet (exotic pet specialist) gave them both a good once over and felt there was some small signs of fungal infection around the ears, not a bad case but worth giving the oral medical treatment which is what we’re doing. No other issues and weight, teeth, heart, coat and feet all looking ok.

Happy to cover the vet costs as we were thinking of getting them a check over anyway and the rescue centre was not for profit and not asking for money, just donations. I will feedback to the rescue centre so they’re aware of the outcome though.

Thanks again for your support.
Lucy

 

[Siikibam]

I’m glad everything else was as it should be. Hope the girls are settled and on the mend soon

 

[LucyP]

I’m glad everything else was as it should be. Hope the girls are settled and on the mend soon ❣

Thanks so much!

They’re not loving all the faff and I don’t blame them, it’s all a bit unsettling and who’d like having treatment. But we’re doing it as calmly and kindly as possible and they seem to bounce back quite quickly - we’re still seeing some popcorning and cheeky curiosity from them, so hopefully they’ll settle well once we get past this blip. We’ll take it at their pace and give them time to adjust.

Cheers
Lucy