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Skinny Pig Skin Care

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SkinnyPigRiver

SkinnyPigRiver

Junior Guinea Pig
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Melody Pond scratched her back with a rear leg while eating dinner just now and squeaked with what seemed like pain while doing it. This means both girls will get a quick nail-blunting with the rotary again tonight, but I'm concerned because her skin seems to actually be more delicate than River Song's.
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Melody has very pink skin with white fuzzy fur which I think hides dry skin from me.​

What sort of ointments/balms do people like to use for their skinnies' skin? I can't afford Gorgeous Guineas, and also, I'm quite convinced there are other products, designed for humans and animals, that help. I've used bag balm on my rat terrier, but I'm hesitant to put any on Melody. So far, I massage her gently with coconut oil to get off the scratched skin and sooth it a bit, but I know something water-based would probably be healthier. Any suggestions?
 
SkinnyPigRiver said:
Melody Pond scratched her back with a rear leg while eating dinner just now and squeaked with what seemed like pain while doing it. This means both girls will get a quick nail-blunting with the rotary again tonight, but I'm concerned because her skin seems to actually be more delicate than River Song's.
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Melody has very pink skin with white fuzzy fur which I think hides dry skin from me.​

What sort of ointments/balms do people like to use for their skinnies' skin? I can't afford Gorgeous Guineas, and also, I'm quite convinced there are other products, designed for humans and animals, that help. I've used bag balm on my rat terrier, but I'm hesitant to put any on Melody. So far, I massage her gently with coconut oil to get off the scratched skin and sooth it a bit, but I know something water-based would probably be healthier. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I am tagging @helen105281 for you. She had a skinny with delicate skin.
Please also don't overlook the possibility of mange mites causing the distress.
 
I would get her to the vets just to get her checked for mange mites or fungal. I found with my skinny that what we thought looked like fungal actually turned out to be mange mites. How is her skin? is it dry? is there any discolouration? for dry skin I tend to use a spray called Humilac. I am not sure if you can get that in the US though? My Phoebe had numerous health issues and over sensitive skin was one of them, we ended up keeping her on a low dose pain relief but hopefully it won't come to that with your girl.
 
helen105281 said:
I would get her to the vets just to get her checked for mange mites or fungal. I found with my skinny that what we thought looked like fungal actually turned out to be mange mites. How is her skin? is it dry? is there any discolouration? for dry skin I tend to use a spray called Humilac. I am not sure if you can get that in the US though? My Phoebe had numerous health issues and over sensitive skin was one of them, we ended up keeping her on a low dose pain relief but hopefully it won't come to that with your girl.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comprehensive reply! Melody is sort of ginger and has very light skin with freckle-like spots. She's always had these two weird patches of VERY THIN white skin behind her ears, and her skin always shows the slightest injury. To be honest, when compared to my other skinny pig, Melody seems a little... inbred? It might be a pigmentation thing, since my other skinny is black and has much tougher skin.

Her skin looks/feels normal, no patches of anything, but she did have a couple of red lines from where she had scratched herself. So far, I'm inclined to think it's still a delicate skin issue. I gave her a coconut oil bath last night paying attention to those areas she was scratching.

I wiped off some dead skin. I also touched each of her nails with the rotary file to make sure they weren't too sharp. I'm going to keep an eye on her all of today, and if I see a repeat performance we're off to the vet (I'm dreading mange mites, they seem awful). I do have some E45 cream I ordered after reading it was good for skinnies. Have you tried it?
 
Okay, it's 2:30 PM, PST, and Melody hasn't squeaked-scratched at all so far. Yes, I've been spending the entire day indoors, cleaning house and keeping it quiet so I can hear any guinea pig noises. The E45 lotion arrived, and I tried it on my own hands... nice!
 
They do have a thinner patch behind their ears. Some skinnies are definitely more inbred than others. Phoebe was so poorly bless her and so was her sister Katie. Whereas 2 of my current skinnies are huge and seem robust and no health issues so far. It is positive that she has stopped scratching, hopefully it is just dry skin. I haven't tried E45 am afraid.
 
Melody scratched and squeaked again tonight, and her skin does look visibly flakey. Tomorrow she and River get to meet the vet! I don't want to risk it's mites and let it get worse. It's difficult to see the dandruff because she has sort white hairs on her upper back, I had to look very closely to see the difference.
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This is the position the girls ended up in after their initial exam. Melody was nervous, and frightened, and River must have been in her own way, because she was a real jerk to poor little Melody.

So, Melody Pond does not have mites, neither does River, and they are both healthy with good teeth! Melody just has really delicate skin. They sold me some spray to treat her with once a day, but I'm thinking that the E45 cream is going to be our friend.

River is hilarious when she's not beating up on Melody. The vet even gave her an entire face massage, and River was just loving it, eating up the attention. It's so weird how she and Melody have such opposite personalities.
 
helen105281 said:
That's good news it's not mites. Do you know the name of the spray you were given?
Click to expand...
It's Vetericyn. Basically, they sold me something I already had at home in a very different package! It's probably okay, though, bc the spray I have was purchased in 2012. Now we have fresh spray. Her skin looks a lot less irritated today, so I'm gonna guess this might be a lifestyle for Melody.
 
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