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Tea Cake - scratching, off colour, scabs

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lauraboara

lauraboara

Adult Guinea Pig
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Location
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Tea Cake - male
Age - 5 months
Weight - 809g
Short haired , crested

Symptoms - Generally off colour, not as lively as normal but OK. Scratching more than normal and has scratched until small scabs along spine. Hair looks OK but possibly some more shedding than usual. No visible creatures or specks ie lice.
Sounds like mites?

Eating - Fine, still keen on veggies etc.

Action so far - Have just been to Vet. He had a very thorough examination - particularly a feel of the abdomen to see if anything internal might be causing discomfort. Nothing found. Some sticky tape samples taken from skin and all clear too.

Vet not convinced it is mites but gave first injection of ivermectin anyway. Back in 10 days for 2nd injection and review.

I have ordered xeno for all of my others (6 in total) and will treat in case.

Going to thoroughly clean cage.

Any thoughts? I am doing things right? Strange that there were no mites on the 2 skin samples - or is this common that they are deeper in the skin? Is there something else to look out for?

PS note trying to do health posting properly!:)p
 
Could it be burrowing mites? These live under the skin which would explain why there's nothing visible on the surface, and are very itchy. Try looking for spots of dried blood on the piggies skin, this is where the mite 'enters' the body.

Sorry I'm not much use, hopefully someone with more experience will come along soon!
 
Thanks - that makes sense but then why do the sellotape and microscope test?
Thankfully, Tea Cake does not look anything like the pictures of the g pigs on the link. Hopefully it has been caught early. When should the ivermectin begin to kick in? The vet did not think any pain meds were appropriate.
Just want him to feel less itchy and more comfortable...
 
gplearner said:
Thanks - that makes sense but then why do the sellotape and microscope test?
Thankfully, Tea Cake does not look anything like the pictures of the g pigs on the link. Hopefully it has been caught early. When should the ivermectin begin to kick in? The vet did not think any pain meds were appropriate.
Just want him to feel less itchy and more comfortable...
Click to expand...

The sellotape test is to look for running lice or static mites under the scope, the bugs tend to wave their little legs when you do this :)
 
Give Teacake a piggy cuddle from me x>>

The ivermectin should kick in straight away, by tomorrow you should see less scratching if it is mange mites.
 
Update

Just a quick Tea Cake update - he is still not normal zooming around Tea Cake but does seem to be better. Having deeper sleeps so assume more comfortable. I have looked at the small scabby scratches on his back and they seem to be drying up already which is good. I feel more in control now the others have been 'xeno' ed. They are all well in themsleves.

So now symptoms improving, I am wondering why? If it is mange mites, isn't that normally associated with poor conditions and / or stress? Tea Cake is indoors, well cared for (i hope) and appears happily bonded ie not being bullied. Are there other factors that can cause a flare up?

Sorry for more questions, just wanting to learn for future. xx
 
No theories anyone? I know mites are common and you have probably have answered it before but just wanting to know what might have caused a flare up? I think that piggies can be carriers of the eggs and then something causes an increase that leads to active symptoms? The other piggies seem all fine.

Thanks for any ideas.
 
My piggy Gracie, has had a problem with this on and off and my Rodentologist friend says it is Mycosis- a fungal skin infection. She has had it since birth as her Mum had it when she came to me (pregnant and in appalling condition as a rescue). On her advice, and because nothing else worked, I treated it with Maloseb shampoo (available from Vets; baths once every one or two weeks until better) and very stringent cage hygiene (including sprinkling athlete's foot powder in the base of the cage, underneath the newspaper and woodshavings so the pigs don't ingest it, to kill any spores that remain after bathing). Apparently, if clumps of skin / scabs come off with hairs attached, it is probably mycosis. If left untreated it can become very nasty, with open sores and pigs driving themselves crazy with scratching :(

Sorry if I am speaking out of turn; I am new to the forum and don't know how accepted this theory is amongst you piggy people, but I have treated two piggies very successfully using this method. In my experience, a lot of vets don't seem to know much about guinea pigs, so I have had to back it up with advice from other sources when they've been poorly.
 
Thanks for replying GraciePig - I will look for signs of fungal eg clumps of hair coming away but that has not occurred as yet. The vet is treating as mites rather than fungal but you are right that I should keep the fungal possibility in mind.
 
my 3 boys had mites at xmas, you cant see them as under the skin but bald patches, cuts and lots of scratching, bought spot on in shop and was gone in 48 hours.
 
Hello, sorry about little tea cake. Sounds just like what my herd have.

It could be any of two things. If no mites turn up on the microscope then it may be demodex. This is a burrowing mite that lives in the skin and flares up if the animal becomes unwell or stressed. By the sounds of it he is neither of these, possibly, just stressed by the ichyness.

I would be looking more towards the idea of the early signs of fungal. This can also cause ichyness, hairloss and self harm which your little one is doing. I would give your vet a call and see if they can advise and anitfungal treatment for him. There is a huge amount out there. Have you got any products from goregeous guineas to bath them in, this can be helpful too.

My herd are certainly coming down with something similar. All are reatively ichy in the same spot on their back, some have flaky skin there and one sow is losing some hair in the spot. My neutered boar also has fungal bloom on his ear i found. So I'm going to see if i can get a shampoo to bathe them with and hopefull stop the fungal in its tracks. Ive iermectined all 9 of the herd only on Saturday night, i have yet to see any results to this. I too took a cellotape test from them which came back completely clear. Looked at it myself, only flaky skin to see.

HTH, i hope i didnt ramble too much for you.

x
 
Abi-nurse thanks so much for replying - That is really useful.

I have been beginning to think it may be fungal as although slightly brighter, Tea Cake is not 100% and is still chewing at his back at times. Looking closely at the small scratches on his back, they are scabby with white around them (his is white haired so not obvious unless you are v close!). I will try and ring the vet and see what anti-fungal they suggest as TC only had ivermectin which obviously deals in insects rather than fungi.

OK, so why lots of outbreaks of fungal? Is it a weather related issue as it warms up? Fleecy item overuse? Sorry for more questions (- my OH says I am information obsessed!)
 
I'm not sure, the last time my herd had a fungal outbreak they were on Pets at home hay, and the vet said (a private practice who does all the vet work for the local shop) said it was rife in PAH hay that year. That was in 2010 i believe. It may be the hay? I'm not sure. Mine arent on the PAH stuff anymore, they have science selective meadow hay, burgess excel herbage (which is spore tested for mites and fungal) and oxbow (which is sterilised) I dont know about the overuse of fleece, mine is getting a bit older now. ?

x.
 
Had a long chat with the other exotics vet at our surgery today and tried the fungal theory but he was not convinced. He said there would have been evidence ie spores? when the skin samples were looked at under the microscope. He has brought forward the 2nd ivermectin injection and advised trying dilute aloe vera juice in a spray on the itchy area.
So I am going with his advice but keeping fungal in mind in case no change.

When asking about why there might have been a flare up if it is mites, the vet thought it might be linked to teenage hormone surge and/or too much attention from Sudoku:{ ?
 
Update 2

I find it useful to read the outcome of some of the other Health and Illness threads so going to just finish off this one with an update!

I was concerned that Tea Cake did not really improve much up to 6 days after his first ivermectin injection. However, on day 7 he had a step change and improved no end. So it looks as though it was mange mites, despite me trying to deny it! The scabbiness is gone and his hair is growing again and he is popcorning like a loony again...2nd injection gone in today so should be fine.

Lesson learnt - sometimes the treatment takes a little longer to work depending on the resistence of the problem. A chat with the vet helped clarify that.
The early stages of skin conditions look like a few different things - not as clear cut as the advanced stages (not that I want to see them advanced!)

Mites are not necessarily the owner's fault - they are seen in neglect cases where the stress might be environmental eg cold, wet, poor food. But the stress can also be internal eg surge in hormones, living with another hormonal, over enthusiastic boar! Hope that might help someone else worrying about skin problems.
 
Briiliant! Thank you for the update.

(Read this after I sent you my PM mallethead )

So glad Tea Cake is on the mend xx>>>
 
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