The dreaded ringworm

[Peaches&Smores]

Hi all -

I have two piggy girls, Peaches and S'mores. Peaches is about a year old, and S'mores is about eight months. We've had them for about two months after getting them from a local rescue.

First, let me just say that we have a vet appointment for tomorrow, I'm just preemptively freaking out.

I'm fairly certain that one of the guineas, S'mores, has ringworm. I noticed a sort of scratch on her ear last week, but no other issues at the time. At her weekly health check, I found a circular patch of missing fur on her rear flank with some flakey, powdery residue ... And a very ringworm-ish spot on my own arm. Not exactly my favorite Christmas present.

So. I've read the ringworm guide on the forum, vet appointment tomorrow morning, treating my own ringworm, F10 on the way thanks to the magic of Prime.

What I could really use some help with is the timeline (assuming it is ringworm) - we'll get treatment for the affected piggy tomorrow. Her buddy should get a bath at this point, assuming she doesn't have symptoms and get meds (I'm taking both, since I assume the vet will do a more thorough exam than I can). Both piggies get a bath after the worst of the outbreak (1-2 weeks), and again after the two week "make sure it's really dead" period.

We'll deep clean the cage, wash everything, trash what can't be thoroughly cleaned. Should this be done as soon as we see the vet? After the treatment has some time to work? I'll do another deep clean at the end of the while ordeal. Do we need to do another interim deep clean at any point (or multiple points)?

Apologies if I'm missing something in the guide! I really want to make sure I'm doing this right the first time...

Also, any suggestions on preventing ringworm in the future? The girls are inside only, bedded on fleece with aspen and/or Carefresh in the litter area and a hay room with newspaper and puppy pads. They're spot cleaned daily (including fresh litter and full change of the hay room). I change the potty pads every 3-4 days, more often if they seem damp, and change the whole cage weekly. Any improvement ideas are welcome because blech!

 

[DMS260820]

@PigglePuggle

 

[PigglePuggle]

I'm not an expert but we accidentally rescuse a ringworm piggy almost 4 weeks ago. We have topical antifungal spray mycozole but no baths have been mentioned. The ringworm looked to have cleared after 10 days but getting the all clear test takes another 2 weeks. We are F10 cleaning the cage twice a week, handling piggy with gloves, using F10 hand gel afterwards, and changing our clothes after handling her the washing them in anti-fungal detergent and showering in anti-fungal shower gel.
Some vets give oral antifungals but not all vets do. Or antifungal baths. We got a kind of antifungal ear drops surolan to put on the affected areas for 10 days then the mycozole spray after we couldnt see any obvious lesions.
Ringworm is a scary disease and we have no idea yet if its gone or infected us or the other pigs...
Healing vibes and wheeks but the more F10 cage cleans and obsessive hygiene the better I reckon- so far touch wood ours is isolated to the one new piggy...

 

[sport_billy]

Sounds like you are covering all bases here. Impossible to put a time frame on clearing it but you have caught it early so that is a positive

Welcome to the forum sorry it is in these circumstances, most of us have unfortunately dealt with fungal piggies at some point i understand how worried you are.

When you clean the cage in future just use the f10 spray and that will help

 

[PigglePuggle]

I should also add (though I'm sure this is in the forum ringworm guides!) Hot wash any fleecy furniture or flooring at 60 degrees, every wash until your outbreak clears- and throw away any cardboard or seagrass type furniture straight away and replace it every week, or even twice a week, if you add more. Open hay bags or bedding in the piggy room with the infected piggy probably get rid of, keep all that stuff in another room and just take in what you need for a cage clean. Wooden houses if you have any need an F10 soak or throwing away. As I say I'm no expert but so far we seem to have kept ringworm isolated in 1 piggy in 1 room of the house so hopefully we are doing good as the main herd are ok!

 

[Wiebke]

Hi all -

I have two piggy girls, Peaches and S'mores. Peaches is about a year old, and S'mores is about eight months. We've had them for about two months after getting them from a local rescue.

First, let me just say that we have a vet appointment for tomorrow, I'm just preemptively freaking out.

I'm fairly certain that one of the guineas, S'mores, has ringworm. I noticed a sort of scratch on her ear last week, but no other issues at the time. At her weekly health check, I found a circular patch of missing fur on her rear flank with some flakey, powdery residue ... And a very ringworm-ish spot on my own arm. Not exactly my favorite Christmas present.

So. I've read the ringworm guide on the forum, vet appointment tomorrow morning, treating my own ringworm, F10 on the way thanks to the magic of Prime.

What I could really use some help with is the timeline (assuming it is ringworm) - we'll get treatment for the affected piggy tomorrow. Her buddy should get a bath at this point, assuming she doesn't have symptoms and get meds (I'm taking both, since I assume the vet will do a more thorough exam than I can). Both piggies get a bath after the worst of the outbreak (1-2 weeks), and again after the two week "make sure it's really dead" period.

We'll deep clean the cage, wash everything, trash what can't be thoroughly cleaned. Should this be done as soon as we see the vet? After the treatment has some time to work? I'll do another deep clean at the end of the while ordeal. Do we need to do another interim deep clean at any point (or multiple points)?

Apologies if I'm missing something in the guide! I really want to make sure I'm doing this right the first time...

Also, any suggestions on preventing ringworm in the future? The girls are inside only, bedded on fleece with aspen and/or Carefresh in the litter area and a hay room with newspaper and puppy pads. They're spot cleaned daily (including fresh litter and full change of the hay room). I change the potty pads every 3-4 days, more often if they seem damp, and change the whole cage weekly. Any improvement ideas are welcome because blech!

Hi!

You can wait with the full top to bottom and around the cage deep clean until the end of treatment, but if you can switch to bedding that can be easily replaced daily (newspaper) or like cotton towels or cheap fleece that washed at high temperatures so you minimise the re-infection risk and used disposable hideys like cardboard boxes etc. That keeps the strain on yourself low.

Treatment should only take about 1-2 weeks until the ringworm is not forming any new crusts and the affected area is not getting any larger. That is the time for the deep clean and the final piggy bath to remove spores sitting in the coat.

If done correctly this should then be the end of the ringworm saga; once and for all. Investing into a good vet grade disinfectant and giving your cage and permanent housing a deep clean with it every few months can also help with miminising the risk of it coming back.

Take a deep breath! It is not pleasant and extra work, but on the other hand it won't turn into a never ending saga. These things happen unfortunately. If it is any consolation to you, A year ago I was dealing with a ringworm outbreak in a room of 30 piggies. Thanks to the measures as recommended in our guide, I have been able to keep the outbreak confined to the one piggy. It may be a pain to implement, but it really works and it is worth going the extra length.
Ringworm: Hygiene And Pictures

 

[DMS260820]

What causes ringworm in the first place?

 

[DMS260820]

@PigglePuggle you are in my head as mrs ringworm now sorry lol only kidding. If anyone ever need me because someone more experienced isnt around, I'm Mr U.r.i . Ive dealt with quite a few

 

[Wiebke]

What causes ringworm in the first place?

Invisibly tiny fungal spores. Ringworm is a fungal skin infection that can affect many species and that can be transmitted between them, but these spores can also come on the soles of your shoes, with the wind, from the lawn or in the hay...

 

[DMS260820]

Invisibly tiny fungal spores. Ringworm is a fungal skin infection that can affect many species and that can be transmitted between them, but these spores can also come on the soles of your shoes, with the wind, from the lawn or in the hay...

Scary stuff, i might start taking my shoes off in the house now

 

[Peaches&Smores]

Thanks everyone! I'm glad I'm mostly on the right track. The piggies are in our dining room, so I definitely worry about further contamination.

We'll see how it goes at the vet tomorrow before doing anything, but I'll err on the side of over-cleaning, especially with Christmas house guests coming in a couple of weeks. Their cage is relatively easy to clean anyway, although cleaning all the bibs and bobs will be more intense.

Appreciate the well wishes and positive vibes - the encouragement really helps!

 

[PigglePuggle]

@PigglePuggle you are in my head as mrs ringworm now sorry lol only kidding. If anyone ever need me because someone more experienced isnt around, I'm Mr you.r.i . Ive dealt with quite a few

We've not had URI or UTI yet, or a haypoke... I think we've ticked off most other common piggy ailments though! Bloat, ringworm, fur mites, bacterial skin infection... I think I'd rather be Mrs. Ringworm than Mrs. Bloat anyway

 

[DMS260820]

We've not had URI or UTI yet, or a haypoke... I think we've ticked off most other common piggy ailments though! Bloat, ringworm, fur mites, bacterial skin infection... I think I'd rather be Mrs. Ringworm than Mrs. Bloat anyway

Ive always managed to deal with about 6 cases of bloat in different pigs and about 5 uri's and 1 case of phneumonia and a severe bloat in an old boar once. But my worst fear is stones . I lost a pig that had 3 stones at once