Is It Mites?

[Liknvi]

Earlier today during lap time I felt an odd mass on Missy's back around her tailbone. I pulled apart the fur and found a large mass of a... Round-ish material with a sort of soft, gooey texture.

These pictures are not the best and do not show just how severe the problem is, but I hope it would give enough of an idea. I'm going to treat this pig and her cagemate with Ivermectin to be on the safe side, but I wanted to know if it this looked like mites to anyone else.

Both Missy (the pig in these pictures) and her sister are pet store pigs. They were bought before I knew what I was doing, and have likely had these skin problems since I first got them. Both are itchy and shed massive amounts (although this patch on Missy is the first real section of hair loss I have seen), and Missy has large amounts of dandruff along with the shedding.

[CavyMama]

A mass with gooey texture doesn't sound like mites. Mites is usually indicated by bald patches and incessant itching. Also by acting like touch is painful.

How sure are you that they are female? Sometimes boar glue can be a mass with gooey texture.

[Liknvi]

They have been sexed by a vet and have lived together for nearly a year and a half, and I haven't noticed any testicles on either of them. They are adult pigs at this point.

[bpatters]

Boar glue hardens to something like a small piece of brick. More likely her grease gland needs cleaning, although that's usually not as much of a problem with females as with males. I'd try gently shampooing the area with a mild shampoo, and then see what it looks like.

A severe infestation of mites will usually show a V shape down the pig's back where it has bitten at them. A generalized itching and scratching with shedding hair may be fungus. Either is usually easy to treat -- see www.guinealynx.info/mites.html and www.guinealynx.info/fungus.html for instructions.

[Liknvi]

Thank you!

I will give both of my girls a bath and see how it clears up.