Skin Problems Mites or fungal?

[moonlight226]

I noticed some dandrift on the back of my 5 year old male guinea pig. Hair loss is not excessive and have not observed itching, hair does pull out easier in those spots.

In the past he has been treated for lice (when I first got him) and later for mites. This does not look like lice to me. He recently received Revolution for suspected mites. However, I am starting to wonder if perhaps this is fungal? Never experienced ringworm in a guinea pig before. My cats had like 6 years ago and it was pretty obvious and spread easily to me.

I have attached pictures. From what I read online sometimes it affects their ears too if fungal. I cleaned his ears and it seemed very waxy. Just trying to determine if we should go back to the vet for alternate treatment, if it looks not like mites.

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[Soecara]

The patches on his back do look like they could be fungal, in which case using an anti-fungal shampoo would likely be the best treatment option. However I would advise seeing a vet, that amount of wax from the ears is unusual so it would pay to have that checked, at the same time you can show the back patches and ask their opinion. It may be helpful to also show the vet the pictures you have taken.

Just make sure you are seeing an exotic vet, not a small animal vet, small animal vets aren't trained in the medical care of "exotic" animals like guinea pigs so can potentially prescribe medications that are fine for other animals but extremely dangerous for guinea pigs.

 

[LittleSqueakers]

I second seeing an exotic vet, but would also like to add that Tribble had dandruff and ear waxiness for a long time that looked EXACTLY like that. He was also older (around 6) when I started noticing it. It cleared up almost overnight when a vet suggested that he might be vitamin C deficient and suggested supplementing extra for about a week or so to see if it made a difference. I had never before considered that Trib might be vit C deficient, because he got bell pepper twice a day and pellets, but apparently that was the problem all along. It couldn't hurt to try it.

 

[moonlight226]

We have an appointment next week with an exotic. So I will let you know what they say.

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[moonlight226]

Also from what I had read, Teddy breeds of pigs tend to have lots of ear wax.

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[Soecara]

Yes teddy and rex guinea pigs do tend to have more earwax, and are also more prone to dry skin.

One of my girls Nahla is a rex, and she does get quite waxy ears but not even close to the extent shown in your picture, at most I would get roughly the amount of wax shown on just the lower q-tip in that picture from each ear when I clean the outside of her ears every month. None of my other guinea pigs have ever needed any wax cleaned from the outside of their ears at all, except when one of my boars had an ear infection.

 

[moonlight226]

Update: Vet said it did not show signs of fungus. She said ears were fine. She did think he was low on vitamin C and gave an injection.

We discussed some diet changes.

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