Hair Loss Bald patch seems to be growing? Advice please!

[amzybabes]

We brought home two 12 week old female guineas this month. About 10days ago we noticed that one, Crumble, scratching like crazy and squeaking. Followingthis there was some blood on her, and we found a 1-2cm patch with a sorescratch and scab and some hair missing. This was behind her left ear.

We took her to the vets who diagnosed mites (although not aparticularly bad case), and we then administered invermectin onto her skin (wehave another dose to apply in 4 days time). After this Crumbles skin began toheal, she only scratches occasionally (what I think is a normal amount forguinea pigs), and seemed happier within herself.

However, today we noticed that the bald patch has gottenbigger – now approx 3cm by 1.5cm in size. The skin seems almost completelyhealed where the wound was, and the rest of the skin seems perfectly healthy tolook at. The patch is clear, with no broken hair. She doesn’t react to ustouching the area, so it can’t be particularly sore. We can’t find any otherareas of hair loss on her.

She has seemed perfectly happy – eating with enthusiasm,chasing around the cage with her cage friend at top speed, and generallyrunning and popcorning all over the place. Her cage friend can be a bit ‘bossy’and might push her on occasion, but Crumble has never been injured by the otherguinea, and seems happy in her company (they play together), so I can’t seethat she’s particularly stressed.

We’re feeding them lots of hay, some specific guinea pigpellets with stabilised Vit C, and daily veggies (we’ve built up to about halfa bowl).

Any ideas? Could this still be mites, despite the lack ofextreme itching and soreness? Should we continue with the second dose of thetreatment?

Advice needed please! We will take her back to the vets ifthings don’t improve in the next week, but would appreciate your thoughts/help.Thanks!

 

[pinky]

Mites sometimes require multiple injections of Ivermectin, usually spaced around 7 to 10 days apart, to kill off the mites. Two doses usually do the trick but I've heard of cases where it took three. You only gave one dose so far? I'd wait a week after the second dose and, if you still notice scratching, bring her back. The fur takes a bit of time to grow back and the area looks clean, with no sores or crustiness, so I'd allow the Ivermectin to do it's thing and really watch closely for the hair to start growing back.

 

[foggycreekcavy]

Yes, they need the doses at the most ten days apart, but I recommend 7 days.

If that's an area where there was a large wound, there's the chance that the hair will not grow back. Otherwise, it does look good, as pinky states, and hopefully the hair will be growing back soon.

 

[amzybabes]

Thanks, we will do the second treatment tomorrow then, a little earlier than we were originally advised.

 

[sillylittle]

The doc said to do it at 4 days, which is kinda early compared to the 7-10 days usually suggested, so I would just stick to what was advised. You don't want to over dose your GP, you know?

 

[bpatters]

That doesn't look like mites hair loss to me, although I guess it could be. Usually mites loss is patchy, and not totally bald. Take a look at https://www.guinealynx.info/mites.html for the usual hair loss pattern in mites.

If it were me, I'd try putting some Monistat cream on it, on the theory that it may be a fungus. But even then, a fungus usually has a raw, wet-looking appearance to it.

Was this a vet that's accustomed to treating cavies? If not, you may want to find a good exotic vet to take a look at her.

Also, on the medical forum at Guinea Lynx, the user Tashab has a pig with unusual and permanent hair loss in odd places. You may want to take a look. I'm not sure what the original cause was, but she's perfectly bald in spots like the one in your picture. I think the permanent loss was because she wasn't treated soon enough, as she did recover some hair, but not all of it.

 

[pinky]

My other question would be if the other one might be biting off or pulling out her fur. I had a barberer that would nip the fur off clean to the skin on her sister in a couple of spots.