Crusty red spot on belly

[DM031020]

You are of course free to do whatever you decide to do. However, if you ask for advice on a forum like this you must be prepared for the responses you receive. Otherwise you are in reality wasting our time. We are all volunteers giving up our time to help the welfare of piggies and their humans. Believe me, there is nothing in it for us when we tell you the correct way to treat fungal infections is not to simply apply shop bought fungal cream from a chemist.

I must just again stress (as your response above is misleading) that on this forum we did not recommend that you buy special shampoo to bathe the piggies in. Our responses and our guide do not say that. I accept that we do recommend f10 for deep cleaning of cages but that is only one part of a multi pronged approach.

As for transmission from piggies to humans it is real not just a scare tactic. Only a week or so ago I saw that an acquaintance (not through the rescue) who had taken in piggies with fungal had ringworm on her face, neck and arms. Not fun at all. That’s why in the rescue we wear long sleeves, an apron and disposable gloves when handling fungal or suspected fungal piggies.

Can I ask how old you are?

No I completely understand and have listened to you and am prepared for any advice and am following it best I can. Sorry if I've wasted anyone's time. And I told my mum we need to be wearing gloves etc and taking all the proper precautions but she said 'don't be ridiculous' and she said the only way we're gonna catch it is of we 'rub the guinea pig on our face' - her words, not mine. I am currently 17 years old and living at home, studying for A levels. The decision to get guinea pigs was a family one and we take proper care of them on a day to day basis I can assure you of that. They 100% weren't just an impulse buy and we did extensive research, but obviously we didn't look into illnesses enough. But we can learn from this.
Apologies again if I've wasted anyone's time

 

[DM031020]

So which vets did you go to?

We went to Pets choice veterinary Centre in Telford. I rang afew and this was the only one that could see us today. The others required you to be a registered member and wouldnt have been able to see us till next week.

 

[Swissgreys]

Also I certainly do not want to scare anyone, but as someone who has had ringworm (I caught it at work, not from my piggies) please belive me when I say it is extermly unpleasant, highly contagious, and can be very difficult to get rid of.
Maybe have your Mum google ringworm in humans and see if she is willing to take your concerns more seriously.
Without proper treatment the symptoms may ease in the short term, but they will come back with a vengeance, and the quicker you get on top of it the less likely it is to spread to all your piggies and the rest of your family members.
Saving some money in the short term will end up costing everyone a lot more later on.
Also if you are still at school I believe that many schools will not allow you to attend if you develop ringworm.

 

[alpacasqueak]

I’m sorry you’re in that position, it must be very hard for you but you also need to make sure you and your family, and the other piggies don’t catch it as it will go on for a long time if not treated correctly.
No one’s trying to be mean in what they reply to you, just ringworm is very common and can be hard to get rid of so people want to help. It won’t be nice for anyone to wake up with it when it’s spread to humans too, as well as all of your pigs.
Sadly lots of vets haven’t got a clue when it’s comes to small animals, know from experience, so if you could get to a vet that knows pigs better it would be better for you and everyone in the house! Definitely best to eradicate it now than keep having flare ups and issues with you and your babies.
We’re all here to help so hope you can pursuade your mum to take the piggies to a better piggy vet, no one wants to judge at all, we just see a lot of ringworm (a lot more than your prior vets have seen I can imagine) and we know what a pain (and cost) it can be.
You’ve definitely not wasted anyone’s time, we can see you love your pigs!

 

[DM031020]

Also I certainly do not want to scare anyone, but as someone who has had ringworm (I caught it at work, not from my piggies) please belive me when I say it is extermly unpleasant, highly contagious, and can be very difficult to get rid of.
Maybe have your Mum google ringworm in humans and see if she is willing to take your concerns more seriously.
Without proper treatment the symptoms may ease in the short term, but they will come back with a vengeance, and the quicker you get on top of it the less likely it is to spread to all your piggies and the rest of your family members.
Saving some money in the short term will end up costing everyone a lot more later on.
Also if you are still at school I believe that many schools will not allow you to attend if you develop ringworm.

This is exactly what we have said to our mum. We told her it's very difficult to get rid of and highly contagious. I'm actually worried that I may have it as I've got abit of scabbing on my scalp and it's abit ichy. I also told her that it's best if we take a day or two off school next week as we've come into close contact with pigs who are infected and she rang me up and had a major go at me for 'over reacting' and said she would no way give us the day of school and to 'stop being ridiculous'. We thought of everything and are just trying our best but she doesn't want to take it seriously. I'm actually going to screenshot your information and send it all to her. I will let you know what she says.

 

[VickiA]

I fully appreciate the position in which you find yourself.
However, the forum rules Terms of Service And Forum Rules require you to be over 18 on registering an account. Your account will be terminated in accordance with our procedures.

Perhaps you could ask your parent to join the forum and to read our guides for themself.