Dry skin

[PipandOreo]

Hi, Pip my 6.5year old pig has ovarian cysts which myself and our vets have agreed we are not going to treat so she’s on pain medication for the rest of her life. As she has fairly large ovarian cysts she is experiencing a fair amount of hair loss/bald patches. She not only has them on her sides but also on her back and is pretty bald on her tummy. The vet saw Pip a few weeks ago for her medication review and said that she’s very sure they’re just from the cysts and her old age, and nothing else. It’s horrible to see her loosing her hair and getting skinnier but the vet assured me that she doesn’t think it’s Pips time to go yet, but it’s just sad to see her looking like this. She’s still happy and constantly up at the bars demanding food though!

Within the last few days I’ve noticed that some of the bald patches on her back/parting have become quite dry. I’ve been using coconut oil and after I’d rubbed it in my finger was covered in black flakes (the skin is black). You can see the build up of skin around the edge if the bald patch in the picture. Is it normal for her skin to be this dry? I know skinny pigs get dry skin so maybe she’s just dry because of her bald patches? She also has quite crusty nipples, would it be okay to put coconut oil on them too? I don’t really want to give her a bath as its pretty cold at the moment and I don’t want to potentially dry out her skin more but if you think that‘ll help I could try that. As I said I’m using coconut oil at the moment but if there’s anything better please let me know and any advice on how to help the dryness would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

(We tried Gorgeous Guineas shampoos a few years ago but none of their creams and lotions so if they’re good please let me know which one is best.)

 

[Wiebke]

Has your vet considered hormonal injections to treat her ovarian cysts? They can be used at any age.
Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)

To be honest, I would recommend to to treat for skin parasites first before you do anything else, just to be on the sagfe side. You do not usually get hair loss in the middle of the back from ovarian cysts; just on the belly and sides where the cysts are.
Please make sure NOT to use any low-dosed pet shop stuff (not even the one that says 'vet strength' - it is just 'prevention' and not treatment strength, even though it has taken us quite some digging around to find the actual (low) concentration.
New piggy problems: URI - ringworm - skin parasites

For that reason I would be personally very wary to use any skin shampoo on spec; never before you have fully exluded the parasite angle because they can come up whenever the immune system is below par.
Just shampooing on spec may at the very best temporarily ease the symptoms a bit but not get rid of any parasites.

I would also discuss alternative less invasive ovarian cyst treatments with your vet.

 

[PipandOreo]

Has your vet considered hormonal injections to treat her ovarian cysts? They can be used at any age.
Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)

To be honest, I would recommend to to treat for skin parasites first before you do anything else, just to be on the sagfe side. You do not usually get hair loss in the middle of the back from ovarian cysts; just on the belly and sides where the cysts are.
Please make sure NOT to use any low-dosed pet shop stuff (not even the one that says 'vet strength' - it is just 'prevention' and not treatment strength, even though it has taken us quite some digging around to find the actual (low) concentration.
New piggy problems: URI - ringworm - skin parasites

For that reason I would be personally very wary to use any skin shampoo on spec; never before you have fully exluded the parasite angle because they can come up whenever the immune system is below par.
Just shampooing on spec may at the very best temporarily ease the symptoms a bit but not get rid of any parasites.

I would also discuss alternative less invasive ovarian cyst treatments with your vet.

Thank you for your reply. We’ve had a few chats over the last 6 months with our vet who gave us four options which were surgery, drainage, hormone injections or monitoring Pip for signs of pain/metacam. In an email she wrote that she rarely recommends or uses hormone injections due to the pain of the injections and them not being totally effective. She also wrote that with draining the cysts there was a small risk of rupture and recurrence is very likely. With all the information she gave us we decided that we would go for Metacam and monitor Pip. I have read positive stories on the forum about hormone injections but with our vets not recomending the injections it made me not want to go that route.

We’ve had Xeno 450 ivermectin from the vets before, is this what I should use for Pip? Can I get this online or do I need to get through the vets?

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you for your reply. We’ve had a few chats over the last 6 months with our vet who gave us four options which were surgery, drainage, hormone injections or monitoring Pip for signs of pain/metacam. In an email she wrote that she rarely recommends or uses hormone injections due to the pain of the injections and them not being totally effective. She also wrote that with draining the cysts there was a small risk of rupture and recurrence is very likely. With all the information she gave us we decided that we would go for Metacam and monitor Pip. I have read positive stories on the forum about hormone injections but with our vets not recomending the injections it made me not want to go that route.

We’ve had Xeno 450 ivermectin from the vets before, is this what I should use for Pip? Can I get this online or do I need to get through the vets?

We've also had several positive stories about draining cysts - which take several months to come back.
But it is your and your vet's view on what is best for your own girl.

Xeno 450 is the vet grade brand for adult piggies in the UK. Ovarian cyst balding is a thinning of hair but not of skin scales; that and the location is why I am suspicious.