Guinea pig being treated for ringworm

[Pigs4ever]

I have a new sow who is having to be treated for ringworm. It is thankfully minor so currently an ointment is to be applied. It was my fault for being weak and stupid and taking her from a breeder.

I have looked deeper online and see there is also advice of bathing the pig with head and shoulders or other anti fungal shampoos. I am desperate for her to heal up as she is alone, cannot going in with the older girls until better, I can imagine she is scared and lonely she has not come out of her hidey but she has eaten cucumber and there is plenty of hay in her quarantine cage.

For the future should i be treating all of them with the bephar anti parisite spot on to prevent this from happening?

 

[Piggies&buns]

I have a new sow who is having to be treated for ringworm. It is thankfully minor so currently an ointment is to be applied. It was my fault for being weak and stupid and taking her from a breeder.

I have looked deeper online and see there is also advice of bathing the pig with head and shoulders or other anti fungal shampoos. I am desperate for her to heal up as she is alone, cannot going in with the older girls until better, I can imagine she is scared and lonely she has not come out of her hidey but she has eaten cucumber and there is plenty of hay in her quarantine cage.

For the future should i be treating all of them with the bephar anti parisite spot on to prevent this from happening?

if she is being treated, then it will just take some time. I personally wouldn’t use any other things unless a vet tells you to. An oral treatment is the best thing to deal with ringworm rather than just putting creams on, as creams only treat the area you put the cream on, but spores are shed regardless.

no, please don’t treat with any off the shelf products preventatively. Such products aren’t strong enough and can cause resistance. You should only ever treat a diagnosed case with vet prescribed medications

 

[Tara95]

I don't think anti parasite spot on by bephar treats ringworm it does treat things like mites though etc. They do a separate ringworm treatment which is a spray, I think it's about £12 off Amazon or possibly more at pets at home which you put on twice a day but it won't be as Strong as the vetinary products and may take longer to work. Most guinea pigs are natural carriers of ringworm (so my vet tells me) and I've only had two mild cases, one was when a guinea pig was introduced and stressed (the old runt of the litter) and was actually fairly sore and the other was a very mild case on one ear a few days after a stressful neutering Operation but went away after a few days. I would recommend a vet grade product, when I first brought my guinea pigs I brought the betaphar anti ringworm just incase it came back (without realising it wouldn't 100% solve the problem and she had no further spores and her hair grew back so I never had a chance to use it on the intended guinea pig. But recently after a stressful operation, my boar developed a slightly dry ear which appeared to have a mini ring around it, and as I had the unused product I decided to give it ago (after my vet said it would be okay to use as it wouldn't be that strong and she thought by looking at it during a post opp appointment that it was most likely a mild case of ringworm) it did the trick. I would also recommend reducing all stresses and only handling when necessary as I believe with my Guinea pigs it was always a response to stress. Best of luck!

 

[Free Ranger]

She might not be able to be with the other girls but perhaps if she can hear them wheeking or moving about she might feel reassured that she is not alone?

I've also heard that these things are common in the environment but can take hold if circumstances are right and it must be a difficult thing to be an itchy piggy so you are doing right to try and nip it in the bud.

I'd go for the vet and the oral treatment (if the vet recommends). Blitz it! I take all my new ones to the vet for a once-over as they can spot other things that I can't always notice (like mites or lice, or arthritis in my last old girl who 'retired' here!) but it's a bit different now with the pandemic and many vets only seeing emergencies. It's something to think about anyway. In this country we are fortunate to have the correct meds available... a poster from another country has had to resort to H&S people shampoo for her poor piggy and while it eventually seems to do the trick it takes quite a few rounds of shampooing/drying over a number of weeks, and of course all the bedding has to be washed each time too (and the people-clothes that the spores might have gone onto etc etc) but then the shampoo is apparently quite harsh for the piggy's sensitive skin so they can get dryness/flaking/discomfort from that. Pig-specific meds are going to be best.

Good luck ☺

 

[VickiA]

Please can you confirm who diagnosed the ring worm, and who prescribed the ointment? If the answer to both isn’t “the vet” then please get her to a vet for the correct diagnosis and treatment at the correct strength. Please don’t try human shampoos or use home treatments.

 

[Siikibam]

May I ask how old she is?