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Guinea pig keeps biting himself sore

Hope your piggy is feeling better soon. We have a piggy on Gabapentin for her arthritis and it works really well. xx
 
I'm so pleased the appointment was thorough and they actually found something to work with. It might mean another op for poor Wilbur but it does sound like he's in safe and knowledgeable hands. Nobody wants smelly pus. Thanks for keeping us updated x
 
PS: In case you needed to know the other forum pig with the bald belly ended up having a fungal infection and is on nystatin cream (and is feeling a lot better)
 
Well the Gabapentin seems to have had no effect, he's still very itchy when I take his bandages off. He's on 0.2ml twice a day. I'm going to call the vet again tomorrow to ask about his dosage. His op isn't until next Tuesday and I can't wait to get that nasty pus out of him and hopefully on his way to better health. I've not had the results of the skin scrape/hair pull yet but she did say that could take longer than 5 days.
 
My Rainbow Piggie Silver Fox Christian had a huge abscess in his abdomen and had an operation to remove it. A lot of muscles, tissues, blood vessels etc were adhered to the abscess including his willy and his anal sac. The Vet was very skillful and managed to get the abscess out without rupturing it. Christian was out for just over an hour. It was a very difficult operation. Christian's abscess on the outside looked like this:-

Christian lump from outside.jpg

His very impressive scar after the operation looked like this

Christian Scar Day 1.JPG

And the abscess looked like this

Christian Abscess 1.JPGChristian Abscess 2.JPG

Christian lived for another 2 years after this major operation. Here he is fully recovered.

Christian Sleepy 4.JPG

I'm sure Wilbur will recover well after his operation with your dedication and tlc. Just like my Rainbow Piggie Silver Fox Christian did.
 
Poor Christian! He was very brave.
@Betsy did they tell you what might have triggered his abscess to form? Or was it just a random unfortunate thing...
 
Free Ranger said:
Poor Christian! He was very brave.
@Betsy did they tell you what might have triggered his abscess to form? Or was it just a random unfortunate thing...
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I asked the vet but she didn't know what has caused it to form. When it was cut open nothing obvious was found.



Apologies for anyone having their dinner!
 
Update:
He had his operation yesterday to remove the abcess. The vet opened up his abdominal cavity to check it wasn't in there as well but it had stayed localised to his scrotum thank goodness. He's on 4 lots of drugs (tramadol, metoclopramide, sulfatrim and loxicom) twice daily. He's already managed to get the bandage off that the vets put on him but I've made my own that works better.
He seems pretty spaced out at the moment but he has eaten some grass and some pepper. Hopefully this is the road to happier times for him now. His skin scraping and hair pluck results came back and it wasn't parasites so the vet thinks it's because he is sensitive to pain and the abcess was behind his itching. Fingers crossed!
 
Oh that is good news. If only they could talk eh? This savvy vet sounds like they're worth the trip. It breaks your heart when neutering goes wrong because they don't know why we're doing it and yet he's going to be so happy in the long run when he gets to meet lady pigs 💕

A little technical question you might not know the answer to. There appear to be two ways of neutering piggies: traditionally two cuts were made, one in each side, to remove the inner gubbins from the scrotum. But some vets use a newer method where they go in through the abdomen with only one cut and sort of reach down to each side through that. Do you happen to know whether Wilbur had the traditional two incisions or the single abdominal incision method?
 
Hi everyone, the swabs have come back from Wilbur's abcess and he needs to have Metronidazole suspension 200mg/5ml (0.3ml every 12 hours for two weeks). I'm really struggling with the cost of living at the moment after spending £400 on Wilbur's operation and having to travel 20miles each time for check ups etc. I asked if the vets could send me the prescription as I've also got car troubles and they said I had to pay a £15 admin fee to send a hard copy and electronic one.
I've looked online and the cheapest I can find his meds for is £51. Does anyone know of any good websites where I could buy this any cheaper? I believe its a human medication.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, I desperately don't want to let Wilbur down but I'm really struggling to afford to feed my family at the same time this month. So stressed right now 😫
 
Metronidazole is used for many species, including humans. It's the generic of Flagyl (there maybe other brandnames, as well). As far as I know, it can only be gotten by prescription, so it may be difficult to get online, though I'm not familiar with UK prescription protocols. Humans usually take it in a tablet form (disintegrates and tastes nasty), so liquid may have to be specially compounded if you go to a human-oriented pharmacy ...
You might ask the vet or pharmacy if there are any discounts available ... again, I'm not familiar with the UK healthcare system, but maybe there's some sort of copay card or maybe you have some membership or credit card that offers benefits or discounts that could help?

Wishing you the best!
 
Sorry to hear you're struggling with funds 😔 Could you borrow from family or friends? Perhaps even a go fund me!
Even ask for money for Christmas this year to help cover his bills? Just brainstorming here sorry.
 
I had a look at vetuk website, which I use for repeat prescriptions of Metacam for my two. They sell several tablet variants of Metronidazole. The closest I could find there was something called Metrovis 100mg for dogs and cats. You would need to check with your vet that it is OK for piggies, and if so how to make it into a suspension of the correct amount and strength etc, but it might work for you. The tablets are only 16p each ...

£15 for a written prescription sounds OK- I think mine are £18
 
My written prescriptions are £10 at my vets here in Poole, at my old vets in Eastleigh they were £15. Bit strange that they were different prices as they are both Vets4Pets.
 
Thanks everyone, my parents are helping me a bit but they can't afford much. I started a gofundme for his meds previously and a couple of friends helped with what they could. I don't like to ask again. It wouldn't be so bad had we not had to pay £600 on our car this week as well 🤦‍♀️

Just a bit fed up of all this now and run down. His scratching hasn't stopped post operation either. He managed to get his bandages off the other night and chewed two wounds on his sides - luckily left his abcess wound alone as I caught him in time.

The vet said next move is either laser therapy (which sounds expensive) or treating him for allergies. She said she wouldn't bother trying to find out what's causing the allergy and would opt straight to treatment which I assume is antihistamines but I've tried him on Piriton and it made no difference.
 
Betsy said:
Have you looked at Animed, Vet UK or Pet Drugs Online? I used to get Shy Little Meg's prescription from all of those, depending on which one was the cheapest.
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Hey lovely, yes I've looked at all those and most don't have it. The ones that do range from £51 to £82. I'm going to phone my own vets tomorrow and see what they can do. My guinea pig room honestly looks like a chemist at the moment.
 
The new antibiotics are going to take a little while to arrive and I've ran out of the sulfratrim. I've just found some Baytril from November. Should I give him that while we wait for the metronidazole to arrive? I'm worried that although he's had the abscess removed, the gap in antibiotics might make it come back.
 
It would be best to speak to the vet before giving anything other than the metronidazole you’ve been prescribed.
Antibiotics only last for a short time after opening so the baytril may not be any good now
 
OK thank you, I emailed the vet just after posting here so hopefully they'll be in touch.
 
Wilbur is now on the metronidazole and his abcess wound has healed nicely. He now has two sows with him that I rehomed from a local rescue, one in November and another this week so it's not loneliness causing his itching as this is still happening. I tried taking his bandages off yesterday and he scratched himself sore again to the point he was yelping when he scratched so the bandage has gone back on much to his (and my) dislike.
One of the exotic vets wants to try laser skin therapy twice a week for 2-3 weeks and then once weekly if he improves. I will have to travel 20 miles each way to do this and it will cost £16 a time (and I'm assuming a fee for the vet on top of that?).
Another exotic vet at the same vets thought it might be allergies and was going to go down the antihistamine route but I'm not so sure it is this as this intense scratching has only happened post castration, he was fine before that.
I've read on this forum that someone's vet had prescribed steroids for their pig who had formed a habit of scratching. Is this worth suggesting to the vet?
I'm really at a loss as to what to do next. I have tried so many things (creams, baths, piriton, mite treatment, skin scrapes, hair plucks, abcess removal, grain free pellets, pet rescue remedy) and his treatments and surgeries have cost me close to £1000 now. Has anyone had and success with laser skin treatment? I've read that it's had limited results on humans and the guinea pig cases I've read about were used to treat arthritis not itchy skin.
Any help/advice always greatly appreciated.
 
That's very helpful and interesting to read. Thank you for the information.
 
This is a picture of his skin from his bandage change today. Not growing back like it did on his neck and belly previously. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and give the laser therapy a go.
 

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Heyli said:
Another exotic vet at the same vets thought it might be allergies and was going to go down the antihistamine route but I'm not so sure it is this as this intense scratching has only happened post castration, he was fine before that.
Click to expand...
This might sound a little bit of a long shot but have they mentioned whether the drop in hormone levels might be responsible?
One of the first symptoms of menopause I got was itching all over. Nobody warned me about that! I have NO history of allergies. And I hadn't developed one... I had no redness or rashes. The skin looked exactly the same. But this itching crept up on me and the worst bouts were triggered by contact. It was while on a mini-break that I realised I was putting off going to the loo in the night because walking over the floor would trigger such awful itching on the soles of my feet. And I avoided toast because chewing it made my gums itch unbearably. My head had been itching for a while but I'd put that down somehow to going grey (?) Anyway, weeks of misery were solved overnight by an over-the-counter antihistamine called loratadine. At first I had to take one a day but then dropped it off to every few days, then one a week, and now not at all. Speak to the vet about it. There may be a piggy version you can try. Perhaps not all antihistamines are the same.

The other thing to consider - if it hasn't been already - is a fungal infection. I've been offline a bit so sorry if I've missed anything relevant but I don't mean ringworm or anything dangerous for people. I had an old girl who was scratching a lot and losing hair - she was diagnosed with a fungal infection and had to have a few medicated baths. There's been a poster on recently who's girl had lost all her hair underneath and she was diagnosed with a 'yeast infection'. My girl lived with others who showed no signs of itching and the vet said it was just because she was older that it made her more susceptible but Wilbur's had a hard time recently and I wonder if this could have enabled something to get established that would have otherwise been fought off? There's an oral treatment called Itrafungol (I think it's for cats) which can apparently be used in piggies very effectively.

All things (£££) considered I'd be hesitant to jump in for laser treatment at this stage personally - even if it 'worked' I could only see it treating the symptom rather than the cause...

Brave boy Wilbur x
 
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