• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

HELP! Dry skin on ear!

Status
Not open for further replies.
I

IgglePiggle28

Joined
Sep 30, 2011
Messages
19
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hi my guinea pigs left ear has gone dry, white and flaky as you can see in the image I have attached. I took my guinea pig to the vets, and the vet wasn't certain on what was wrong with her ear. She gave me ''surolan ear drops and cutaneous suspension, which is a ear and skin treatment for cats and dogs... I have now used it for 5days and the white flakes have disappeared from where they are shown on the pic BUT there is now white flakes around the back of the ear! Plus the ear is bold from where this dry skin has been and has gone hard around the edge.

Please can anybody let me know what it is or what it most likely looks/sounds like.

Thankyou from me and nibbles (my guinea pig lol)
 

Attachments

  • Nibbles poorly ear.webp
    Nibbles poorly ear.webp
    35 KB · Views: 205
I have just noticed that I can't post attatchments due to the rules, but I haven't got a clue how I would upload a picture of nibbles ear any other way and I just want to know what is wrong with my piggie :(
 
Its ok, we can see the picture! (I'm sorry i havnt responded but i feel i have no relevant advice,

Where do you live? (This will help us determine the nearest cavvy savvy vet to you - General vets (Ie cats dogs and the like) Do not get trianing in guinea pigs as piggies are considered an exotic pet. It is important to see someone who knows what they are doing when dealing with conditions that are hard to diagnose)
 
Hi thanks for your reply, any information is more than welcome so thankyou! I live in sheffield.
 
Unfortunatly i am know where near you, however if you look at this thread, and use the search thread tool at the top (searching for sheffield) you may find one in your area.

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1788

P.s, if you ever need to find that vets thread again it is a "sticky" <- this means it perminant. Its at the top of the health and illness section.

Again I'm sorry I'm not more help. :(
 
Hi,

From the photo and description it seems like it could be a fungal skin infection, which is fairly common in piggies. A decent Vet should be able to diagnose this for sure, so definitely try and find one with more experience with guinea pigs, as Connie suggested.

Fungal skin infections do tend to spread easily so you have to be meticulous with hygiene and often need to continue treating an affected area until the hair starts growing back, not just until the flakiness/scurf/white bloom appears to have gone. I highly recommend F10 (F10SC) veterinary disinfectant which can be bought online - it's excellent for getting rid of fungal spores which can otherwise lurk in your cage/hutch and on any houses, toys etc.

Vets do sometimes prescribe Surolan drops for guinea pigs (I've used them myself) but it can be quite harsh so do use sparingly and if the new patch of dry skin doesn't clear up within a few days I would definitely get a Vet to check it over again.

Gorgeous Guineas website has some useful info on fungal skin conditions. They sell skincare products made especially for piggies, all with natural ingredients. It's obviously very important to get a proper diagnosis from the Vet first, but if it is fungal then I've heard good things about using Gorgeous Guineas' "Kwench Lotion" on small patches, especially on/around the ears.
http://gorgeousguineas.com/indentification.html

Good luck!
 
Thankyou soooooo soooo much! I am so grateful for your response I will get on to it staright away....

A big thankyou from me and nibbles :-)
 
missy said:
I highly recommend F10 (F10SC) veterinary disinfectant which can be bought online - it's excellent for getting rid of fungal spores which can otherwise lurk in your cage/hutch and on any houses, toys etc.
Click to expand...

By the way, just to be extra clear........the F10 disinfectant is just for cleaning cages and accessories etc, NOT for using on piggies themselves! Not sure I made that clear enough in my other post! :)

Also just wondering what bedding you use in your cage/hutch? If it's anything which is usually washed in the washing machine (eg Vetbed, fleece) then you'll need to make sure that it's washed at a temperature hot enough to kill off any nasties.
 
Rocket had something similar, I used Gorgeous Guinea's Kwench lotion and it had completely cleared up after two days ( I also gave them all a manuka and neem bath - don't know if this also helped or if it was just the lotion. And obviously I disinfected the cages ). Hope that helps, you can email G.Gs for advice too.
 
Hi, yes I do have a fleece bed in my guinea pig cage and it does get cleaned in the washing machine at 30degrees, don't know if that is hot enough :-(
Thankyou :-)
 
IgglePiggle28 said:
Can I ask you where to buy this from, many thanks!
Click to expand...

It's available from the Gorgeous Guineas online shop I linked to before. These are the direct links...

100ml size:
http://www.gorgeousguineas.co.uk/p/product/0703044111-Kwench+Lotion:+100ml/

or 20ml trial size (not sure how far this would go though):
http://www.gorgeousguineas.co.uk/p/product/0509168362-Kwench+Lotion:+20ml+Trial+Size/

I've read on GG that they also recommend Super Souffle Cream to soften any hard/crusty skin around small fungal patches so that might also be worthwhile. You can always email them and ask for advice - lots of people do :)

Btw about washing the fleece bed...I'm not exactly sure what temp you need but in fungal cases I'd personally wash things at at least 60 degrees (or hotter if they can withstand the higher temperature). Not sure 30 deg is hot enough but hopefully someone else can advise.
 
Firstly Surolan is an appropriate treatment as it contains an anti-fungal and anti-bacterial (to prevent secondary infection of scratched wounds) and a steroid to reduce inflammation/itchiness. For this reason you need to be very careful about giving other medications/chemicals as you could get a cross-reaction or overdose that would be harmful for your piggie.

You can put the surolan on the outside of her ear if you feel the infection has spread.

The skin hardness is probably a reaction to the steroids and could indicate you are putting too much on in one application - it only needs a very thin film (one drop gently rubbed into the ear)


Fungal spore are difficult to kill...and vet bed is diffcult to clean with its pile. Soaking in F10 disinfectant to kill the spores is the only thing I can think of as washing at anything other than 90deg C will be ineffective. Once you;ve soaked the vetbed for 10-20 minutes, put it in a biowash at the highest temperature the vet bed can stand....and then hang it out to dry in the sun so the UV light sanitises it.

HTH
x
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top