Inflamed Ear?

[PerpLexxity]

hey everybody,

So today when I went to clean the pig cage I noticed my pig, Gizmo, has an inflamed ear. The inflammation is only on the top of the ear, not his inner ear.

I have recently started to put coconut oil on gizmos ears (because he gets flaky and dry ears) and when I put the coconut oil on his ears I only put the oil on the top of his ear not on the inside.

So back to the topic of the post, just one of his ears is really red and inflamed. I haven’t noticed him scratching at it, or at least when I’m around.

Could he be scratching his ear out of boredom?

Thanks!

Also I doubt it’s an ear infection because he doesn’t have any other symptoms of an ear infection and has been acting completely normal and active.

 

[Swissgreys]

Does Gizmo live along?
If he has a friend it could be because his friend is licking the part of the ear with the oil on.

But if it were me I would stop using the coconut oil and get him along to a vet.
Flaky skin and red ears can also be a symptom of a fungal infection, and the coconut oil might just be masking the symptoms.
I think it would be best to have him checked over by a professional.

 

[Hoppity.K]

Poor Gizmo it’s not nice to have a sore ear. I’m thinking the same as @Swissgreys maybe a vets trip is best. Hope he recovers soon x

 

[PerpLexxity]

Does Gizmo live along?
If he has a friend it could be because his friend is licking the part of the ear with the oil on.

But if it were me I would stop using the coconut oil and get him along to a vet.
Flaky skin and red ears can also be a symptom of a fungal infection, and the coconut oil might just be masking the symptoms.
I think it would be best to have him checked over by a professional.

Poor Gizmo it’s not nice to have a sore ear. I’m thinking the same as @Swissgreys maybe a vets trip is best. Hope he recovers soon x

Thanks for the responses!

Gizmo did happen to have a fungal infection on his right ear last Thanksgiving. I treated him with the cream his vet prescribed for about 3 weeks and he’s been fine until now. Since then his ears have been flakey and that’s when I got the idea for coconut oil. He does have a cage mate but their separated by a wire cage barrier. When gizmo last had this fungal infection Henry (his cage buddy) never got any infections from gizmo.

I also read somewhere that guinea pigs can get fungal flair ups when they’re stressed, or when the weather changes (were I live the weather has been quite rainy one minute and extremely sunny the next recently) maybe this is the case with him? Maybe he’ll just get these seemingly fungal flair ups during weather changes .

Definitely taking him to the vet though, can’t leave my poor baby with this inflammation!

 

[helen105281]

It does sound like fungal to me too, what did the vet treat with last time? It is likely that he needs the same cream again. Pigs can get a fungal "bloom" on their ears which looks white. I would hold off on the coconut oil, I know it says online that it can help with fungal but I have found the opposite as it can create a warm environment where fungal thrives.