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New piggies have ringworm. How long until it clears up/isn't infectious?

PremierPig

PremierPig

New Born Pup
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Hello everyone, I was hoping to get some advice please?

So just for background...

We got our first piggies about 3 weeks ago, two sisters who were around a month old at the time. We are in Spain, in a village, and there aren't a lot of people with guinea pigs (cobayas) here. Everything locked-down two days after we brought them home.

The first couple of weeks were fine, but I began to notice that they were a bit itchy, and then one got a sore on her ear. We managed to find a vet who treated 'exotic animals' to check them and she said that they had ringworm. We got a prescription for Intrafungol and vitamin C.

I am cleaning/bleaching their cage and bedding every 3-4 days and only handling with gloves (which is rubbish for them and us). I can't get anti-fungal disinfectant as everything is closed here, though I have got F10 on order (but not available until the end of the month). I am using bleach (and sunshine) in the meantime.

The Intrafungol is given for 3 weeks, one week on and one week off. We are about to finish the first week, but it doesn't seem to be making any difference yet. They are still itchy and are getting increasingly bald around their eyes.

I have some questions!:

How long until I can see some improvement, and how long until they are no longer infectious? I can't seem to find this information anywhere! I'm about to stop the medicine for a week, but they don't seem any better. Will it keep working even though they aren't taking it? How long until they start getting hair back and stop being infectious? How long until their bedding, etc is no longer likely to have spores?

Any advice on getting this over with as quickly and painlessly as possible would be appreciated! And any idea of timescales for eradication from people who have used Intrafungal?

Many thanks from Caramel and Spotty-Pig!

piggies.webp
 
I have no experience of ringworm in my pigs. But have you read any of the guides about it on the forum?
 
Hi - yes, I looked through the one on ringworm, but it doesn't talk about timescale for improvement/cure.
 
Thanks for the thought Piggylove82. I'm struggling to find anyone who has experienced this and can give me their take on it! x
 
There are some experienced members on here but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait. Their positions are voluntary and they do it along with their daily lives. Patience pays 🙂
@VickiA @Swissgreys @Lady Kelly
 
Thanks for the thought @Siikibam - I think I'm doing all the right things, just keen for the poor things to stop itching! It also seems weird to me to have a week off the medicine, though that does seem right! This is by far the most knowledgeable place that I have found in my online searches, so I'm sure someone will come along eventually who has experienced this! :D
 
Yay 😀 I can’t toot this forum’s horn enough! There are a lot of groups around that unfortunately give out misinformation. I’ve had to leave all the ones I was part of because of a difference of opinion and seeing too many things that made me sad. I like it here 😉
 
Hello and welcome.
The itrafungol is the best treatment available and you are following a standard treatment plan. In terms of ringworm, I’m afraid it always gets worse before it gets better. This is because the fungal spores are in the affected skin, affecting the hairs in that skin and all affected hairs end up coming out and scabbing over before things start to get better. Some vets don’t use the pulse method and will carry on giving the itrafungol without a break, but this is something you can discuss with your vet.
Please throw out all wooden items as these can harbour spores. Hot wash any fleece or soft bedding (60degree wash)
if you want to add another layer of treatment you can also undertake imaverol dips. You can buy this online. Mix according to directions, and dip/soak the piggies in it and leave it on the hair and skin don’t wash it off. Repeat at the required intervals. Personally I find that itrafungol usually does the job without the need for dips as well. You just have to be patient, as the condition gets worse to look at before it starts to look better.
I treat all fungal pigs as if they are infectious until their hair is fully grown back and they have completed all treatment. I’m afraid it’s a real pain as it takes weeks to get on top of an infection and to deal with all the cleaning, treating etc.
 
@VickiA - thank you so much! it’s a relief to know I’m on the right track! The washing/cleaning is demoralising. Their little faces look such a mess too.

They have fleece which I’m washing at 60 with laundry sanitiser. I’ve washed their stick bridge/hide in bleach, do you think that is sufficient? If I throw it away now presumably they just won’t have one for a while, as a new one would just get infected? I thought it would be better to keep bleaching it and then replace at the end of their treatment?

I can’t do dips as it’s not possible to order or get things delivered at the moment.

Do you know how long in the treatment until they are not infectious?

Many thanks for your advice! X
 
PremierPig said:
@VickiA - thank you so much! it’s a relief to know I’m on the right track! The washing/cleaning is demoralising. Their little faces look such a mess too.

They have fleece which I’m washing at 60 with laundry sanitiser. I’ve washed their stick bridge/hide in bleach, do you think that is sufficient? If I throw it away now presumably they just won’t have one for a while, as a new one would just get infected? I thought it would be better to keep bleaching it and then replace at the end of their treatment?

I can’t do dips as it’s not possible to order or get things delivered at the moment.

Do you know how long in the treatment until they are not infectious?

Many thanks for your advice! X
Click to expand...

I would throw out anything wooden and not replace it until you are past this infection. You can just make cardboard tunnels from boxes etc and bin them frequently. The cleaning, washing etc is time consuming but worth it. The spores can live outside the piggies so you don’t want spores to survive and re- infect them.
in terms of them being infectious I treat them always as if they can still infect us until all the treatment is finished and the infection gone. So wear long sleeves, wear gloves AND NO KISSING THEM until it’s over. It’s tough but you can’t risk spreading it to your human family.
 
PremierPig said:
@VickiA - thank you so much! it’s a relief to know I’m on the right track! The washing/cleaning is demoralising. Their little faces look such a mess too.

They have fleece which I’m washing at 60 with laundry sanitiser. I’ve washed their stick bridge/hide in bleach, do you think that is sufficient? If I throw it away now presumably they just won’t have one for a while, as a new one would just get infected? I thought it would be better to keep bleaching it and then replace at the end of their treatment?

I can’t do dips as it’s not possible to order or get things delivered at the moment.

Do you know how long in the treatment until they are not infectious?

Many thanks for your advice! X
Click to expand...
If you bleach anything they could gnaw or chew, I'm not sure that's OK.
 
Sending hugs, ringworm is a real worry, we brought home a piggy with ringworm but luckily we spotted it straight away before she met all our other pigs. Our experience of this was 10 days of treatment, with a vet check halfway through, then after that the vet took a skin scrape to send to the lab to see if the infection had gone- it had, but it took 2 weeks after that to get the all clear... so really a month to make sure it had really gone!
As @VickiA says, please throw away any furniture made of wood or other porous materials, make do with cardboard boxes etc that you throw away every few days until the ringworm has gone, and employ proper paranoid hygiene- surgical gloves and a plastic apron or separate clothes you keep at the door of the piggy room just to handle the ringworm piggy, hand sanitiser afterwards... like for covid-19 but more so, ringworm is far more infectious!
 
VickiA said:
You can imagine how “cheerful” we are in the rescue when a fungal piggy arrives :lol!:
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Yes I was similarly thrilled to meet Blodwen pig when she arrived at our house with an enormous obvious ringworm lesion on her neck... it was very traumatic at the time, but over a year later I can say she is well worth the fungus paranoia and hassle we had!
 
VickiA said:
You can imagine how “cheerful” we are in the rescue when a fungal piggy arrives :lol!:
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Just hideous! But as I said to my husband, our little piggies will at least have a good life with us and we will work our hardest to get them better, unlike their poor siblings left behind just as things locked down. 😢
 
PigglePuggle said:
Yes I was similarly thrilled to meet Blodwen pig when she arrived at our house with an enormous obvious ringworm lesion on her neck... it was very traumatic at the time, but over a year later I can say she is well worth the fungus paranoia and hassle we had!
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Please god it doesn’t take a year though! 😱 Oh bless that she’s worth the trouble! X
 
PremierPig said:
Please god it doesn’t take a year though! 😱 Oh bless that she’s worth the trouble! X
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Dont worry it didnt take a year, just a very long seeming month... at least your piggies have each other for company, poor Blodwen was taken away from her friends and given away in the free ads on her own because her evil breeder owner didnt want to pay for vet treatment, she needed an expensive dental surgery too... now she is fungus free with lovely teeth and a happy herd member with 5 friends!
You'll get through this, and in a few months time when someone else on the forum brings home ringworm piggies you'll be able to advise and reassure them too :) x
 
PigglePuggle said:
Dont worry it didnt take a year, just a very long seeming month... at least your piggies have each other for company, poor Blodwen was taken away from her friends and given away in the free ads on her own because her evil breeder owner didnt want to pay for vet treatment, she needed an expensive dental surgery too... now she is fungus free with lovely teeth and a happy herd member with 5 friends!
You'll get through this, and in a few months time when someone else on the forum brings home ringworm piggies you'll be able to advise and reassure them too :) x
Click to expand...
Thank you! That’s really reassuring! 😘
 
PigglePuggle said:
Dont worry it didnt take a year, just a very long seeming month... at least your piggies have each other for company, poor Blodwen was taken away from her friends and given away in the free ads on her own because her evil breeder owner didnt want to pay for vet treatment, she needed an expensive dental surgery too... now she is fungus free with lovely teeth and a happy herd member with 5 friends!
You'll get through this, and in a few months time when someone else on the forum brings home ringworm piggies you'll be able to advise and reassure them too :) x
Click to expand...
Blodwen is a very lucky girl ❤️
 
Just a little update. 2 weeks into treatment, we re-start their medicine again tomorrow after a week off.

I think they are less itchy now. Spotty-pig seems to have got off very lightly with no hair loss. Poor Caramel looks a mess, as you can see, both eyes are bald! I think I can see signs of the growth though so fingers crossed!

They are still perky and have started wheeking at me in the morning for their breakfast which is very sweet.
2E37B9FD-0E61-4928-A6F1-7C2E258C1640.webp
 
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