One of my guinea pigs, Sid, has had ringworm ever since I rescued him a year ago. He has been on multiple creams etc but they didn’t really have much of an impact. Imaverol dip worked, and most of the hair on his back grew back but 2 tiny patches of fur won’t grow back and it’s so frustrating! I have been back and forth to the vets. Is there anything else I can try? At this point I’m looking towards natural remedies in hope that something will work. Is there any non-prescription oral treatment around?
I am following strict cleaning routines too.
Thanks in advance for any advice
Hi and welcome
Please ask your vet for oral itrafungol, which is a fungal cat medication that also works for guinea pigs (I've been using it first 10 years ago and never looked back). It is prescription-only though. Creaming is very much outdated; it never allows you to get on top of the spores as you are not covering the fully affected area and are at a constant risk of new patches.
Key to getting on top of ringworm is getting on top of the thousands of invisible, long-lived spores that can cause a new infection even two years later. That is why hygiene is so crucial to getting on top of it.
Please follow the advice in our very detailed ringworm guide closely; it will work when you do it - we have proven that repeatedly.
My last ringworm outbreak was 4 years ago in a room with 30 other piggies. Thanks to prompt action, the correct treatment and going to the pain of deep cleaning the whole room (including taking all pens apart and washing everything in F10 or any fabrics at the required temperature), I haven't had any ringworm since then. And this despite Barri being a vet surrender due to wrong home DIY treatment; his ringworm was so bad that the first vet his owner finally saw wanted to put him to sleep. The itrafungol he was prescribed worked a treat and the ringworm was stopped very quickly.
Unfortunately, he didn't have a last sign-off bath before adoption, so we had one more outbreak here but because of his background, I had made sure that I had everything I needed. The itrafungol also prevented his sow-wife from coming down with ringworm despite her sharing the quarantine in another room with him during and after treatment. Barri is now coming up to 6 years. You can find a picture of his last ringworm outbreak in the last chapter of our guide.
Please follow the advice in the Ringworm Guide. All our 15 years practical forum experience with (sadly) plenty of ringworm cases and our own long term owner experience in testing everything and working out all the transmission angles have gone into it:
Ringworm: Hygiene, Care And Pictures
If your vet is not happy to give itrafungol a try, then here is our list of recommended vets:
Recommended Guinea Pig Vets
PS: Can you please take a preferably well lit and crisp picture of the bare patches and where they are on the body? It is impossible for us to comment on this aspect just from your description.
The best way to upload pictures is via the Attach files button under your post. That works with all formation whereas other ways are not always supported by out forum software; we are not part of social media.
