ChristineST
New Born Pup
I really need some advice here... Please, no judgements - just help. Don't think I don't love my girls. I truly do, and I do a lot to take care of them. I'm just a very tired person with two chronically ill adult children living with me.
A couple of months ago one of my guinea pigs developed ringworm. I have NO idea how - we've had no new pets in the house. Anyway I've been taking all three guinea pigs to the vet for weekly dips in a lime/sulfur bath. Each week while they are there I go home, clean all the fleece bedding and fabric houses & tunnels in hot water (having thrown out all my expensive wooden houses and tunnels), spray F10 all over the cage, clean the bottles and bowls in hot soapy water, and let everything dry. I then go get my girls after they've air dried a while. (After remaking up the cage, of course.)
Looking at Peanut, you'd never know she had ringworm. The sample are only positive now after a couple of weeks in culture, rather than right away as they were the first time. Her fur all looks normal...So obviously the baths and cage cleaning is helping. (Plus the liquid anti-fungal prescription I put on the one spot in which she had the ringworm.)
Still...it is showing positive so my vet gave me two choices to save the girls stress and me money: either dip them twice a week at home or start them on oral treatment.
I really don't want to dip them at home. I'm already mentally and physically exhausted from everything I do for them and dealing with my older son's issues. I'm starting to think I no longer even want pets after this.
I do all their care by myself. One of them needs meds twice a day, besides all this other stuff. If I bathe them at home once a week, it's going to smell awful in here (wow is it nasty when they get back from the vet lol)...and I have no warm place in which to dry them for 1-2 hours or whatever the vet's been doing.
The reason I need advice is...my vet warned me that oral meds (itraconazole) can be rough on their GI tracts and (rarely) their kidneys. What should I do? Is the risk too great? What about the risk of all the stress I'm putting them through? Their skin looks so dry now, and they are always scratching even though two of them have never had ringworm patches and the one who did have it had only a tiny spot near her privates.
Does anyone have experience with this? What did you do to rid your piggies of ringworm? Did they have any side effects from any treatments you tried?
Thanks so much. I've read a TON of stuff on here already about ringworm treatment and sounds like several of you have experience...
Christine Tilden
Maryland, US
A couple of months ago one of my guinea pigs developed ringworm. I have NO idea how - we've had no new pets in the house. Anyway I've been taking all three guinea pigs to the vet for weekly dips in a lime/sulfur bath. Each week while they are there I go home, clean all the fleece bedding and fabric houses & tunnels in hot water (having thrown out all my expensive wooden houses and tunnels), spray F10 all over the cage, clean the bottles and bowls in hot soapy water, and let everything dry. I then go get my girls after they've air dried a while. (After remaking up the cage, of course.)
Looking at Peanut, you'd never know she had ringworm. The sample are only positive now after a couple of weeks in culture, rather than right away as they were the first time. Her fur all looks normal...So obviously the baths and cage cleaning is helping. (Plus the liquid anti-fungal prescription I put on the one spot in which she had the ringworm.)
Still...it is showing positive so my vet gave me two choices to save the girls stress and me money: either dip them twice a week at home or start them on oral treatment.
I really don't want to dip them at home. I'm already mentally and physically exhausted from everything I do for them and dealing with my older son's issues. I'm starting to think I no longer even want pets after this.
I do all their care by myself. One of them needs meds twice a day, besides all this other stuff. If I bathe them at home once a week, it's going to smell awful in here (wow is it nasty when they get back from the vet lol)...and I have no warm place in which to dry them for 1-2 hours or whatever the vet's been doing.The reason I need advice is...my vet warned me that oral meds (itraconazole) can be rough on their GI tracts and (rarely) their kidneys. What should I do? Is the risk too great? What about the risk of all the stress I'm putting them through? Their skin looks so dry now, and they are always scratching even though two of them have never had ringworm patches and the one who did have it had only a tiny spot near her privates.
Does anyone have experience with this? What did you do to rid your piggies of ringworm? Did they have any side effects from any treatments you tried?
Thanks so much. I've read a TON of stuff on here already about ringworm treatment and sounds like several of you have experience...
Christine Tilden
Maryland, US
