Why does my guinea pig have fungal feet?

[Milly K]

Hi everyone!

I recently (about 2 months ago) rescued two female guinea pigs who are now almost 10 months old and have a slight fungal infection on their back feet that i am currently treating as directed by a vet. They live inside in a midwest guinea pig habitat and the bedding is fleece. the fleece is spot cleaned twice a day and changed every three days. The pigs get lots of vitamin C in their diet, their nails get trimmed regularly and they get at least an hour of exercise per day so i am very confused as to why they have this infection. I would love the thought of others! thank so much

 

[PigglePuggle]

My first thought would be, is your vet certain this is fungal not bacterial, did the vet take some swabs to send off to a lab for confirmation? And are they giving an appropriate treatment? Surolan mught be a good topical treatment especialky as it is antibacterial as well as antifungal so would cover a broader range of possible infections.
Also are you hot washing your fleece at 60 degrees to kill any fungal spores, and cleaning your cage base and bars with F10 disinfectant? If not, they may be reinfecting themselves... you might buy some small washable fleece pee pads to put where they sleep and sit most amd change these daily or even twice a day (again hot washing them) to keep them nice and dry.
If it definitely is fungal, and you are following the antifungal cleaning tips, you might ask the vet about an oral antifungal medicine that would clear this up more effectively than topical treatments.

 

[Milly K]

Hi, we are not 100% certain that this fungal but are pretty sure about it and where i live there is no surolan so are there any other topical creams that are anibacterial as well as antifungal that I could use? Also we I will definitely start hot washing the fleece! Thanks so much!