[Gpdd] HEALTH

[Cazza177]

Dear Grace

I do not agree with your vet, if I can be that honest. The scrappings taken 
do not always give accurate results. This is either mites or a fungal 
problem, or maybe even both, and it sounds more like mites. Especially as 
you have lesions on the bare skin -- this is from the gp itching from the 
mites. I saw this in my own two gp's who sadly had this problem. The squeak 
sounds you are hearing every now and again is almost certainly one of your 
gp's making sounds as it is itching and needing to scratch -- I also heard 
this with one of my gp's when I very first owned them and didn't know what I 
do now...

Anyway, you need to get some Ivermectin. This is probably only available via 
your vet so you may need to return there. Even if your vet says it is not 
necessary, insist on ALL your gp's being treated, even Gus. Gus will not 
have escaped this problem if she is sharing their quarters, even though at 
the moment you may not see signs with her yet. Vedra also recommends gp's 
are shampooed for mites and fungal issues. There is a very good one called 
Vet-Sect Repel Animal Shampoo and you can find out more about it at 
www.millpledge.com

There's also some links here for what Peter Gurney says about mites and 
fungal skin issues. http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/skinp.htm

MITES
These are parasites that can be living either on or under the skin of guinea 
pigs. The ones on the skin are usually referred to as running lice. The 
symptoms are small bald patches, particularly around the shoulders and front 
legs and hair shafts broke. Sometimes there are raised dots, like human 
goose pimples on the skin. The running lice seem to cause less hair loss and 
though they are quite small can been easily seen moving about by parting the 
hair with the tips of the finger. Rest assured, they are species specific so 
humans cannot pick them up. I also believe that they are photosensitive for 
I have never seen them on a white or very light cream guinea pig, and in 
tri-coloured piggies they seem to stick to the dark hair.

This is the easiest of skin conditions to deal with for there are many 
products on the market that will kill these parasites without harming the 
animal. The best by far is the prescription only medicine, IVOMECTIN. If 
after two, maybe three injections of IVOMECTIN over the course of a week to 
ten days, the animal is still scratching and the skin still looks raw, then 
forget looking for parasites for the problem is probably a fungal one.

There are some very effective anti-parasitic shampoos formulated for human 
beings, and despite the cries of despair that these can be harmful to guinea 
pigs by members of the veterinary profession, they are not. They may be 
harmful to the bank balances of veterinary surgeons, for they will want to 
sell you the more expensive medicines that they stock.


I hope you can sort it out.

Kind regards

Carole
Remembering always BG and Artie