Dry Skin

[ILuvLucy]

Hi. My guinea has really dry skin. It´s on her back, her nose and in her ears. I´ve given her a bath in nizoral for fungus and it´s helped clear out the dandruff, but it gets bad again shortly. Is it possible that she´s not drinking enough water and therefore her skin is dry? I´ve checked her for lice and stuff and that doesn´t seem to be the case. Also, she´s not itching to the point where i suspect mites or anything. She´s just uncomfortable cause her skin is so dry. Any thoughts would be helpful!

[purrie]

Two possibilities I can think of:

1. She still may have mites, even if she isn´t scratching lots. The flaky skin is what is making me think she may have them. did you check out the section on mites in the Guinealynx care button?

2. Teddies tend to have dry skin I think. Is she a teddy?

[ILuvLucy]

i don´ tknow if she is a teddy. she´s got really long hair. also, i live in a really dry place and a lot of times if someone (and animals such as dogs or whatever) does´t drink enough water the skin gets super dry; that´s why i thought that might be the case with my guinea.

[purrie]

Teddies have short coarse fur, much like a stuffed toy bear. I would think that if your pig didn´t drink enough water, she would show other signs of dehydration like lethargy, sunken eyes, etc.

https://www.guinealynx.info/hairloss.html

Check this section out, it has some information on various types of mites. They are too small to see, and even vets have difficulty diagnosing them. They are relatively easy to treat yourself or with the vets help with ivermectin, which doesn´t hurt if your pig doesn´t have mites.

My long-hair had flaky skin, and it turned out to be fur mites. It was very easy to treat, and she is currently flake-free!

[Cara]

Vitamin E is also good for skin troubles. I believe there is a liquid form, I´ve always gone the messy way, poking a small hole in the capsules. It helps greatly with simple dry skin. But I agree, you should rule mites out completely.