Hard white area below one eye

[coltond]

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and I am hoping to ease my mind until my vet appointment on Monday. We recently lost our 15-month-old guinea pig during the recovery of anesthesia from a surgery to remove a bladder stone. Our 18-month-old guinea pig, Dilbert, has been terribly upset that his best friend hasn't come home. We made the decision to purchase a new male guinea pig, 4-week-old Nigel, from a breeder registered with the American Cavy Association. We looked high and low for any guinea pig available to adopt within a 700-kilometer radius and I didn't come up with anything, so we made the decision to purchase one from a very reputable breeder. We met with the breeder, met Nigel's parents and the rest of his herd (who were all in great health), gave Nigel a quick exam and brought him home. After we got home we noticed a raised white area below one of his eyes. He's currently in quarantine. I was hoping that someone might know what this raised white area might be? None of his siblings had this below their eyes (I still have access to all of the pictures). His eye is pretty white, but directly below the white space looks like some raised scar tissue. Does anyone know what this might be? Thank you!

[bpatters]

I really don't know. But my suspicion would be that it's a fungus.

[OliCavies]

Oh that, don't worry.My boar had the same thing when he was 2 months old.We treated with tea.If you want to know how all you have to do is follow these steps.

1) boil water and pour into small cup
2)get as much of the tea out of the tea bag into the water.
3)let it cool for a couple minutes (until it is luke warm)
4) take a q-tip and put the tea on the white stuff(scrape some of with q-tip if possible) and drop A little in the cavy's eye
5)do this every day and it should get smaller and smaller, Then eventually disappear.

I hope this helps out.

[bpatters]

I would definitely NOT treat it with tea. Eye infections can spread to the other eye and cause the loss of sight in both.

I think you should notify the breeder and let him arrange for the pig to see an exotic vet.

[Kimera]

I would say it is his fur hardened with exudation from the irritated eye. It needs to be treated carefully, since it is so near his eye. Certainly visiting an exotics vet is recommended.

[Lynx]

He is cute! I'm on the likely fungal side with a possible aggravation from exudate from the eye (they may be interrelated).
Let us know what the vet says. Oh, and let me know if I can add your photos permanently to your thread for future readers.

[mmeadow]

Absolutely looks like fungus. Very common and treatable, but agree with everyone that the supplier must be notified--this is not OK!--and cover a vet appointment. In my experience, giving the pig two or three baths with an anti-fungal shampoo is a better way to get rid of fungus than just using a topical medication on the infected areas.

Guinea Lynx page on fungal infections.

[coltond]

Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to respond to my inquiry, I greatly appreciate it! My vet was able to squeeze me in first thing this morning. She said it looks like it could be ringworm, but she would prefer to grow a culture in the lab before prescribing oral medications (due to his weight, and how harsh they can be on the little guy's system.) She also looked at a sample off of his skin under a microscope and she treated him for mites with an ivermectin injectable. She advised that she wouldn't want to treat the area around his eye with a topical antifungal medication due to the close proximity of the eye. Has anyone experienced any issues with this?

Oh, and let me know if I can add your photos permanently to your thread for future readers.

You can definitely add the photos permanently :)

[bpatters]

There are ophthalmic antifungal drops/creams/whatever. If it were me, I'd want to at least try those before giving an oral antifungal. The oral meds are pretty awful for any animal, human or four-legged, and I'd want them to be the last resort.

[Lynx]

Your vet is right that you'd need to be very careful with topical fungal treatments near the eye. It would depend on how well you think you could apply it (would be applied very thinly). bpatters suggestion to use anophthalmic antifungal is the best.

Here are some closeup crops of your pics (thanks for letting me add them - what happens is remote hosts fail and then no one knows what a medical issue looked like):

[coltond]

Thanks for the feedback. I spoke with my vet again just a couple minutes ago and she said that she believes it's a skin infection, not an eye infection, so she won't treat it with an ophthalmic drop. She also stated that I shouldn't put any medications near his eyes... I'm a bit frustrated because I want for him to feel better rather than wait another 3 weeks for results of his culture.

[bpatters]

I agree that it's a skin infection. But the eye drops have the medication in them that would treat the skin infection and wouldn't hurt the eyes, whereas any skin medication might damage the eyes.

I'm not a vet, nor do I play one on TV (to quote Talishan). But I can't see why it would hurt to try an antifungal eye drop and see if it helps. You'd know much quicker than three weeks if it were doing anything. And if it doesn't, you could then try an antibiotic eye drop. As I said, I'll do most anything to keep from giving an oral antifungal med. And like you, I wouldn't want to wait three weeks.

I would, however, be raising hell with the breeder and demanding that he pay for all treatment.

[Lynx]

Ditto bpatters. You essentially could just apply these safer drops to the skin near the eye, knowing that they should not hurt the eye if it gets in it.

[mmeadow]

Vets do like to confirm these things with tests, but I think the culture is unnecessary--there is no doubt in my mind that it is ringworm. The first time I dealt with ringworm, it was in the same location, just under the eye. My vet gave me "pledgets" -- anti-fungal wipes that I used very carefully, being sure not to get it in the eye. I much prefer to treat ringworm with shampoo, but do not know if a full-body treatment is safe for such a young pig. You might be able to use the shampoo in just the problem location, thereby limiting exposure. Leave it on for 10 minutes, during which you can distract the pig with snacks. You then carefully rinse it with water.

[Kimera]

One thing you can safely use on or near the eye is warm saline, preferably sterile. You can use it to soften and wash off any "gunk" from the eyelids and fur.

[coltond]

Thanks for all of the helpful responses. Would something like this be effective in treating the fungus in the meanwhile? It doesn't say to avoid the eyes, but obviously, I would try my hardest to avoid eye contact.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00K4WWY0I/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_bj3DAbYQ5MXZD

These wipes have the same active ingredients as Malaseb (Active ingredients: Chlorhexidine Gluconate 2%, Miconazole Nitrate 2%) from the Guinea Lynx fungus write-up posted in a previous comment. (http://www.guinealynx.info/fungus.html)

[bpatters]

The material data sheet on the shampoo with those ingredients says it can cause eye irritation. And the Allivet Pet Pharmacy says to avoid contact with the eyes. So I'd be very careful if I decided to use it.

[coltond]

It completely slipped my mind to check the Safety Data Sheet on the product. I found the SDS for the product listed above here and it says that it can cause mild eye irritation. I will exercise caution while using the product, but I think I'll have a better chance treating him with this product and less likely to get it in his eye than let's say Canesten.

[coltond]

I just wanted to post an update. On the 6th of February, we observed a lot more hair loss. I took him in for a second opinion and he's now being treated for ringworm. Both vets I spoke with said that there were not any ophthalmic medications that could be used to effectively treat this, so he was prescribed Itrafungol at a dosage of 0.5 ml/kg of weight for 30 days. The Itrafungol was mixed at a local pharmacy in a "tutti-frutti" suspension, which Nigel loves. Unfortunately, we handled him barehandedly before we first noticed the symptoms above and I have a mild breakout of ringworm on my forearm, yay!

[Lynx]

I hope the medication does the trick! Hoping for a ringworm-free update in the future!