Not emergency, but need help

kleenmama
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Sat Feb 02, 2002 5:48 pm


OK, here´s the deal. Dani is a little sow I´ve had for two years. She is scurfy. I have treated her for mites(ivermectin) and lice(advantage). Here are how this presents.

She is irritated. If you touch her back, she hates it. She has horrid dandruff. And her hair is funny. I know I touched on this with Teresa before, but I can´t find the thread anywhere, so I thought I could get all the feedback in one thread.

When you just "wipe" her hair, a lot of it comes out. And attached to each hair is a little scale. Looks like a piece of dandruff. I´ll take a pic.

This is a picture of her back after I rub in back and forth ONCE. I didn´t scrape, I didn´t rub vigorously. She cries each time I touch her.

I have Nizoral. What else should I do? 2 years ago when the vet did a scraping, nothing showed up.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Feb 02, 2002 7:25 pm


Okay, you said you have Nizoral. Have you used it? The same thing was going on with Nina, but less. Lose hairs with flakes of skin attached. She didn´t flinch though.

I would give her a good bath with Nizoral, repeat in a week or so and see if it has any effect.

You could have a vet culture for fungus beforehand if you wanted to, but I would try the Nizoral first.

kleenmama
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Sat Feb 02, 2002 8:34 pm


Nope, just bought the Nizoral today. I thought someone else talked about a creme of some sort. I also have some conofite creme, but she has no scabs. OK. Trying the Nizoral. Thanks Lynx!

pinta

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2002 12:16 am


If she´s been like that for 2 years I would consider getting a culture for fungus done. If the Nizoral doesn´t work that would be the next logical step.

The other possibility is allergies. Irena adopted a boar from our vet clinic who was allergic to wood products and had to be bedded on carefresh. I don´t know how his allergies were manifested but it worked out since Irena was allergic to pine too.

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cmtigger

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2002 12:26 am


It sounds like fungus to me also- I don´t always trust those skin scraping tests, either does a vet I saw last year.
With my teddies, I usually bathe them in Selsun Blue. (I trust it because doctors reccommend it for children who have fungus-related scalp problems. Then when I dry them, I work athletes´ foot spray into their coat well. I repeat the coat spray for a week or so, I might bathe again after that time, too. When the fur is growing back without any of the greasy, dandruffy stuff, I keep up the spray for a couple of more days, then stop.

I have an american sow who has had stubborn fungus problems. I finally treated her with Lym Dyp, which I got from a vet- it works well, but is a mess and stinks. Some people swear by it, though. A breeder also reccommended trying an iodine based shampoo, or treatment, applied repeatedly over several days. Many teddy breeders use Nutrogena T-gel to keep the "teddy dandruff" down. I´m not sure of the active ingredient in Nizoral, but most of the stronger human dandruff shampoos should work okay.

Remember, with any of the shampoos, let the medicated shampoo sit on the skin for several minutes before you rinse it off, so that it can have time to work on the skin.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2002 12:33 am


Nizoral´s active ingredient is ketozanole (something like that anyway). This drug is also used orally like griseofulvin to treat fungus and I think it may be the most effective over-the-counter medicated shampoo for fungal problems.

kleenmama
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2002 2:46 am


Well, I bathed Dani. Pinta, it comes and goes. It has not been steady for 2 years, but a good portion of that time. We did the culture on the stuff 2 years ago when I first got her. Remember? She got so mad at me she turned her back on me in the condo for three days!
Anyway, the culture showed nothing. I hated to have her scraped again, but it is so irritating to her. She cries if you even push her hair backwards.

A ton of the dandruff seemed to be removed with the bathing. Let´s hope it helps. If not, we´ll try the culture again.

pinta

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2002 4:49 am


No, I can´t remember. Do you remember how long the culture was left to grow? Was it at least a 10 day wait?

Is she on wood bedding? Have you tried switching her to towels to see if there´s an improvement?

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lisam

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2002 11:02 am


I have some really good horse stuff that works on fungus type problems. I´ll look up the ingredients when I go out to feed. If nothing else works, you may want to try it.

ECollins

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2002 4:07 pm


My dandruffy teddy Lucy´s flakes didn´t increase or decrease when I switched from CareFresh to pine/pellets. I didn´t realize that teddies are prone to dandruff. This same pig repeatedly gets fungus on her ears and occasionaly has hair loss on her upper chest. Are teddies more prone to hair issues?

kleenmama
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2002 4:31 pm


I´ll try her on towels. She is on wood bedding. And no, they didn´t culture it that long. Looks like I might have to try it. I think they were looking for ringworm, because the vet came back in after the scraping and said it was negative. Same day.

EC, I don´t have any teddies, but I know some people that do, and my understanding is that teddies are prone to more skin problems. But maybe that´s just what I´ve heard up here.
Last edited by kleenmama on Sun Feb 03, 2002 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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cmtigger

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2002 5:04 pm


Yes, teddies are more prone to skin problems. Most people who I have spoken to seem to think that their fur traps stuff like moisture and fungus and caused the problems. I can´t figure out the ear thing- but they also tend to get so much more gunk in their ears than my other pigs.

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