Alopecia
This condition usually only occurs in sows and more often
than not in elderly or pregnant ones. Considering the various
skin conditions that guinea pig flesh can be heir to it is
only natural to suspect fungal or parasitic infestation with
the thinning hair is first noticed. Though I have had a great
deal of experience in diagnosing and skin conditions, I still
always treat for a parasitic infestation when I first spot
the thinning hair, eventhough I may suspect it to be a case
of alopecia. I have never come across an alopecia case which
showed the more typical scurfiness associated with fungal
infestation.
A vet would probably insist in doing a skin scraping, while
I never do. I do not have the facilities and as most parasitic
problems can be cleared up by using the kind of shampoo used
upon children for hair nits, see Skin problems, you can use
this and kill two birds with one stone. A good shampooing
is always of benefit to the skin, and if it is a parasitic
infestation you will have cured the problem.
If the hair does not start growing again, or continues to
fall out a couple a weeks after the parasitic treatment then
it is very likely to be straight forward alopecia.
The bad news is that I have not discovered a cure for this,
but the good news is that in most cases the hair does eventually
come back again. It may take anything up to six months or
as little as a month. The cause is probably hormonal and there
may even be a way of getting it balanced again but I have
not even bothered to look into this for this loss of hair
has absolutely no detrimental effect on the animal suffering
from it.
The reason I have come to this conclusion is that alopecia
is very common in pregnant guinea pigs, as it is in their
human counterparts, when the lymph system is under stress.
The most hair loss is off the rump, though it can be from
the whole of the underside of the animal. Usually by the time
the sow had weaned her young the hair will be well on the
way back. If she has caused lesions by scratching herself
I will put a good covering of calendula oil on her to speed
the healing of the skin but it, of course, has no effect on
the root cause of the problem.
