This month we have 3 sows with Cystic Ovaries, each presenting with different ’symptoms’. Sandy has the classic bilateral hairloss, hopefully we will see some fuzz growing back soon 
Sandy has no dominance issues with the other guineas she lives with but does have crusty nipples- another sign of ovarian cysts/hormonal issues, but certainly not present on all cases.
Little Miss Lucky has hairloss in patches all over her body as well as the usual bilateral hairloss. She has been treated for mites and fungal problems but when this didn’t have any effect she had a course of Chorulon injections on day one and day ten. This ’symptom’ is also seen in dogs and in very rare cases they do not regain their hair. Since the injections the irritation to her skin that Miss Lucky was experiencing has ceased. In Humans there is often discomfort with Cystic Ovaries, it is possible they were irritating Little Miss Lucky. Little Miss Lucky has had behavioural issues in the past, possibly due to cysts, possibly not…
Fern has no hairloss, but the day after she arrived on Planet Guinea she was having heavy blood loss. She immediately went to see Jenny at Active Vetcare, Tilehurst, who felt a cyst in one of her Ovaries. She was prescribed Baytril @ 0.4ml x2 daily and given a Chorulon injection with another to follow in 10 days. The bleeding has now stopped. The most suprising thing with Fern was how ‘normal’ she was whilst losing huge amounts of blood! She continued to eat and drink as normal and was happy with her friends- no dominance issues that are sometimes associated with hormonal problems.
These girls go to show that there is no obvious one sign and it was simply by handling Fern that her bloodloss was noticed, had she been left because all seemed well it could have been a different story.
Sandy, who also had mites (note hairloss around face and general ‘broken’ hair), has bilateral hairloss.
