Mini Pig Oscar’s Skin Infection and Symptoms

Since Oscar was a really young piglet, he has struggled with skin issues. At five weeks old, he came home from the breeder with sarcoptic mange which we immediately treated. A few months later, we noticed more signs of mange and took him back to the vet where Oscar was again diagnosed with mange and a secondary staph infection. We followed a rigorous mange treatment the second time while treating the staph infection with an antibiotic, and Oscar’s skin eventually cleared up.

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After treatment, Oscar was mange free in August 2015. Although the mites were gone, the scabbing and discoloration on his ears and skin took several more weeks to heal and clear up.

For the past three months, Oscar’s skin has been healthy. His healthy skin is pink and soft, with very little brown discoloration and no scabbing. Also, aside from a few gentle head scratches on a chair each day, he doesn’t itch when his skin is healthy. Pigs are prone to dry skin and itchiness, but Oscar’s healthy itching is much different than his obsessive itching from mange.

A little over a week ago, I noticed some changes in Oscar’s skin. The skin from above his snout up to the top of his head and back underneath his mohawk had some brown discoloration and even some light scabbing, most noticeable on his ears. While it’s normal for mini pigs to have some brown discoloration on their skin, referred to as “pig rust”, it can also be symptomatic of a skin issue. I typically wipe down Oscar’s snout area and underneath his eyes every other day to keep it clean and free of pig rust, but recently the discoloration has been coming back more quickly and thicker. Most concerning are the little scabs on his skin, similar to the scabbing he had with sarcoptic mange.

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In this picture, Oscar’s ear shows the discoloration and scabbing from his skin infection.
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Oscar’s skin is healthier here, and you can see that his ear is pink with very little discoloration and no scabbing compared to the other photo. Sorry for the angle; he’s heating his rear with the heat vent!

Throughout the past week, I tried several different approaches to fix his skin issue. At first I thought his skin might be too dry, so I brushed him often and put lotion on him several times each day. When that didn’t work, I tried not brushing or putting lotion on him in case the oils were building up and combining with the dirt to give him the brown discoloration. When neither of those approaches worked, I blocked the heat vent he sits in front of for hours each day in case it was burning his skin and causing the scabbing. Blocking Oscar’s heat vent did not go over well with him!

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“Why is that basket blocking my heat vent, mom?”

When none of my “home remedies” helped and his skin continued to get worse, I had to consider what I’d been avoiding all along: maybe Oscar had mange again. The discoloration in his skin and the scabbing were not as severe as when he had mange, but they looked similar. However, some things didn’t add up. Oscar hasn’t been around any other pigs, and we thoroughly treated the house and our dog after his second round of mange, so I couldn’t figure out how he could possibly have mange again. Regardless, all of my thinking and worrying and speculating about whether it made sense that he had mange again wasn’t fixing the problem. I needed to just take him to the vet to find out and then face and deal with whatever the problem was to make sure Oscar was healthy.

I made an appointment and took Oscar to the vet yesterday afternoon. I was so nervous! My biggest fear was that he had mange again and we would have to isolate him for weeks. The vet examined Oscar’s skin and did a skin scrape. She told me that she wasn’t concerned about the brown discoloration since that can be normal and particularly noticeable on pink pigs like Oscar, but she said the scabbing isn’t normal and needed to be treated. After the exam, Oscar and I waited for the results.

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Oscar in the car on his way to the veterinarian.

The test results didn’t show any mites! After all of my stressing and worrying and rationalizing, I was so relieved that the vet didn’t find any mites on Oscar. Since we don’t have any evidence of mange, the vet believes Oscar has a bacterial infection on his skin and is treating it like the staph infection he had several months ago. I wish he didn’t have the skin infection, but I’m relieved it’s not contagious, it’s easy to treat with an oral liquid antibiotic, and that he should be back to normal soon.

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Oscar getting ready to take his liquid oral antibiotic for his skin infection.

The biggest lesson I learned in all this is that I just should’ve taken Oscar to the vet when I noticed the problem. Since I’m around Oscar the most, I’m the best judge of what’s normal and not normal with his skin. Instead of spending so much time and energy worrying about what the issue could have been, Oscar would have been better off going to the vet sooner so that we could identify the real issue and solution. If you notice any changes in your mini pig’s skin or have concerns about skin discoloration or scabbing, I recommend finding a veterinarian you trust and getting a skin scrape on your mini pig to make sure there are no mites or infections that need to be treated.

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Oscar’s skin looks a little better already and hopefully will continue to improve as he takes his antibiotic!


9 thoughts on “Mini Pig Oscar’s Skin Infection and Symptoms”

    1. Thank you so much! So kind of you to read through and kind of experience it with me. I was really worried it was mange again and, while treatable, it’s just such a pain and hard to have him isolated. It’s still a little possible mange could be the underlying cause, but we haven’t found any evidence so I’m happy with the infection diagnosis for now. I’m glad you liked the photos! I love the one of him taking the medicine because he’s just so cute with his little snout faces. He’s happily back in front of his heat vent now! 🙂

  1. I’m so happy for the good news for Oscar’s skin! One thing I have found to help with little piggy skin especially in the winter time is flax seed. I buy organic flaxseed at the store or my local feed store and mix it in with his normal food and have noticed nice healthy skin. I love your updates on Oscar, you sharing your experiences and life with him have been very helpful! Thank you!

    1. Thank you! I’m so glad you’ve found the blog helpful! I’m learning as I go too, so thank you for the tip! I hadn’t thought of trying flaxseed. Oscar would love it, and I like that it would be easy to throw in the bowl with his regular food. I don’t mind putting lotion and coconut oil on his skin, but I’d rather fix skin issues from the inside out. He would like it more because it’s food, and I would like it more because he wouldn’t be greasy all the time! Thank you for commenting and sharing that!

      1. Yes coconut oil does wonders hah! Also a tiny little splash of just regular vegetable oil once or a few times a week on top of food has helped as well!

        1. That’s great to know! I’ll start putting either some oil or flaxseed in his food to see if that helps his skin condition overall. Thanks so much!

  2. I thank you for all this great information. I’m trying to get the hand of this my Phoenix is a month old and has an attitude problem he wants to do as he feels and is now pooping when we hold him something he never did but I know is a way to get back on his 4 legs trouble maker jajaja also he is going in his liter box to play now that I’m not happy with. Please help
    I have videos of Phoenix baby pig on YouTube if anyone wants to meet him

  3. Im scared.. My pig itches all the time.. Has developed scabs..thick ones on body.. Calling vet tomorrow… Also i cannot get him to potty train.. He goes around litter box… But refuses to use it..any suggestions? I feel so bad for him.. Any home remedies to help with itching?

    1. Scabbing is a sign of Gressy Pig disease We just went through almost $1000 in vet bills to determine this is what our pig had. He need to been seen by a vet and treated with antibiotics.

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