Guinea Pig - Bare patch

Question
We have had our Guinea pigs for 3 weeks (our very fist pets - We bought them from a pet shop.  When we held our guinea pig today we noticed a round patch (2 cm in diameter) on the side of its neck about 3cm away from her ear as it looked around.  It is an abysinian? (I think) variety. The patch is not flaky, nor is it red at all and looks like new growth is starting and is not noticible when we put the guinea pig back in its hutch  We are of course concerned that it may be ring worm and the fact that we have handled our pet and the ring worm tranferring to our daughters.   Hoping you may be able to shed light on our concern


Answer
Ouri,

The Abyssinian has a very distinctive appearance. The coat is made up of multiple swirls of hair referred to as rosettes. Their hair is quite dense and coarse unless they are a satin abyssinian in that cause the hair will not be as coarse, and it radiates in circles from multiple points on the body to make up a series of whirls and ridges. These guinea pigs always look somewhat dishevelled.

If that description matches your Guinea Pig then you have an Abyssinian Guinea Pig, and the small bald spot is the center of the rosette and completely normal with Abyssinian Guinea Pigs.

Ringworm often starts on the face as areas of patchy, itchy hair loss. Harkness and Wagner describe the lesions as "oviod, hairless, scaling "sore spots" with crusts or scabs over raised areas." In guinea pigs, the tufts of hair may be stuck together by a crust of exudate (the skin beneath may exude serum). When this dries up the lesions become dry and scaly. These tufts will fall out and hair regrow in about 4 weeks.

I believe that it is just the center of a rosette but if your still concerned about it take her to the vet and have it looked at.

I hope this helps,
   Take are,
     Jules