Mites Mites

MyLittlePiggy07 · Jan 11, 2011

I have been keeping an eye on my guinea pig lately. I feel like he is losing more hair than normal. He seems to itch himself quite a bit. I know guinea pigs itch a lot in general, so I'm not sure to what extent is normal and what is not. It's also winter so it's super dry at place with the radiator going so I don't know if he just has dry skin or if it's mites. When I was just petting him I noticed that he had some specs on his nose. He doesn't have any bald spots though. Anyways, I don't know if I should bring him to the vet or not. I don't want them to do a skin scrape because I heard it's painful for them and not always accurate. What should I do?

Nicolene · Jan 11, 2011

Take him to the vet, and refuse a skin scrape. I don't think the scrape was painful when we had it done, it looked pretty harmless to me, but it cost me a bundle and it came back negative, and the vet STILL treated for mites... So see a vet and ask for Ivermectin. I now get a double dose so I have some one hand for future outbreaks. If you have a good relationship with your vet, or your pig has seen him in the last 12 months for a physical you may even be able to call the vet and just ask for a prescription. My vet lets us just call in for Ivermectin.

Nicolene · Jan 11, 2011

It's better to do a round of mite meds now, than waiting for it to LOOK like mites. One of our piggies took a while to look pretty again, because we just weren't sure and waited a little bit to long.. We took him in when we found a scab, and he ended up on 6 weeks of Ivermectin, because his mites were so darn stubborn.

Peggysu · Jan 11, 2011

Most guinea pigs have mites. They usually lay dormant and flare up in times of stress.

It's inexpensive and easy to treat. If you havent done it yourself before I would suggest going to a vet. Guinealynx has great info on how to calculate how much to give depending on their weight. Additional information is ivermectin comes in different forms and concentrations.

MyLittlePiggy07 · Jan 11, 2011

Hmmm, that's interesting. I didn't know that they lie dormant. Well, I called a vet today and they recommended that I use revolution. It seems like it works just like invermectin & is a little safer. They let me buy some from them and told me how to use it. I'm going to put some on my piggy tomorrow. Hopefully it works!!

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Mites Mites

MyLittlePiggy07

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