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Ivermectin How to treat for mites and lice?

Mellamimi

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Ok I'm new to this forum so bare with me!
I've had Guinea pigs for the last 6 years, usually rescue ones, and over that time had a few problems here and there but nothing I cant deal with. Oddly enough though I've never had any of my piggies have lice or mites.
At the moment I have 4 Male piggies all live in separate homes as they do not like each other!
Last year I became really ill and had to have a piggy sitter take them for nearly 6 months. I have had them back since December.
Today I noticed one of my pigs has tiny pale brown flecks near his ears moving around so I'm guessing lice or mites? I've sent for some treatment and am going to do them all and obviously disinfect their cages with a pet friendly spray.
Here's what I don't get .. all my piggies live separate and don't share cages, they didnt share at my piggy sitters so how did they get it?
There seems to be a debate to if they can get it from hay and bedding. I have been buying their hay from the same place for many years now and never had a problem. I did however recently switch to sawdust bedding as my usual bedding gets delivered in a huge bag and is running late.
When I got my pigs back home in December I bathed and groomed them all and saw nothing then.
Where did they come from???!

Mella xx

(Mummy of Oreo, Ginger, Fluffy and Snowball piggies)
 

bpatters

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Mellamimi

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If you can see them, it's lice, not mites. Mites are microscopic and burrow into the skin.

My guess would be that they got them at the piggy sitter's house. If they were barely infested when you got them back, it could have taken this long before you saw enough of them to be noticeable.

See https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/111160-How-to-treat-for-mites-and-lice for how to treat yourself.

Hi and thanks for your reply.
My piggy sitter didnt have any other pigs there as it was during winter time. I'm so confused! They don't seem to be bothering him .. hes a very lazy piggy and likes to just chill out at the front of the cage watching us! But I have ordered some anti parasite products and will do them all and the cages themselves.
I guess I wanted to be sure they were not in the hay and bedding so to know if to throw them out or not but I'm pretty sure they arent hay mites as I can see them moving and are extremely thin, just like a brown fleck of dust.
Thanks x
 

bpatters

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Be very careful with the anti-parasite products. I wouldn't use any kind of spray or dip. And if the product isn't strong enough to kill the lice, you'll just be delaying things.
 

Mellamimi

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Be very careful with the anti-parasite products. I wouldn't use any kind of spray or dip. And if the product isn't strong enough to kill the lice, you'll just be delaying things.


Yeh I have the right stuff. As I said I've been taking in rescue pigs for many years and I've dealt with an array of things. I just cant understand how he got it especially as he is on his own and none of the others have it. I would make visits to him at the pet sitter and his cage was always clean and was housed on his own the same way. It does seem strange that he got it after being there. I guess I will never know for sure, it just puts your guard up a bit about letting anyone look after them in future. Poor baby should be back on track soon anyway and hopefully I will never need to use a pet sitter again! xx

IMG_20160210_231842.jpg
 

PiggieLove13

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Hello Everybody,
My two new pigs, Marvin and Louie, both have running lice and I ordered Durvet Ivermectin Pour-On for Cattle which was recommended in this thread. It has arrived and as I was reading the dosage chart on Guinea Lynx, I noticed that I only have a 1 ml (dosage by 0.1) syringe. I also read that I can just put two drops instead of measuring it exactly. Is it okay if I use the syringe I have to put two drops on? Or will the drops be too big? I don't want to accidentally overdose.
Thanks,
PiggieLove13, Louie II, and Maverick (AKA Marvin)
 

bpatters

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You can use the syringe. Just wipe the invermectin off the end of the syringe onto the back of the ear when the drops are small-ish.
 
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