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Scratching Scratching increased after 3 treatments of Ivermectin

Mike221

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Hello all,

I haven't posted for a while, but I keep reading this forum.
Our boars started scratching a bit more than normal, so we decided to treat with Ivermectin, in case they have mites.
We had similar situation last year, so our vet gave us Revolution.
Revolution helped after the third treatment, but it was very expensive.
So we decided to order Ivermectin from Amazon and have it in stock.

We did 3 treatments as per guinealynx guidance. (1200g pig got 0.12 ml, 1100g pig got 0.11ml).
We applied ivermectin behind both ears.

12h after the third treatment, both pigs started scratching and bitting their sides like crazy.
It calmed down a bit since then, but it is still worse than before we began the treatment.
Is it possible ivermectin upset those mites so they started moving under the skin?
There isn't any hair loss or bald spots on them.

I'm worried why the situation got worse after 3 treatments.
Is it safe to do 4 treatments with 7 days between each?
 

bpatters

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We need to know the strength of the ivermectin and the weight of the pigs before we'll know whether the treatments were adequate to kill the mites.
 

Mike221

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Ivermectin strength is 5mg/ml (Durvet).
One piggy weights 1250g and his dose was around 0.12 - 0.13 ml.
Other piggy weights 1100g and his dose was 0.11 ml.

Only thing I can think of is that we maybe didn't do the perfect job with the first two treatments.
We rubbed it in with his fur, so some medicine might have stayed on the fur itself.
Not sure if that would made the affect.
3rd treatment we folded back his ear and rubbed it in that way.
 

bpatters

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Putting it on the bald spot behind the ear is the correct way to do it. It would also explain why the pigs were biting themselves more after the third treatment. The first two were likely totally ineffective. The first treatment for mites will usually drive the mites crazy, and they'll drive the pigs crazy. But it calms down after a few hours, and then shouldn't be a problem after that.

I'd do at least two more treatments, preferably three, given behind the ear.
 

Mike221

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Ok thanks. We will try few more treatments.

What I meant on the first two treatments is that we've put the ivermectin on the bald spot behind the ears, but rubbed it in with their fur so possibly some of it stayed on the fur.
 

Mike221

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Can you please look at the attached pictures?
Does this look like lice? It is very hard to see, especially on our white piggy.
And there isn't much of white thingies, but there are some.
White piggy scratches much more, but seems to have less of white thingies in his fur.
We did see something close to his skin at couple of spots, but not sure if that is parasitic or just root of his fur.


1.jpg2.jpg20190210_141830.jpg20190210_141852.jpg
 

bpatters

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Will those things in his fur just brush out if you flick your hands through the fur? Or are they stuck on and you have to slide them off the end of the hair? If you have to slide them off, they're lice nits. If you can flick them out, they're not.
 

Mike221

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Thanks for explaining.
It looks like they are kind of stuck to his fur, have to slide off.
So it could be lice nits.
We didn't see anything crawling on them.
We did 4th treatment of ivermectin yesterday and reaction was the same.
12h after treatment, they scratched and bite themselves like crazy again.
I am sure they got the right dose.

I ordered 1 lice shampoo and 1 dry skin shampoo from gorgeous guineas.
We will try washing them with lice shampoo.
We live up north in Canada and temperature outside is -40 degrees for the last 2 weeks.
Which means air inside is very dry and temperature in the apartment is always around 25 degrees, even with the heat OFF.
Just how the buildings here are. Can't even open a window due to it being frozen solid.
Even we (humans) have dry skin and use body lotions.
 
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