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Worming guinea-pigs?

♥pepsi♥

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We have a problem,

my three guinea-pigs must live outside, they come to no harm. They are kept warm in winter and cool in summer,

But my father wants to get them wormed, i heard you can use 1ml of cat paste, but i dont want to try without your opinion first.

is their any safe guinea-pig worming paste/chews? or would it have to be a "vet" job?
 

aqh88

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The only safe dewormer I know of for guinea pigs would be ivermectin. You can dilute horse paste and use that or use the injectible clear liquid ivermectin and apply it topically. It's the same as treating for mites. The ivermectin will be absorbed throughout the body killing all parasites. To dose you have to weigh them and calculate how much they need based on the form of ivermectin your using. Such info can be found on www.guinealynx.info. Cats are highly sensitive to ivermectin so the cat dewormer is probably not ivermectin. Many dewormers are quite toxic to guinea pigs so if you don't know what your doing it would be very easy to kill them.

However guinea pigs very very rarely need dewormed. They are not sensitive to many internal parasites and they would have to be eating infected grass to get worms in the first place. The cycle of a parasitic worm is to be ingested as eggs or larvae, grow to adult, and then either lay eggs or release larvae into the intestines where they are carried out through droppings and infect the grass for the next animal to eat them. Since guinea pigs are rarely allowed to eat grass all day they rarely get worms but since they are also quite hardy toward worms even if they are left to eat grass off the ground they will not shed the worms and so will not contaminate the grass and eat more worms. The main reason we have to deworm livestock is because we confine them to a small grazing area and the parasite eggs and larvae they shed get reingested giving them more parasites. The only time I would worry about deworming a guinea pig is if they are eating grass infected by other animals such as eating near my horse pasture.
 

♥pepsi♥

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Thanks that helps alot :)
 

aqh88

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You need ivermectin. I don't know if ivermectin is used on sheep but I don't think it is. I believe sheep paste is pyrantel or something close to it which is toxic to guinea pigs.
 
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