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Mites Treatment of mites?

ThePiggieLover

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Hi... my piggies have recently been scratching and loosing hair. I took a look today and saw that there were white moving specs in their fur. Pigs are itchy and their hair is falling off in clumps. How do i treat this? These bugs are white and they crawl up and down their fur. I can see them with my bare eye. I put some PestAVert from small pet select on them. What are my next steps and what should i absolutely not do? Thank you.
 

bpatters

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That's not mites, that's lice. Mites are microscopic, and can't be seen.

First off, don't use any more PestAvert. It doesn't have the necessary chemicals to kill the bugs. And, it's a spray on, which means the pigs can ingest it while grooming themselves, and that's never a good thing when treating with a pesticide.

In the Medical and Veterinary Forum here, you'll find this: https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/111160-How-to-treat-for-mites-and-lice. Treat them all three times, seven days apart.
 

ThePiggieLover

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Okay just to make sure, I treat them with the cattle ivertmectin?
 

bpatters

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Yes. Get the .5% or the 1% kind -- it's far easier to measure, and you're far less likely to overdose them. You can apply any of it behind the ear, even the injectable and oral stuff.
 

ThePiggieLover

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Okay thank you i’ve ordered the Cattle Drench stuff and it’ll be here in a couple days. before that time is there anything you know of that i can do to help my piggies be more comfortable?
 

bpatters

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What strength is the cattle drench stuff? Some of that is for 1200 pound horses, and it takes a LOT of careful dilution to get to a safe dose for a guinea pig.
 

ThePiggieLover

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Its exactly this
(broken link removed)There are some reviews about it being used on piggies. I plan on giving them as little as I can because i'm terrified of overdose.
The link doesn't seem to be working but if you copy and paste it should take you to it
 

bpatters

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That's probably the very hardest stuff to calculate correctly. I don't have time to do it right now, but let me work with a dose calculator and see what I can figure out.
 

ThePiggieLover

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bpatters

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How much does your pig weigh? And do you have a small syringe without a needle? If not, a pharmacy will probably give you one.
 

ThePiggieLover

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One pig weighs 947 grams and the other one weighs 1144 grams. I have a syringe but the smallest it goes to is 0.5 cc.
 

bpatters

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You're definitely going to need a better syringe than that. You need a 1 ml syringe marked off in tenths.
 

ThePiggieLover

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I'm so sorry! I do have the 1 ML syringe smallest it goes to is 0.1. I have a bunch of disposable ones.
 

bpatters

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Yep, that's what you'll need.
 

bpatters

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The 947 gram pig is so close to one kilogram that we can use that to calculate the dose. The other one will need about 10% more.

I see that Lynx has included the dose for sheep drench, so that makes it much easier. They each get .5 mg of ivermectin (1 ml of sheep drench) per kilogram that they weigh.

The smaller pig is right at 1 kg, so you want to give .5 mg, and the sheep drench has .8 mg. in one milliliter of solution. .5/.8 = .625, so you'll need .625 ml of solution.

The larger pig is 1.14 kg, so you want to give .57 mg. .57/.8 = .71 ml of solution.

That's really quite a lot to give topically, and you want to get it rubbed into the skin well. I'd apply little bits behind the ears, in the bald spot, fold the ear over, and rub it in. You may have to give a portion of the dose, then wait a few minutes before giving the rest.
 

ThePiggieLover

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Thank you! Do you think I could give them a little less than what you calculated? Or is what you calculated absolutely what they need? They have never been given Ivermectin before and I don't want them to overdose. My piggies thank you in advance :)
 

bpatters

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I'd give them the calculated dose. A lower dose just won't get rid of the parasites, and you'll have to do more doses.

In all my years with guinea pigs, I've never known one to have problems with ivermectin.
 

ThePiggieLover

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alrighty! The ivertmectin should be getting here tomorrow I will give them the calculated doses, behind the ears and on bald spots. :) love ya bpatters
 
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