Ivermectin Lice AND Mites??

[OhThePlaces]

Hello! We adopted two boys on Tuesday evening... They're around a year old. We left them be for the first couple of days to let them adjust and get used to us, but last night we gave them lap time for the first time in order to clip their nails.

One of the pigs (Bryce) seems to scratch himself a lot, so my husband checked his fur thoroughly and saw some tiny grayish bugs moving around on his lower back. Lice, right? He also has the 'V' loss of fur... Does that indicate mites also?

We don't see anything on the other boy (Edward) but I know they both need to be treated. We're picking up pour on Ivermectin today... That will treat both lice and mites, right?

We're using fleece for bedding... I'll be dosing them both today. How often do I need to change their bedding and clean their cage?

Thanks!

 

[bpatters]

Yes, ivermectin will treat both lice and mites. You'll have to do at least three doses, a week apart, to get all the lice, and you might have to do a fourth.

Just give the cage a good cleaning when you start the process, and at least every 3-4 days as long as you're treating them. Lice can't live off a warm-blooded host very long, so treating the pigs will eventually get them. It's just that NOTHING will kill the nits that are stuck to the hair shafts, so you have to wait for them to hatch and kill them after they're crawling.

 

[OhThePlaces]

Thank you! I gave them their first dose yesterday... I'll be glad when this is behind us!