New grandmother of daughters 2 gp

[kananaka]

Hi everyone. As the title says I am a new grandmother of my daughters 2 gp. We just adopted them 2/16/2012. My daughters class mate was looking to adopt out her 2 female gp's, and we were lucky enough to get them. We allowed them to adjust to our home Thursday night and took the less skittish one out friday afternoon to pet and hold her when I discovered she had somethings crawling around on her (they were very very small and almost didn't believe at first it was something crawling). The vet discovered today it is mites and is giving them ivermectin injections and I disenfected the cage (and housing) today.

Any advice on the mites is welcome, and any advice to new guinea pig owners is appreciated.

Thanks!

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[RodentsRus]

Congrats. Would love to see pigtures of your grand GP Kids..Any guess on how lold they are?

 

[Frapplove]

Hello and welcome! This site is filled with tons of useful guinea pig information! It is a good thing you found the mites and that your vet is treating with Ivermectin! They are nasty little things but can be treated easily. What are your new granddaughters' names? I have two girls too-Frappe and Frappilicious :cheerful: (my picture is Frappe, and Frappilicious is a smaller fuzzier version) Take a look around, at the pictures and the Hot Tips, and if you have any particular questions, nothing is too silly to ask lol

 

[kananaka]

Hi. No pics yet but I will post soon, camera is full atm (just went to Disney last week and haven't cleared the camera yet ) They are 3 and 4 years old. Not sure if you were asking how old they are because a smiley face posted but that's what I deduced you are asking. My daughter is 7 and these are her first pets and we are super excited to have them. I did not mention we have piggie sat for the class gp and did read up on diet (actually taught the teacher about hay =) ) when we had the class pet for Christmas break. We also have provided toys and a new bowl ( stainless steal bowl) for the piggies we adopted; they had no toys and a small plastic bowl. I ordered a new cage today Amazon.com: Midwest Expandable Guinea Habitat: Pet Supplies ) about two hours before finding this site today ; but I hope they will be happier when we get their new home because they are in this cage (broken link removed) right now and hardly have room it seems to move around each other.

Edit: Their names are Rose (4 yrs) and Miranda (3 yrs). Is their anything else I can do for the mites? and what kind of bedding do you recommend. I currently am using pet store Aspen bedding.

 

[pinky]

Looking forward to photos of those grandpigs.... Mites aren't visible to the eye. They're probably running or static lice.

 

[kananaka]

Pinky; that's what I thought too. He did not see anything running around on them just hair loss and a few sores both very minimal but I know I saw something!!! He did not want to do a scrapping but broke out some "laser" and crazy looking spectacles and said it was mites... I should also mention that these gp's have never been to the vet before and were FREAKING out poor things! Will what he gave them take care of lice if that is the issue? He said it kills all parasites?

 

[pinky]

Ivermectin will take care of lice, too, so you're good either way.

 

[bpatters]

Welcome to the forum.

If you saw something crawling on the pigs, it was lice or fleas (more likely lice), not mites. They're invisible. But it's entirely possible to have both. The ivermectin should take care of it, but it may need several treatments.

It's good that he didn't scrape them. It's painful for the pig. If it's positive, you treat for mites. If it's negative, the pig still may have mites, and you treat anyway. Better just to skip the scraping.

Some mites do fluoresce under black light, but it's sort of the like the scraping. If it's positive, you're sure it's mites. If it's negative, you don't know, and treat for it anyhow.

Thanks for rescuing those pigs -- we certainly want to see pictures.

 

[kananaka]

Thank you pinky & bpatters for the info that it will kill the lice! Good to hear, as I don't want them suffering from the itchies and health problems associated with any parasite.

It is funny how life works out. After taking care of the class pigster Buddy; we fell in love with gp's (never owned one in my life) and had been disscussing purchasing gp's from a pet store. I never thought of a pig mill before though I know of puppy mills and the like; the thought of a pig mill never crossed my mind (sad to say). Then along came the call from the class mate to adopt and here we are. When I found this site today and began to dig, well, I am just so grateful to have found out about the problem with pig mills and really glad we avoided being part of the chain. It is unfortunate that we have adopted two piggies that have health issues but I am so happy we found it the day after adoption and we are jazzed to help them get healthy and build loving relationships with them!

Really look forward to hanging out on the forums with you all and learning and sharing all there is to know about our little loves.

 

[bpatters]

I forgot to warn you not to bathe them until the mite infestation is under control. Water drives the mites mad, and they in turn drive the guinea pigs mad.

 

[kananaka]

DOH! I already did bathe them and noticed they have been scratching more :/ poor girls! I def will not do so again for after their 2nd shots. The only reason I did was Miranda had fecal matter on her from the day we received her and I did not want issues from that to arise as well.... I plan on cleaning their home ever couple of days ( they are due today actually, lol! ) to keep it comfy for them. Cnat wait for their bigger cage to arrive and I will be buliding them a C & C one in a couple of months and switching to fleece when I do, I just cant do it atm so all in good time .

 

[Sl and S]

you can actually expand from the cage you bought. all it really is, is a marketed C&C cage.

 

[kananaka]

Sl and S, it was the reason i bought it , but I wish I had known about C & C cages before I ordered it. I haven't actually received the cage yet, I ordered it online and will probably get it next week. I plan on waiting to take them out of the super small cage they are in after they receive their second shot for the mites/parasites. Ill have to look @ it when it comes and see if it is possibly for me to build on or just order the second cage to expand it. I dk yet what I'll do. Eventually they will have a proper home, just got to do it little buy little as I learn and funds become available. I hope we have improved their life already by providing the hay they need and fresh food 2x a day which they did not receive on a regular bases or really at all before coming to us and eventually we will make their home as it should be 2.