Guinea Pig mites

HigginsJ

Hi, had my 2 guinea pigs to vet today due to skin irritation. Turns out they have mites. They had injection today and again next monday. Also they have been prescribe oral dose of baytril. Anyone else guinea's suffered with this and are they ok now?

loveisdivine

HigginsJ wrote: »

Hi, had my 2 guinea pigs to vet today due to skin irritation. Turns out they have mites. They had injection today and again next monday. Also they have been prescribe oral dose of baytril. Anyone else guinea's suffered with this and are they ok now?

You will also need to clean their housing very thoroughly. Do you have any idea where they caught the mites from? So you can avoid them catching them again. Are they housed outside?

As long as its treated thoroughly they should be fine

HigginsJ

No idea where they got them. Housed indoors. Pellet food by Burgess. Petmania hay. Use wood shavings non scented. they get an apple or carrot a dat.

What would you reccomend to wash the cage with?

loveisdivine

Thats really odd. To be honest I would have assumed they were being kept outside and thats how they caught them. Have they been in contact with any other animals at all?

One of the best things to clean it with would be vinegar, not the malt stuff from chippers but the clear stuff. Its brilliant at getting rid of pee stains. You could also use bleach diluted with warm water, but VERY diluted! and always give it a good once over with just plain water and vinegar after the bleach to make sure theres no bleach left when the piggies go in. The vinegar is harmless to them.

If you have any snugglies in the pen, put them on a hot wash with a spoon of vinegar in with it. Any other toys could just be wiped down with the vinegar.

Could I have written vinegar any more times in that post?! ha!

Hope the little piggers are doing well

HigginsJ

thanks, i washed it out with some guinea pig shampoo this morning but will clean it with vinegar tonight. We have a cat who sits and watches them. But she has no direct contact as such and she is also regularily treated for everything!!

Sigma Force

Mites can happen even with the cleanest of houses, usually found in the hay sometimes guineas that are run down are more prone but these things happen.

What did the vet inject the guinea pigs with? Generally they should just get a drop of Ivomectin on the back of their neck then another in about a week and if severe they might need a third dose about 10 days later but 2 usually does it.

Ideally it's best to use more natural products peter gurney has recipes on this site for oil mixes which work wonders or as an alternative check out the gorgeous guineas website http://gorgeousguineas.com/index.html It's a good idea to order a few sample bottles of various shampoos they are handy to have in the cupboard for skin emergencies eg fungal or mites etc. One little sample bottle will usually wash two guineas twice. Their foot ointments are brilliant I used their stuff on all my pigs when I had them. Even if you just want to treat your guinea pig their 4 oil or posh and go shampoo are lovely and leaves your guineas smelling lovely as well. If you are not sure what to order just contact them , they're very helpful they also have a FB page.

I would also do away with the woodchips they aren't great for their skin and messy and expensive, you'll save yourself a fortune over the years if you just use plain newspaper and lots of hay instead.

Clean out the whole cage daily until the mites are gone (and for a few days after). Don't use the woodchips just used the newspaper and hay and chuck out the bedding daily. It might be an idea to change the brand of hay for a while just in case it was the hay that caused it.

Their cage will just need a wipe down esp. in the corners as other poster said plain cheap white vinegar is well worth using.

Hope they start feeling better soon, and don't feel too bad healthy guineas can pick up fungal and mites and all sorts even the best looked after ones.

HigginsJ

You'd hate to think that it is something you did that made them sick.

Would you just put down the paper and have hay for eating or include enough for bedding? What about the wool bedding you can buy in pet stores?

They tend to eat the newspaper that sticks out above the wood chippings!!

loveisdivine

Great advice from sigma force

We used to use vet bed for our bedding but the piggies worked out how to get under it and run around, so now we have fleece blankets on top of the vet bed that we change regularly and put on hot wash.

Oh and you can never give them too much hay so plenty of hay for eating and bedding.

It is annoying when healthy spoilt piggies still get thing like mites etc. you try your hardest but I guess sometimes its just inevitable!

Sigma Force

Never use wool based bedding they could chew it and it could cause a blockage, it's normal for guineas to eat some of the newspaper it won't do them any harm just ensure staples are taken out of the newspapers first.

Vet bed you can use but it's a pain to clean because every little bit of hay gets stuck in it, I used it sometimes with guineas but mainly for guineas that were recovering from an illness or after they had a bath and for elderly pigs.
The little guinea pig sleeping bags you can get are great, they are fleece lined and small so easier to clean than the vet bed.
If the vet is treating them with ivomectin as a drop on the back of the neck/between the shoulders then don't give them a bath for a good while so it can do it's job.

HigginsJ

It was actually an injection the vet gave them. Might look at getting the fleeced lined sleeping bags for them so.

Marilyn my platinum blonde has grown back all her hair nearly and all the scars/cuts nearly gone.

Audrey my brunette has not improved as much but she has always been a little bit behind.

They have both improved in their chattiness and activity since the injection monday and they are drinking the anti-biotics in the water just fine.

Sigma Force

Go to the gorgeous guineas website and get stuff from there anyway it's more effective.