• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Hay mites - again

V

VickyHays

New Born Pup
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
9
Reaction score
1
Points
140
I'm sure this topic has been covered a hundred times, but I noticed last night, my two new Guinea pigs have hay mites. Spotted by the black spots in their coats, half way along the coat and around their back ends.

I have put a drop of ivermec behind each ear, and will bathe in Lice and easy when it gets delivered. I know these two things need to be done 48 hours apart.

Can anyone tell me, how many times do they need treating with Ivermec, and how often? How quickly should the problem clear up? Is it really a mite found in hay? I thought these were species specific? None of my others have the mite despite using the same hay.

Any advice greatly appreciated.
 
VickyHays said:
I'm sure this topic has been covered a hundred times, but I noticed last night, my two new Guinea pigs have hay mites. Spotted by the black spots in their coats, half way along the coat and around their back ends.

I have put a drop of ivermec behind each ear, and will bathe in Lice and easy when it gets delivered. I know these two things need to be done 48 hours apart.

Can anyone tell me, how many times do they need treating with Ivermec, and how often? How quickly should the problem clear up? Is it really a mite found in hay? I thought these were species specific? None of my others have the mite despite using the same hay.

Any advice greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hi!

You need at least three rounds of treatment at the product specific interval.
Please do not put the ivermectin in such a sensitive space as the bald patch behind the ears but along the spine where it can be spread through grooming.


I would also recommend that you give your piggy a haircut of the affected areas - a bit drastic, but that is going to be a lot of eggs that are not going to hatch on your piggy and are going to cause discomfort in the first place. The hairs will grow back, even on a shorthair piggy.

Skin parasites are very often kept under control by a fully operational immune system; if that is for whatever reason impaired, then opprtunists like parasites or fungal can make an appearance. You will however have to treat all piggies in contact with the affected piggy to prevent the mites from spreading.

The surge in hay mites is generally due to harvesting methods in mass-produced branded hay that is sold worldwide and that are churning up a lot more soil and allowing more bug to get into the hay than traditional small scale harvesting methods. We have seen a large upsurge in hay mites all of a sudden when in conjunction with the sale of international hay brands.
Before that, hay mites were a small scale autumnal issue, usually from people buying cheap hay directly from a farmer and very easily to get rid of.
 
Thank you for your reply. Luckily I quarantined these two, so they havent mixed with any of my other pigs.

They only came home two weeks ago, so I guess the stress of moving could of brought them on?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top