I've just picked up my guinea pig from the vet. She's 550g and has been given xeno 450. I challenged the vet at the time who dismissed my concerns, but have got home now and checked. Rang vets back and she confirmed she has given her an overdose and I'm now frantically washing it off. What else can I do? Please help.
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Invermectin overdose please help
- Thread starter Kate0
- Start date
PigglePuggle
Senior Guinea Pig
How much Xeno 450 did she get? I wouldnt worry too much, there is a big safety margin with the spot-on treatments as not all of it gets right on the skin and anyway it is only absorbed quite slowly.
Our vet prefers to use Xeno 450 even with smaller piggies, just giving half a pipette to anyone 700-900g, and a full pipette for anyone roughly a kilo.
So please dont panic, we sometimes hear of people giving extreme overdoses of ivermectin here using a cat, dog or even horse product for piggies and that can be dangerous of course, but ivermectin is very well tolerated with a bit of imprecise dosing- just keep an eye on piggy, watch for seizures or paralysis, neurological symptoms, but that is still very unlikely.
Our vet prefers to use Xeno 450 even with smaller piggies, just giving half a pipette to anyone 700-900g, and a full pipette for anyone roughly a kilo.
So please dont panic, we sometimes hear of people giving extreme overdoses of ivermectin here using a cat, dog or even horse product for piggies and that can be dangerous of course, but ivermectin is very well tolerated with a bit of imprecise dosing- just keep an eye on piggy, watch for seizures or paralysis, neurological symptoms, but that is still very unlikely.
She got a whole pipette. I've rinsed it off with some washing up liquid in the shower. Beside myself with worry as she was a little drowsy after her initial dose of xeno 50 2 weeks ago (different vet but same practice). Vet also gave x 450 to my other smaller pig (currently 1.02kg) but then a 6 x xeno 50 to my biggest (1.27kg). The vet said at the practice she'd checked the weight limits and 550g was within the threshold - clearly she didn't.
I'm so cross and upset. Popcorn is munching away happily now but what can the vet even do if she does start showing side effects.
I'm so cross and upset. Popcorn is munching away happily now but what can the vet even do if she does start showing side effects.
Thank you @PigglePuggle
PigglePuggle
Senior Guinea Pig
It does sound like your vet isnt too familiar with piggy dosing, and it looks like she may have confused the safe lower weight limits (wont harm piggy) with the recommended dosing. Some vets prefer several pipettes of Xeno50 for all small mammals, while others with more experience are more confident that 1 pipette of Xeno 450 is fine for any small furry person weighing in at roughly a kilo. A severe case of mange mites may in fact need a very high dose, though usually that would be injection to keep the dosing very precise and avoid any further skin irritation, and also because mange mites come with their own complications sometimes such as seizures.
Hopefully no harm done this time but it is a worry if the vet might do this with a more serious drug, you might want to try find a more experienced vet before any more medication is needed!
What condition is requiring the ivermectin treatment, is it mange mites or the less serious hay/fur mites? As that may well affect any complications/additional symptoms aside from a bit too much ivermectin.
Sadly we do hear on the forum of piggies being prescribed inappropriate medicines or doses from inexperienced vets, but as mentioned before this shouldnt be a life-threatening or serious case here by any means.
Where are you based, have you checked out our vet locator if you are in the UK? Or GuineaLynx have a vet list for our US members. If you update your profile to tell us what country and city or county you live in, I'm sure someone can recommend a better vet!
Hopefully no harm done this time but it is a worry if the vet might do this with a more serious drug, you might want to try find a more experienced vet before any more medication is needed!
What condition is requiring the ivermectin treatment, is it mange mites or the less serious hay/fur mites? As that may well affect any complications/additional symptoms aside from a bit too much ivermectin.
Sadly we do hear on the forum of piggies being prescribed inappropriate medicines or doses from inexperienced vets, but as mentioned before this shouldnt be a life-threatening or serious case here by any means.
Where are you based, have you checked out our vet locator if you are in the UK? Or GuineaLynx have a vet list for our US members. If you update your profile to tell us what country and city or county you live in, I'm sure someone can recommend a better vet!
I overdosed a piggy too! I was supposed to put 15 drops on the back of Pepper. So I counted to 15 and it emptied the whole pippett! So he’d had all of it too! I called the vet and they said don’t worry. He was absolutely fine. Hope that helps 
Siikibam
Senior Guinea Pig
I’m sorry you’ve been caused so much worry. As mentioned above, I would look for an experienced vet to take your piggy to.
Washing up liquid is harsh for piggies so I wouldn’t use it again though. Also have to be careful not to get water near the face. I Hope she’s all dried and warm now.
Washing up liquid is harsh for piggies so I wouldn’t use it again though. Also have to be careful not to get water near the face. I Hope she’s all dried and warm now.
Thanks all. Popcorn was due her 2nd dose of invermectin for suspected mites (was going to see if that worked before treating for fungal). In the meantime, her 2 cage mates developed fungal looking ears. Took them all to the vets today. Different vet thought yes, ears are fungal, but also spotted 'mites' in the guinea pig hair so treated them all with invermectin. Vet showed me a pic and to my untrained eye, they looked more like lice than the mange mites (long and thin rather than round - were visible on the skin). Vet didn't know what sort of mites they were. So they all got invermectin in the wrong doses (450 for 500g pig, 450 for 1kg pig and 5 x 50 for 1.2kg pig) but I think fungal might still be the reason for the initial scab.