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Lice!

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Wendle

Wendle

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello, I'm after any advice on avoiding lice.

One of my Guinea pigs, Boris, has what I think is lice (look like little flecks of dirt on their coats) I tried treating with 'my little pet' but it's not worked so we're off to the vet tomorrow. Does anyone know how to avoid lice? I clean regularly, use a spray on the hutch and indoor cage (they're indoors at the minute because my other Guinea pig, Patch, had an operation recently and needed more nursing) I'm not sure what else to do.

thanks for any tips!

Wendy
 
Your vet will probably recommend treatment with Invermectin, usually by spot-on pipette. Sounds like your cage hygiene is good, but piggies with a lowered immune system caused by stress(e.g. surgery) are more prone to developing mites, lice etc. Your vet should give you a firm identification of the little passengers your piggy is carrying. Make sure you wash any cloth bedding or cosies at a high temperature too. Hope this can be sorted for you, fingers crossed x
 
Thanks x I've stuck to wood shavings and plastic washable pigloo etc at the minute, but I was hoping to swap to vet fleece which is washable, but not at a high temperature, so might wait until the visitors are gone.
 
Yes, wait for the visitors to go first! Sometimes Invermectin needs repeating after 14 days if the infestation is bad, but please take the advice of your vet on the dosage. You should see an improvement after a couple of weeks.
 
Wendle said:
Thanks x I've stuck to wood shavings and plastic washable pigloo etc at the minute, but I was hoping to swap to vet fleece which is washable, but not at a high temperature, so might wait until the visitors are gone.
Click to expand...

You can wash fleece at 60 or even 90 C if necessary (and ideally you should wash it at a higher temperature from time to time), but it is going to shrink a bit. I am always very generous with the measurements for that reason when buying new microfleece for my own guinea pigs.

Lica can come with hay or just turn up. Please don't home treat and seek vet treatment. Are they moving or is what you see stuck to the fur at the bum half of the piggy? The first is running lice, the second are the egg cases of fur/hay mites, which can also be called static lice.
Guinea Lynx :: Parasites
 
Thanks for the tips, it's the long pile vet fleece, says on the instructions to wash it at a low temperature. X

Update: just looking over the instructions again, I'm mistaken, it says it can be washed at 90 but to generally wash at 40. Thank you!
 
Hello,
I have 2 recently acquired Guinea pigs, they are about 2 months old. They are scratching a lot and I think they have lice (I saw tiny wriggly long creatures and little dots on their bums). Yesterday I treated them with spot-on invermectin. They scratched terribly after the treatment and desperately trying to clean themselves from the product! However tonight I have noticed they are scratching again... Does it mean the treatment has not worked, or is it normal and should take a while to be effective? Thank you!
 
Hi there
It can take time to work, sometimes the vet will give them an initial injection of invermicen with treatment to follow. At your piggy ages I would assume it will be the low dosage of Zeno 50 as they will be below of 250g each in weight. Can I ask if they were seen by a vet? Or have you bought shop treatment?
 
Hello,
Thank you very much for your reply. I had bought beaphar anti-parasite spot-on and applied it following the instructions. They are about 400g so I used 2 pipettes for each Guinea pig because they have long hair and just a few drops on their fur wouldn't make any difference. From what I understand the product is supposed to be absorbed by their skin and then cause the parasites to die when they bite? They were not seen by a vet because they are otherwise very healthy, eating and doing everything that Guinea pigs do! I will give them an insecticidal shampoo and hopefully it will help, but I was wondering if other people who used the spot-on only (without injections) have had good results with lice
 
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