Lice!

[HannahsHerd]

Hi hi,
My vet diagnosed my piggos with lice today . They’re on treatment now and will be fine, but I cannot for the life of me figure out where they would have gotten it from.
From what I know about lice, it’s species specific, so they would have had to come into contact with an infected guinea pig or something an infected touched like bedding. But, my pigs haven’t been with any other pigs. I have an enclosure in the yard which I sometimes let them run around in on mild days under supervision, is it possible they got it from the grass? Also, I recently bought a different brand of hay at the pet store. Could it have been transferred through a bag of hay?

Thanks so much for anyone who has answers or can clear up any misinformation, I’m so confused.

 

[Freya1234]

My piggies got mites and when we took them to the vets for the treatment the vet also found lice on one of my piggies and the vet said to me that there is always some sort of parasite on a guinea pig but they usually manage to keep on top of it and it normally only flairs up if the guinea pig is a bit stressed or ill etc. (the mites and lice coincided with my guinea pigs moving cages so I assumed that the stress was what caused theirs to flair up). So your guinea pig could have already had a small amount of lice on it and something has just caused it to flair up.
This is just what my vet told me though so it could be something else in your piggies case.

 

[Siikibam]

Where did you get them from and how long ago? They should be okay though so don’t worry. I don’t think life can be in hay, think that’s mites. My piggies all had live and luckily only needed one treatment to get rid.