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Mites and Ivermectin

  • Thread starter Thread starter ChilisMom
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ChilisMom

I'm a first-time piggie owner, so bear with me.

I came home yesterday to see little Chili scratching himself. I noticed a patch on the back of his head that was bleeding and missing hair. I almost thought he got cut or something, but then I realized he scratched so hard that he cut himself. I also noticed another small patch that was missing hair. After doing some research online, I figured it was mites. Instead of taking him to the vet, I spoke with a nurse at the vet's office who said he would probably just prescribe Ivermectin and that I could get that stuff at a local feed store. So I went over to the feed store and got a small bottle (5cc's) of Ivermectin for cows (but it was a smaller bottle for treating dogs or smaller animals). The lady told me that it would take one drop for every 10 pounds. So I diluted it to give him about 1/10th of a drop for treatment (orally) since he is probably right about or just under a pound.

Is this how I'm supposed to treat him? How often do I give him this treatment? I'm so afraid that I'm going to overdose my little Chili or not treat him enough and the mites will kill him or something. Any advice and information would be helpful! I can't really afford to take him to a vet right now, so this is why I'm trying to do it myself.

Thanks!
 
i would always say go to a vet, especially if you havent done it before :-\
 
Look....your piggy needs a vet...maybe they will set up an account with you if you cant afford it :) O0

Let us know how you get on :)
 
I know how you feel when you cant really afford to go see a vet :(. I suspect that my piggy has mites too, but she has no sores..its only scratching. Vets here do not know much about G.P and I know that they will not give ivermec to her unless they see a good reason, its very frusterating. And i can't afford for them to do a skin scraping test especially when there is a chance that the test will come back neg. for mites
 
Bailey...maybe your guinea has lice?

If you look on teh guinea lynx website, they have some great advice and pics!

Lice can be treated by shampoo :)
 
Yeah the guinea lynx website is really good, i used the topical method and it cleared my pigs mites up, she had quite afew nastly scabs where she had been scratching but she is all better now and her coat has grown back well. I would read through as much as you can about usung ivermectin on gpigs before you treat your pigs and make sure you are 100% happy with the dosage you are giving. (I worked as a large animal vet nurse for a year so I'm used to admistering drugs to animals.) you will need to weigh your pig to make sure you are giving the correct dose. I also bought some tea tree guinea pig would cream which seem to help with the scabs and not to mention made her smell nice lol. I have also heard some people will treat any new pig they get with ivermectin just in case so I'm guessing it cant harm to treat if you suspect its mites Bailey but I'm not a vet, another of my pigs was scraching but had no sores but the ivermectin seemed to stop him scratching.

I thought that you could see lice if your pig has them?

http://www.guinealynx.com/topical_ivermectin_pour-on.html

http://www.guinealynx.info/ivermectin_oral.html

http://www.guinealynx.info/dose_calculator.html
 
You need to know the concentration of the ivermectin before you can treat properly (see GL links above). It comes in 0.5% or 1% solutions and it's important to dose it properly.

Finally I need to make the point that if you can't afford a vet you should really have set/be setting aside money in case they do need one. Often you can end up in an emergency situation where it can cost you a LOT. These things should be thought through before getting a pig.
 
Thanks for everyone's responses. The link to the doseage information was very, very helpful.

By the way, I usually keep a little extra $ in case I need to bring him to the vet, but I had to use much of that last week when he came down with some URI symptoms. He's still a young pig, so his immune system isn't as strong as an adult pig.

Again, thanks for your help and I will let you know how the ivermectin treatment does for him.
 
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