Mites? Help

[Rolo&Roxy]

Hi all,

I have taken to Roxy to the vets so many times now and got back today with nothing, they put her on xeno around a month back and took hair swabs on tape today and said they could not see anything under the microscope. I think this has to be something, itching a lot loosing lots of hair, dry skin flakey skin on the end of her body and now black dots! I have found a vets in london on the forum that I will try but I just really want to get to the root of this!
Thank you

 

[Piggies&buns]

You say they were given xeno a month ago - i assume they were given the correct course (three treatments several weeks apart?).
As hay mites come in with hay, have you tried changing hay brand?
Did you disinfect their cage/hot wash fleece bedding?

 

[weepweeps]

Hello. One of my piggies had mites recently. We had three lots of xeno every two weeks. I had to disinfect the hutch with f10 disinfectant and throw away all cardboard hides and wash all bedding every two weeks as well. It did take six weeks to clear up.

 

[Rolo&Roxy]

Hello,

No was given 2 treatments and she said they may need to come back for a third if they do not budge, I will definitely look into changing their hay as I am using timothy hay. As for a cage clean, all disinfected all fleece bedding wash at 60 degrees and changed every 2 days just really don’t want Roxy to be in pain as she is really going for her fur!
thank you for getting back to me!

 

[Rolo&Roxy]

Hello. One of my piggies had mites recently. We had three lots of xeno every two weeks. I had to disinfect the hutch with f10 disinfectant and throw away all cardboard hides and wash all bedding every two weeks as well. It did take six weeks to clear up.

Thank you for this! I removed all their wooden hides and put them in the oven to kill any mites, got rid of their hay bags, the vets are trying to say this is not mites! So I am really lost!

 

[weepweeps]

I have heard it can take a while to get rid of mites. But if treatments are not working then I’d get them back to the vets in case there is something else going on. Hope you get them sorted out

 

[Piggies&buns]

Xeno only kills the live mites but not the eggs. The first treatment kills the live mites. The second kills the mites that have since hatched (as they were eggs at the first treatment they would have been unaffected by the treatment). The third treatment catches stragglers and makes sure everything is gone.
It’s definitely worth seeing another vet

 

[Rolo&Roxy]

I have heard it can take a while to get rid of mites. But if treatments are not working then I’d get them back to the vets in case there is something else going on. Hope you get them sorted out

Thank you! Never had this before so fingers crossed I will go and find another vet to have this looked at asap!

 

[Free Ranger]

Xeno also kills other skin parasites like lice (although you can usually see those!) Both can live on all the piggies so if Roxy lives with a friend or friends they should all have been treated at the same time or they just reinfect each other. 3 treatments, each two weeks apart. A vet once prescribed me 2 treatments 3 weeks apart (possibly by mistake!) and this didn't work at all! The life-cycle of the mites is about three weeks so the idea is that the repeat doses kill any newly hatched mites before the mature to the egg-laying stage. I'll post more in a minute... trying to type in the dark!

 

[Rolo&Roxy]

Xeno also kills other skin parasites like lice (although you can usually see those!) Both can live on all the piggies so if Roxy lives with a friend or friends they should all have been treated at the same time or they just reinfect each other. 3 treatments, each two weeks apart. A vet once prescribed me 2 treatments 3 weeks apart (possibly by mistake!) and this didn't work at all! The life-cycle of the mites is about three weeks so the idea is that the repeat doses kill any newly hatched mites before the mature to the egg-laying stage. I'll post more in a minute... trying to type in the dark!

Thank you so much! Luckily both piggies have been treated and will be treated together as Rolo is not showing symptoms but still didn’t want to risk it incase she did have it!

 

[Free Ranger]

Xeno comes in tiny tubes and is based on piggies body weight. There's a 450 size and a mini-50 size (there may be more but these are what I know). Some vets are cautious and stick strictly to the bodyweight chart meaning a piggy just under a kilo might have a fistful on mini-50s to apply every time. As they are supposed to go on the skin - not the fur - it can be more difficult with a large volume (as the only bald patches are really the bits behind the ears and in any rosettes you have) so you're trying to get it in at the roots and piggy isn't happy etc. If you've got a big chunker of 1.2 kilo or more you can get away with a single 450. If, like many females, shes between 1 and 1.2 kilo it could go either way! In the past, with vet agreement, I've used a 450 on a 1.1 kilo pig by using a small syringe to measure it out and a bit of maths to make sure I don't OD.

Mites spasm as they die with this so a pattern you might see is
1. Itchy pig: shedding, maybe bald patches - esp round rump
2. Treat with Xeno - few hours of anything between no reaction and distressed scratching frenzy depending on mite load
3. Scratching stops by next day but builds up slowly over next two weeks
4 Repeat from 2 , and then again

If the xeno didn't change the itching and scratching the first time you applied it you might be looking at something else but not sure what! Mites are common and hard to see with a microscope and leave 'debris' behind as you can see in her coat. The other thing that commonly causes itching would be a fungus but symptoms are different and the bald bits are often round the face/eyes/ears and there is often more scabbiness about it. A vet would have spotted that.

Good luck - I hope this helps ☺

 

[Rolo&Roxy]

Xeno comes in tiny tubes and is based on piggies body weight. There's a 450 size and a mini-50 size (there may be more but these are what I know). Some vets are cautious and stick strictly to the bodyweight chart meaning a piggy just under a kilo might have a fistful on mini-50s to apply every time. As they are supposed to go on the skin - not the fur - it can be more difficult with a large volume (as the only bald patches are really the bits behind the ears and in any rosettes you have) so you're trying to get it in at the roots and piggy isn't happy etc. If you've got a big chunker of 1.2 kilo or more you can get away with a single 450. If, like many females, shes between 1 and 1.2 kilo it could go either way! In the past, with vet agreement, I've used a 450 on a 1.1 kilo pig by using a small syringe to measure it out and a bit of maths to make sure I don't OD.

Mites spasm as they die with this so a pattern you might see is
1. Itchy pig: shedding, maybe bald patches - esp round rump
2. Treat with Xeno - few hours of anything between no reaction and distressed scratching frenzy depending on mite load
3. Scratching stops by next day but builds up slowly over next two weeks
4 Repeat from 2 , and then again

If the xeno didn't change the itching and scratching the first time you applied it you might be looking at something else but not sure what! Mites are common and hard to see with a microscope and leave 'debris' behind as you can see in her coat. The other thing that commonly causes itching would be a fungus but symptoms are different and the bald bits are often round the face/eyes/ears and there is often more scabbiness about it. A vet would have spotted that.

Good luck - I hope this helps ☺

Hello. Thank you so much for this! I have just come back from another vets with xeno for what will be their 3rd dose now, although she cannot see any mites either under the microscope she said this should do the trick, I asked her about gorgeous lice wash and she said to try this in 48hrs as it may be hay mites! I just feel awful because I can see Roxy is suffering!

 

[Free Ranger]

None of mine have ever had any ill effects from Xeno and there was one point where two pigs actually had to have 6 doses as I had just finished treatment and then we added another pig and realised within a week that she was 'lively' so my gosh, it started all over again! She hadn't had a friend for a while so we thought we were OK - but it turned out she had been out on grass and I wondered about passing wildlife giving her something. Mind you she wasn't scratching much, so her previous owner may not have noticed. She was old and a bit stiff so she might not have been able to!

None of mine have like being bathed. Most I haven't bathed at all - a few have needed it for medical reasons. If I had to choose I'd go Xeno every time. Watch her after the treatment for the next few days... is the scratching reducing? If not you might be looking for another cause... or rather the vet will be. Good luck!