Mites - Panomec dosage?

[Charlie84]

Hi all.

I noticed about 8 weeks ago that my piggies all had mites. I am guessing it was from hay as they did not mix, (2 pairs of boars in 2 separate living quarters)

We were given Panomec to give them orally for 4 weeks. It cleared up one pair (who both sadly died over xmas) - but not the other pair.

I have another course from the vets of Panomec, which they have been having for a further 2 weeks, and it still doesn't seem to be shifting the mites on them. I can see that the amount of mites has been reduced, but they are still there.

I have ordered Lice and Easy from gorgeous guineas as an extra treatment for them, waiting for it to arrive, but I wanted to check the dosage

It's 0.02ml of Panomec orally every 7-10 days.

Does this sound correct? Is this too lower dosage? I am confused. The vet pre loaded it into the syringe for us.

Any help would be appreciated as my poor piggies don't want to be stroked at the moment

 

[4piggiepigs]

Panomec is an ivermectim wormer, i am surprised that you wast given it in injection form, i would ask the vet for that i think you need two injections 1 or 2 weeks apart done by the vet,

Sorry for your loss's

 

[Suzygpr]

Oral treatments don't deal with surface feeding parasites effectively.

An ivermectin based spot on treatment is far more effective against hay mites and lice. Oral treatments deal with burrowing skin mites, but so does the topical spot on. I only use topical ivermectin and it clears all the parasitic problems I encounter as a rescue.

For simple hay mites, shampoo using insecticidal shampoo is usually sufficient - and a change of hay (or zap it in the microwave).

HTH

Suzy x

 

[4piggiepigs]

I use a spot on too which has always worked quickly for me, hay for pets has great quality hay and is cheap too

 

[Charlie84]

Ok - so basically did the vet get it wrong?! I was slightly confused as to why they had to have an oral med, rather than a spot on treatment.

Have I been giving my piggies a wormer every week? It was after 4 weeks of giving them this that my oldest pig passed away? I REALLY hope this didn't cause his death?! 3 weeks later after continued treatment his cagemate passed, but the other 2 have been fine on the same dosage?

The vet said they had 2 types of mites, walking dandruff and something else, she didn't mention which -

What should I do? 8...

 

[Abi_nurse]

The dosage sounds about right, but i would have to go looking through my formulary's to double check. But it certainly doesnt sound like a dose rate that would cause seious harm. I'm sorry for the loss of your piggies. It is unlikely that the ivermectin caused the passing of them As they lived in a pair it it possible that they both had an underlying disease or illness which they hid very very well, which piggies are great at doing. You vet did not necessarily get it wrong. They gave you the correct medication just failed to see that they have been giving it by the wrong route. Cheyletiella (the waking dandruff) i cant imagine being sorted by oral Ivermec, but if they had something like demodex (burrowing mite) then it would.

x.

 

[Charlie84]

Thank you for your reply - It's good to know that info, it has put my mind at rest.

The piggies are due their next lot of meds on saturday evening. I am debating if I should give it to them?

Should I stop with the oral panomec and shampoo them with lice and easy and see if that makes a difference? Or should I go back to my vet and ask for a topical version instead?

I can see my smaller pig has a few more mites than the bigger pig, after this long though surely it would have cured them if it was going to?

 

[Connie]

I would suggest you ring up your vet, and ask if you can have a topical treatment instead. This is very easy to do, and given you dont know which two things the vet said, the lice and easy might not necessarily get rid of it.

HTH

 

[Charlie84]

Thank you, I will do that.

I will give them a shampoo before the topical anyway as they are pretty scurfy at the moment. They are not scratching as much as they were though, which is a good thing I guess! There are no bald patches either or anything like that.

Bloody cheap hay. I will use hay for pets from now on as so many seem to be happy with it

 

[Suzygpr]

If you are going to bathe the pigs you must leave 48 hrs before applying the topical treatment, or if you choose to bath them after the treatment you should also leave it 48 hrs to allow the ivermectin to be absorbed.

I find that bathing the pigs at the end of a course of mite treatment is a good idea as it removes the debris of the dead mites from the skin which can cause irritation as they decompose.

Suzy x

 

[Charlie84]

Ok - I called my vet today and she said that injecting them with the panomec would be better - I asked why I couldn't just have a topical treatment and she said they didn't have it at that vets, so basically panomec is the only thing they can prescribe? ?/

What is your opinions on getting them injected with it? Is it better to have a topical treatment?

They are due their next lot of Oral panomec tomorrow evening, and I am supposed to be calling the vet back in the morning to arrange an appointment.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Suzygpr]

Hiya

The injectable type is very good at dealing with the burrowing mites - has a skin scrape been done to identify that they are present?

The product that many vets use now to deal with surface mites and lice is Xeno450 for pigs over 800g or Xeno50 for smaller pigs. It is readily available to purchase without prescription online or in major petshops.

HTH

Suzy x

 

[Charlie84]

Thats great thank you -

They had a scrape done for the ringworm they were covered in when I 'rescued them' from the awful pet shop, but not for the mites this time.

Are burrowing mites mange? If so how is that contracted? x

 

[Charlie84]

Thats great thank you -

They had a scrape done for the ringworm they were covered in when I 'rescued them' from the awful pet shop, but not for the mites this time.

Are burrowing mites mange? If so how is that contracted? x

Sorry - I need to correct myself -

This time they DID also do a skin scraping and said there were 2 types of mites present, mentioned 'walking dandruff' but didn't say what the other type were.

I am stuck. Do I take them back and get them injected? Will that treat the surface lice? As well as burrowing mites if that is what they have? My poor piggies - where on earth do burrowing mites come from? :...

 

[Connie]

Unfortunatly mites can come from many many place inlcuding the hay they eat. There is not much that can be done to stop them unless you treat preventativly, simply know the signs and catch it early.

I dont know about your other questions, so its best to wait for someone who knows to come along.

 

[Charlie84]

Thanks,

I did try asking the vet all these questions but she clearly hadn't looked at the notes (she called me back as she was busy) mallethead - she kept talking about the fungal infection they had when I bought them home.

I will call them first thing on monday and ask her to look at the dates for the last scraping, and tell me what 2 'things' were found.

I gave them a bath this evening in Lice and Easy by GG (as they have had no topical treatment yet) and I have to say they seemed to like it! x) However - and I only saw this when he was wet, Nigel has a very small tiny bald patch on his head - right in the middle, between his ears. *sigh* if it's not one thing it's another!

I can see that after the shampoo, they are now dry and there are some adult 'lice' (longish and yellowy) that are not moving and are clearly dead, on Nigel. But as mousey is grey and white all over I can't see any on him at all, though he was the one that had a what looked like the start of a 'v' shape in his fur.

The V shape has improved and got much better over the time of the oral panomec, however it is still there ever-so-slightly, so I am not happy.

So I guess now I'm dealing with fungal again, as well as 2 types of parasite, possibly mange?

These 2 poor pigges really have had skin probs for the 7 months they have been alive! (Bl**dy PET SHOPS!)


I'm going to ask the vet to do another scraping when I take them in on monday and get this sorted. I'm so annoyed that they couldn't get it right in the first place!

 

[Connie]

If you would like another vet recomended (if your not happy with the service at this one)

You can either look on our recomended vets thread in the health and illness section, or tell us your location and hope someone knows of another vet near you.

Sorry you are having such trouble.

 

[Carolinemm]

I absolutely feel for you. When I had my 2 sows from a rescue nice and healthy within a month one had ringworm (confirmed by scrape and treated and cleared up nicely), then the other got mites... then both had mites. I had a battle with mites for months because I kept getting them injected with ivermectin every 2wks for 6 wks, then ok for a month and then it would come back! I have good quality hay so wasnt going to change that...in the end one post by some clever person on here suddenly made me click I needed the spot on to eradicate the surface mites (I could see nothing as you cant see mites and I was told and seemed to be the case with me, that the vets scrapes rarely show up mites esp if youve been treating them but they can still be there). Anyhow, I used the xeno450 as directed (every 2 wks for however long it says!) then once a month for about 3 months. I also used the manuka and neem shampoo from gorgeous guineas and the coconeem melts as directed to treat a problem and fingers crossed they have not had a skin problem since! - this was back in April hope this helps I found that there was so much advice all over the place! As others have said the spot on and shampooing cant occur within 48hrs of each other, its all in the shampoo and melt instructions, and if its lice I think these are meant to be even easier to get rid of? good luck!