Mites?

[pigaholic15]

Hi, I found a dark scab like tiny growth on the back of my pig and thought it was a scab from fighting as they do bicker! Then i saw the same with my other piggie so as we only had them since friday, took them to the petshop as they have a vet department and they said they were mites? id googled it and had a feeling they were. They have given us the drops (anti-parasite spot on) so put that on back of their necks...they seem okay and are eating ect...and dont seem to be scratching constantly, anything else i can do and does this sound familiar to other Piggie owners? Much thanks in advance

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome!

Mange mites are not uncommon in shop piggies. Could you please tell us which product you have been given?

You will need to give three rounds of the spot-on overmectin product at the interval specified for a full course in order to prevent a comeback. Please disinfect your cage well, including all furniture; we recommend getting hold of F10 disinfectant, as that is also antifungal, not just antibacterial like the vast majority of disinfectants. it is widely available online. Any fabrics need to be washed at 60 C.

We have got a piggy savvy UK vets locator on the top bar.

 

[pigaholic15]

Hi, its beaphar with invermectin in, It says if signs persist or do not dissapear within 7 days see the vet? Also says repeat after 4 weeks?

 

[Wiebke]

Hi, its beaphar with invermectin in, It says if signs persist or do not dissapear within 7 days see the vet? Also says repeat after 4 weeks?

How old are your piggies? To be honest, beaphar has so far not been one of the products we recommend, as has been is only geared for the prevention and not the treatment of mites and the interval of 4 weeks is too long.

I would rather have expected your vet to give xeno 50 for guinea pigs below 800g and a repeat after 2 weeks. As your piggies have had the first round of the beaphar, you will need to wait at least 1 week to 10 days before they can be treated again with another product.

@Pebble is that the new product you have been mentioning?

 

[Pebble]

Assuming your vet is completely sure this is mange mites.....(ie sarcoptic mange) .......and not some other parasitic problem...then
My vet advocates treating MANGE mites with dormaectin injections ONLY...they will not even use ivermectin injections.and certainly won;t recommend using ANY type of spot-on treatment even as a preventative (be it Xeno or some other cheaper less strong brand like Beaphar)

Spot-on treatments are OK for lice and hay mites (also called incorrectly static lice) but again you are best opting for a reputable tried and tested brand of ivermectin such as Xeno or Easimec rather than the current Beaphar product which has been found, so many times on this forum (by unfortunate but well-,meaning slaves), to be ineffective.at treating active infections.

HTH
x

 

[Pebble]

And yes - for any ectoparaiste infection - treatment should be at 10-14 day intervals ....and be given at least 3x for an active infection.

 

[pigaholic15]

Thanks for the advice, so should i monitor them and if I'm concerned see the vets? The piggies are 4 months old.

 

[Wiebke]

Yes - I would also recommend to look for better vets in the meantime. There are several good ones in our neck of the woods. https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/pages/guinea-pig-vet-locator/

From lots of my own experience over the years, some of it sadly losing piggies to incompetence/lack of knowledge, it is WELL worth travelling a bit further and if necessary paying a bit more for a piggy savvy general vet or an exotics specialist. I have several piggies that would not have lived as long as they have otherwise.

The record holder is my Hywel, who has just celebrated his 4th anniversary of surviving some rare and unusual neutering post-op complications soon after coming here and who had been basically given up by the operating vets (he'd been done by a short-lived local rescue). Hywel was saved by some dedicated round-the-clock nursing and a then pioneering very strong antibiotic from a specialist, and I am very happy to say that he is still enjoying being the - somewhat aged, decidedly fat, but undisputed - pasha of his group of sows. The vet cost for the complications was 3 times that of the neutering op, so it would have saved me a lot of money had it been possible to use a piggy savvy vet straight away.

 

[pigaholic15]

Yes I will do that. I'm so attached to them already, they are like having children...worrying about them. Ive uploaded one of the marks on Max, hope its clear, almost red with what appears to be a black bit in it? Not sure if it loo

 

[pigaholic15]

Hope this has uploaded! My other black piggie norbert has similar to this but more dark and likea crusty black scab. Ive nnoticed people speaking of lice shampoo..Could I use this or any tips so I could bath them as another method to get rid of the mites?