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Should I treat for mites/fleas?

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Gems

Gems

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I have a confession... I never treated Athena or Cleo for mites or fleas. We don't have any other pets and we checked them over every day and they never seemed to have any. Pepper and Sandy were treated before we got them but we noticed what looked like a flea in the living room this morning so I don't know whether we should treat them all as a precaution?

Can you treat piggies too much? As in should it only be done once every x amount of months? With Sandy and Pepper being done recently I'm not sure whether it should be done again? I had them all out yesterday and didn't notice anything in their fur that looked like it could be a bug so should I just keep an eye on them for now?
 
There is nothing wrong with that. I never treat mine unless there is something wrong with them. Most of my own have never been treated at all as they have had no problems. Give your guineas a good check over, and see if you can see anything running around, or any skin symptoms. Observe them to see if they are scratching more, or if they are more edgy when being handled. The fleeby thing that you have seen may not have come from your guineas. Watch and see. There will be someone along who can advise on dosages etc. if you do feel there is a problem and you want to treat it. xx
 
There are some who do treat regularly as prevention but i am the same as nutmeg; i don't treat unless there is something to treat.

Many of my pigs, including cage-mates of those affected have not been treated for mites.

As far as i am aware mites aren't visible to the human eye but you will see thinning of hair, poss self-inflicted wounds, scurfy skin & a general dislike of being touched. The pig may wheek or struggle or both when picked up/stroked.
 
It's very much down to personal choice and what your own experiences with your pigs are. I do treat routinely, I can advise others who want information on treating routinely, but I will not pressure someone into treating routinely. Treating routinely does not prevent a parasitic infestation, but it regularly wipes out parasitic activity.

However, I don't think ivermectin would treat/prevent against fleas.
 
Hi Laura

Can you tell me either by reply or PM what the process / products you use for treating on a regular basis?

Ta
 
I have to admit I'm only now trying to learn more about health problems so am starting to read up on common health problems, treatments etc as I want to be able to recognise any problems that may arise quickly.

I can't see any visible signs that they had any mites/fleas etc and they get cleaned out daily so I haven't noticed anything when cleaning them out

It was interesting reading what you had put about things possibly being in the hay, sounds obvious after reading it but not something I had thought of myself. There are a few products on vetuk, could you advise whether you think any of them are any good/value for money? http://www.vetuk.co.uk/flea-products-small-animal-treatments-c-3_418

Thanks :)
 
Xeno 450 is a good one to use in place of Ivomec, dosage would of course depend on the individual pig according to the instructions. I wouldn't use the spray, I've never been keen on spraying pigs.

The reason I don't highlight Xeno 50 for pigs under 800g as I usually do when mentioning Xeno is because I generally wouldn't routinely dose a pig under 6 months, which can mean a pig less than (roughly) 800g.

Xenex (as I've learned today) is a good topical "spot on" treatment for lice, but not as a routine treatment.
 
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