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Urgent - i need to treat my piggies

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pippinskyblue

pippinskyblue

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Arrrrrrrrgggggh I have just looked thru my 2 young piggies fur as they were scratching and I have to my horror found lice (I'm sure they are lice they are tiny white things) I cant get to vets or pet store until monday, does anyone know if I can use A shampoo called Riddance which contains Neem to bathe them in as a temporary measure. Ridance is a shampoo I bought from my health shop when my daughters came home from school with head lice? Or can anyone else suggest something else which I may have already at home? Also does any one know where they get lice from? Their hutch is cleaned out fully twice a week and they spend most of the days in the run in the garden. Could they have got them from the meadow hay I have just used in their hutch? Thank you all in advance.
 
Unsure on the shampoo, but I think lice can come from the hay. Hope someone can advise you soon.
 
Sounds like running lice. Here is some info.

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=47314
http://www.guinealynx.info/lice.html

I wouldn't treat them with something that you are unsure about. It's unpleasant to know they're there but better to wait until you can get the right treatment. You can use lice n easy from gorgeous guineas. I think the other shampoo you can use is flea or die but best wait for someone to confirm that. Lice can come from contaminated hay or contact with another guinea pig that has them.
 
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I use Johnson's insecticidal shampoo for small animals and find it very effective - use once a week for a month to be completely rid of them. Only use if your piggies are over 12 weeks, dilute the 5ml dose in half a cup of water, pour half of it over the wet fur to distribute fully, lather them up - some on cotton wool to wash their face - rinse, repeat, rinse and rinse again.

Meadow hay is the most likely source or a newly introduce pig.

Suzy x itch, itch, scratch!
 
Thanks Flips, I only have the 2 piggies and they are only 4 months old, I have had lots of piggies n the past and have had them treated at the vets for mites/lice before. Its just being the weekend and I cant get treatment until monday I wanted to ease there itches before then. I'm sure I read somewhere that you could treat piggies with lice with Neem, and as this herbal shampoo contains Neem and it was bought from a health shop I thought someone would know if it was safe to use.
 
Suzygpr said:
I use Johnson's insecticidal shampoo for small animals and find it very effective - use once a week for a month to be completely rid of them. Only use if your piggies are over 12 weeks, dilute the 5ml dose in half a cup of water, pour half of it over the wet fur to distribute fully, lather them up - some on cotton wool to wash their face - rinse, repeat, rinse and rinse again.

Meadow hay is the most likely source or a newly introduce pig.

Suzy x itch, itch, scratch!
Click to expand...

I will get some on monday thanks, I bought these 2 piggies together 2 months ago its only since yesterday they seem to be scratching non stop, I opened a new bag of meadow hay on wednesday, so I think they may have got them from that.
 
Hi

Our piggies always used to have mites and fungal problems and we were forever treating them for it. I took some advice from the CCT and now keep them on ReadiGrass and Oxbow Timothy Hay and have never had mites or fungal problems again.

You will need to use an anti mite shampoo, Flea or Die or the one sold by http://www.gorgeousguineas.com/ will do the trick and you will need to shampoo them every 7 days for 3 shampoos.

The problem is without addressing the feed/bedding issue you will always have trouble with mites etc.

One thing you can do with medow hay is split it into smaller bags and then zap each bag in the microwave oven, this not only kills live mites but also sorts out any eggs as well.

Hope this has been of help.

Regards

SGP
 
Thanks for the tip on microwaving the hay, I dont really want to waste what I have but then I dont want my poor piggies suffering either. I know for sure I wont buy Meadow Hay in future! Thank you so much for all your help
 
Out of interest, what are the ingredients of the shampoo from the health shop? I've washed animals in people shampoo before, stuff from Lush (my cat fell into a tub of cif and water, so needed a bath!) I figured it'd be ok cos it's all natural . . .

I guess you could wash them in just water or in normal piggy shampoo if you have it (or maybe dog shampoo if you have a dog), just to make them feel a little better.
 
The shampoo is called Riddance Herbal shampoo . It contains Aqua, Acrylates copolymer(binder), Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate(Coconut Origin), Azaadirachta indica (Need seem extract) Triethanolamine (buffer) cocamidopropyl betaine (coconut origin surfactant) PEG-60 Almond Glycerides (ethoxylated sweet almond) Rosemary oil, eucalyptus oil grapefruit extract its made by A.vogel Its really good on head lice! everything seems to be natural products but not sure if anything in it is poisionous to piggies.
 
I have never even heard of Riddance I'm afraid, so I couldn't say either way on its safety in piggies, even with the ingredients list.

I'm using "Flea or Die" on my pigs, it is also herbal and is very effective but unfortunately not that widely available. The Johnson's that Suzy mentioned is widely available, if you find it works then you can of course continue treatment with it, I have no experience of using this though.
 
Johnson insecticidal shampoo for small animals worked for me - can be got from many pet shops or outlets in garden centres.

However - if it was a mite infection I was treating, I would also use ivermectin

x
 
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