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Worms!

KatieBham

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Hi Everyone, my daughter has threadworms and I am treating the whole household including piggies. Will the vials of invermectin do the job? Any other suggestions? Thanks x
 
Guinea pigs don't usually get worms. I would take your piggies to the vet. It's not a good idea to treat something you don't confirm they have. And it's also not good to do 'prevent treatment' as then the parasites can build up immunity to the medicine. Just make sure your daughter isn't handling them and you're extra careful in terms of hygiene.

PS If that is part of your postcode in your profile then please change and just put your county. You don't want to be giving too much information online.
 
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Only use any treatment which is prescribed by the vet for each diagnosed illness.
 
Thanks for the postcode heads up. Do you not use invermectin for your Piggies routinely? X
 
Thanks for the postcode heads up. Do you not use invermectin for your Piggies routinely? X

No you don’t need to routinely treat for anything. You would only give ivermectin for a current infestation. Even then you would only do it after going to a vet for the diagnosis and the correct strength ivermectin at each time. The pet shop mite treatments you can buy are not prescription strength so aren’t usually effective anyway

Routinely treating preventatively can cause resistance so if you really do have a parasite outbreak it can render the treatment less effective/useless.
The correct use of Ivermectin is as part of a prescribed course to ensure all life cycles of mites are caught. Just treating once a month wouldn’t do anything to actually stop an infestation
 
It specifically states the prevention of Roundworm. I'll consult the vet. Thanks again x
 
Guinea pigs generally speaking don’t get problems with worms. It does happen though. But you still wouldn’t treat as a prevention - only treat for a diagnosed and active infestation of any parasite
Don’t treat them for anything without speaking to your vet though.
 
Did the vet give it to you to administer after examining them?
 
Hi, piggies rarely get roundworms, especially in the UK, and they could not catch human pinworms at all. There is no need to treat piggies for worms unless they have digestive issues and your vet has taken a poop sample and a bum swab and actually seen parasite eggs under the microscope.
Ivermectin will kill roundworms but in guinea pigs it is more commonly used to treat mites in the skin and fur. Dosing on spec wont prevent these, it will just mean that the drug is less likely to be effective if you do ever encounter a medical mite problem.
So best leave the ivermectin alone unless there is a confirmed diagnosis of something it is needed for.
If your vet is suggesting using ivermectin with no medical need, perhaps they are not very experienced with guinea pigs (and with parasitites and antiparasitic drugs) so you might consider finding one who is a little more knowledgable?
 
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