rat lice!

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

I took both Aida and Blaze to the vet this morning. Because Blaze had a lot of porphyrin in one eye and although it seems better, the eye is still red, she quints sometimes and it seemed like Aida was being affected.

The vet seemed in awe to see rats at their ideal weights. It was 170 or 270 grams for both of them. wow, can't remember.

She said the porphyrin could be nothing, it could be myco, it could be an infection, so we gave me some eye drops in case it's bacterial to try.

On the other hand, Aida, whose fur had been thinning due to what I thought was age, has lice, well actually they both do. confused so she also gave me some pesticide shampoo from virbac. She said it's extremely common, and that most rats actually have resp illness at one point in their lives so for them to be older, good weights, never had any resp illness and just have a very few lice that doesn't even need revolution. She said they are actually very healthy. Which is nice, and the visit cost me nothing so far cause the girl who keeps messing up my pay also forgot to put my discount in the computer. So I will pay for it I guess when my food comes in, which I also just discovered I can order Oxbow regal rat through work and get a discount.

So now I'm going to clean the rat cage, I guess the rest of my room, and then give the poor girls a 10min bath. They're sleeping off the stress of this morning, they were both great but, they were very wiggly, she had to wrap them in a towel and they still kept getting away.  

[Cowgirl-with-heart]

poor kids! they probably got it from the shavings, or whatever you use in the litter boxes, you should freeze it for a day before putting it in the cage, glad it is nothing serious though!  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Cowgirl-with-heart

poor kids! they probably got it from the shavings, or whatever you use in the litter boxes, you should freeze it for a day before putting it in the cage, glad it is nothing serious though!

I use toilet paper for litter!!

Has anyone dealt with lice before, any more tips on getting rid of it quickly. Poor Aida's butt is almost bald, I'll try to snap a photo of it.

I'm not suppose to use the shampoo more often than once a week, but the vet said that mechanical removal of the eggs is good that the cage doesn't really need to be disenfected, so I thought maybe if I rinse the girls like every day or two with no shampoo? Switch the towels every day instead of 2-3. Beds and hammocks will have to be switched/washed daily now, or will freezing work? Cause they just love their bed I feel bad taking it away sometimes it doesn't get to the laundry for a whole week.  

[ladycrotalus]

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

Cowgirl-with-heart

poor kids! they probably got it from the shavings, or whatever you use in the litter boxes, you should freeze it for a day before putting it in the cage, glad it is nothing serious though!

I use toilet paper for litter!!

Has anyone dealt with lice before, any more tips on getting rid of it quickly. Poor Aida's butt is almost bald, I'll try to snap a photo of it.

I'm not suppose to use the shampoo more often than once a week, but the vet said that mechanical removal of the eggs is good that the cage doesn't really need to be disenfected, so I thought maybe if I rinse the girls like every day or two with no shampoo? Switch the towels every day instead of 2-3. Beds and hammocks will have to be switched/washed daily now, or will freezing work? Cause they just love their bed I feel bad taking it away sometimes it doesn't get to the laundry for a whole week.

I used oral ivermectin. This is the instructions i used from rmca.org
---------------------------------------------------------
The horse-wormer paste products "Zimecterin," "Rotectin 1," "Equalvan," or "Equimectrin" (1.87% Ivermectin) can be used to get rid of mites (or lice, which appear as little red bugs on the skin with tiny eggs on the hair shaft). The dose is a small amount of the paste orally on the end of a toothpick (the size of a uncooked grain of white rice). Repeat dose once a week for three weeks.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Well according to the vet te infestation is so minor it's not worth drugs. Were going to be dealing with it same as parents do with their kids basically. Shampoo, and lots of cleaning. I was looking up life cycles and the eggs don't survive more than 2 days off the rat so I'm not worried about my room. The eggs hatch after like 10 days, so provided the shampoo kills the adults, I should be okay after the next bath. But I'll do the full 4 weeks to be sure, maybe I can wash with reg shampoo or just water in between to help get rid of eggs. And I'll keep cleaning the cage every day.

I read that lice can transmit myco, so I'm worried that might be what blaze has after all. Well see how she responds to the eye drops. Aida seems to have gotten over it before I even brought her in.  

[Vanilla eXee]

Good luck with the girls. That sucks but at least it's dealable.  

[Cowgirl-with-heart]

ladycrotalus

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

Cowgirl-with-heart

poor kids! they probably got it from the shavings, or whatever you use in the litter boxes, you should freeze it for a day before putting it in the cage, glad it is nothing serious though!

I use toilet paper for litter!!

Has anyone dealt with lice before, any more tips on getting rid of it quickly. Poor Aida's butt is almost bald, I'll try to snap a photo of it.

I'm not suppose to use the shampoo more often than once a week, but the vet said that mechanical removal of the eggs is good that the cage doesn't really need to be disenfected, so I thought maybe if I rinse the girls like every day or two with no shampoo? Switch the towels every day instead of 2-3. Beds and hammocks will have to be switched/washed daily now, or will freezing work? Cause they just love their bed I feel bad taking it away sometimes it doesn't get to the laundry for a whole week.

I used oral ivermectin. This is the instructions i used from rmca.org
---------------------------------------------------------
The horse-wormer paste products "Zimecterin," "Rotectin 1," "Equalvan," or "Equimectrin" (1.87% Ivermectin) can be used to get rid of mites (or lice, which appear as little red bugs on the skin with tiny eggs on the hair shaft). The dose is a small amount of the paste orally on the end of a toothpick (the size of a uncooked grain of white rice). Repeat dose once a week for three weeks.

on a note with this method, I read it is best to put ALL of the tube into a container, and mix it well, so that it is even, I would imagine it is so that you don't accidentally OD them on it....  

[ladycrotalus]

Cowgirl-with-heart

ladycrotalus

Gabrielle_AnimalLuver

Cowgirl-with-heart

poor kids! they probably got it from the shavings, or whatever you use in the litter boxes, you should freeze it for a day before putting it in the cage, glad it is nothing serious though!

I use toilet paper for litter!!

Has anyone dealt with lice before, any more tips on getting rid of it quickly. Poor Aida's butt is almost bald, I'll try to snap a photo of it.

I'm not suppose to use the shampoo more often than once a week, but the vet said that mechanical removal of the eggs is good that the cage doesn't really need to be disenfected, so I thought maybe if I rinse the girls like every day or two with no shampoo? Switch the towels every day instead of 2-3. Beds and hammocks will have to be switched/washed daily now, or will freezing work? Cause they just love their bed I feel bad taking it away sometimes it doesn't get to the laundry for a whole week.

I used oral ivermectin. This is the instructions i used from rmca.org
---------------------------------------------------------
The horse-wormer paste products "Zimecterin," "Rotectin 1," "Equalvan," or "Equimectrin" (1.87% Ivermectin) can be used to get rid of mites (or lice, which appear as little red bugs on the skin with tiny eggs on the hair shaft). The dose is a small amount of the paste orally on the end of a toothpick (the size of a uncooked grain of white rice). Repeat dose once a week for three weeks.

on a note with this method, I read it is best to put ALL of the tube into a container, and mix it well, so that it is even, I would imagine it is so that you don't accidentally OD them on it....

Back when i had the problem i bought a small bottle cap size container with some ivermectin paste directly from rmca.org for like 5 bucks. I don't think they do it anymore though.

It worked fast, and my rats took it like it was a treat and i didn't have to stress them out with bathing.