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Human with scabies

S

Sgboyd

Junior Guinea Pig
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I was hospitalized recently for stomach problems and came home with scabies. (Groan).
I know the vet says human scabies do not cross to pets. I have a cat and four guinea pigs. However to treat my house/furniture it is recommended to treat with an insecticide to kill the scabies. Are there any that are pet safe? Especially piggy safe? How do I do this and maintain their health while getting rid of my cooties.
 
Sgboyd said:
I was hospitalized recently for stomach problems and came home with scabies. (Groan).
I know the vet says human scabies do not cross to pets. I have a cat and four guinea pigs. However to treat my house/furniture it is recommended to treat with an insecticide to kill the scabies. Are there any that are pet safe? Especially piggy safe? How do I do this and maintain their health while getting rid of my cooties.
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Hi!
Hi!

I am very sorry. What a nuisance!

1Skin parasites are species specific, so human mites cannot survive on other species or vice versa; so any human mites won't be sitting on your guinea pigs.

Please be aware that pet safe doesn't necessarily mean piggy safe; the ones for larger pets often contain substances that are toxic for guinea pig and other small rodent pets so you have to carefully check the ingredients and labels to make sure that they specifically mention small pets. I am UK based and not up to suitable US brands, so I can't help you with brand names.

Please remove your piggies and their cage from the room while spraying and air the room well before moving them and their deep cleaned cage back into the room; just clean it all over including their furniture (if you have a vet grade disinfectant like F10 or virkon, then use that for the piggy stuff) and don't spray it with the disinfectant to be on the safe side.

All the best!
 
Ugh, that sounds horrible. I hope you can get rid of it quickly. (It's making me itchy just thinking about it!)

I was interested to find out more about human scabies, so I looked at the CDC website. Oddly, it says nothing about using insecticide to treat furniture etc, only "fumigation is unnecessary", as the mites can't survive more than 72 hours off human skin just avoid carpets etc which may have been in contact for that length of time., and wash anything washable at 50degrees plus or dryclean.
 
Sgboyd said:
I was hospitalized recently for stomach problems and came home with scabies. (Groan).
I know the vet says human scabies do not cross to pets. I have a cat and four guinea pigs. However to treat my house/furniture it is recommended to treat with an insecticide to kill the scabies. Are there any that are pet safe? Especially piggy safe? How do I do this and maintain their health while getting rid of my cooties.
Click to expand...
I am so sorry! I am itching just thinking about that. Wish I had some advice but I've never dealt with them. Best of luck with the cleansing.
 
Poor you! Years ago living in a student house, one of my housemates got scabies. We all had to use a paint on, all over body treatment and wash clothes and bed clothes on a hot wash. That got rid of the problem. I'd maybe dust and hoover thoroughly, but we only treated our skin and clothes, which would have no impact on guinea pigs. Would your doctor or pharmacist advise on what skin treatment for you to use?
 
So apparently they die after a few days of no contact. We vacuumed everything. Put things in bags that cannot he washed. Sprayed an insecticide on the sofa where we holed up away from critters and slathered the cream on us. I am happy to report no more cooties.
 
We had cause to spray the rooms with an off-the-shelf product called 'Insectrol' a few years back which is a general purpose insect killer (I did feel sorry for them). We'd had some professionals in to do the job and then we bought this stuff in case they returned! The guys said it would be fine in the piggy area because the active ingredient - Permethrin - is harmless for them and for us but quite specifically toxic for cats. If you have a cat that would be something to watch out for - but I couldn't tell you about doses or anything!
 
I'm glad you figured something out! My best friend caught scabies off kids she babysat back in high school... she had a cream for treatment and she was told to wash and hot-dry all clothes and bedding, but no one fumigated the house or used a heavy insecticide on furniture.

When I was a kid our dog had fleas to the point that they were living in our shag carpets (70s/80s kid here!) We had to take ourselves and all the pets away and let off some sort of bug bomb and not go back for 48 hours to get rid of them!
 
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