Tiny White Crawling Things Mites?

[PiggySmitten]

Just brought Blossom inside from lawn time and weighed her. As I was stroking her after, I noticed a white crawling thing in her fur at the bottom end of her back. Further inspection showed 3 or 4 more of them on her back which I have picked off. Her skin was fine. Not red at all and she hasn't been scratching.

I presume they are mites though? What's the best treatment?

 

[PiggySmitten]

Or could they be lice?

 

[helen105281]

They could be lice, treatment is usually with Ivermectin and/or a lice shampoo. I use Lyclear creme rinse which is a human headlice shampoo but you need to patch test for 48 hours behind the ear first. Baths should be at least 24 hours apart from any Ivermectin treatment. You are best getting him treated by the vet.

 

[PiggySmitten]

Thanks @helen105281 I've been reading around a bit and just had another look at her. I'm 99% certain that she's got running lice. She's not one of the two fungal piggies but they were all part of the same group before so I'm wondering again about Fizz now (although definitely can't see anything moving in her fur - I dipped her again at the weekend and her fur looks the same but her skin is arguably a little bit less dry).

Should I try and persuade the vet to do injection of ivermectin or oral dose? Or would the xeno 450 stuff you "spot on" be ok? I have a feeling he would be more likely to prescribe the spot on if I don't ask for something else. He is usually good if I talk to him and have informed preferences.

As far as I can read the xeno 450 stuff requires your piggies to weigh 800g. Blossom doesn't weigh quite that yet (758g today). Presumably he should prescribe something a different dosage?

 

[helen105281]

I would see what the vet says. Personally I would ask for the injections or oral dosing but you may have gathered I am not a fan of spot on. I have also been told that sometimes the best option is to clip the infected hair off.

If using Xeno though I think smaller pigs need Xeno 50.

That's good that Fizz's hair is less dry, it may take a while before you notice any visible improvement though.

 

[PiggySmitten]

Not sure I'm up to the job of clipping hair! Will find a way though if we need to.

 

[helen105281]

You should see the state of Mrs Fuzzy after she just had her hair clipped.

 

[PiggySmitten]

Vet trip today. He couldn't find anything moving in her fur at all after ages looking but decided he would treat her anyway then just as he moved away from her I saw one. He whipped it off and out the back (presumably to have a look under a microscope). He came back with ivermectin and gave her an injection of that so I have to eat my words before on that! He didn't even mention any sort of spot on treatment.

Blossom was great, she didn't even flinch when he did it.

Id taken Nibbles, her current cage mate, and I asked him to check her over too. He couldn't see anything on her and said he didn't feel it was necessary to treat her at the moment.

Got to go back in two weeks if they are not cleared by then. He seemed optimistic they would though.

 

[PiggySmitten]

Ooh meant to say - Pets at Home came in again while we were there. 2 piggies and some other animal in a smaller carrier. The carrier with the two piggies in was completely empty - no wood shavings or any other sort of floor covering and no veg or hay or anything. It's about a 10 minute drive to this vets from the shop so it could be worse but I was surprised there wasn't anything put in to soak up wee even.

 

[helen105281]

Oh that's really bad about Pets at Home, have seen them come into our vets before they opened their own one, and I think they did have some kind of substrate in there.

Glad it was a succesful vet visit though.

 

[7squeakers.]

Don't worry too much about the white lice. They don't do any harm as they live off dead skin. They don't suck blood or anything like that. You would see the piggies scratching if they did. Still, its not very nice to see them in your piggies coat. They are not easy to spot as they hide from the light when you part the fur. Best of luck with getting rid of them. It doesn't sound like your piggie had many of them.