bathing OK?

[chrisl1976]

Ok.....Wrigley and Harley got treated for Miteslast week, Oct 30 and Wrigley is still stratching some. and chewing hisfur further up his back. The previous Chewed areas are growing back now.

The vet gave us a flea brush yesturday and suggested trying to combthem out.....kind of a gross feeling when I did that....thining of themcrawling on my hands ect... Ended up afterwardsgetting the dust buster out and sucking some of the dead flakes os skinoff his back with that....actually worked pretty good....Wrigley put upwith that sucking feeling for about a minute then had enough.

Anyways, the vet recommended giving him a bath and I remember readingsomewhere you should not give rabbits baths because is washed the oilfrom thier fur. Is Bathingok? Just use plain warm water?

They both go in Monday morning for thier second treatment and then in 2 weeks after that......

How long does it typically take to get rid of mites????

Thanks
Chris

 

[naturestee]

Bathing usually isn't a good idea because therabbit tends to get very stressed and because they get chilled easilywhen they are wet. Usually a dry bath with cornstarch isbetter if they're messy, but that won't work here. There arewet bath instructions here, but be very careful. It wouldprobably be a good idea to use a rubber mat or something else thatwould give a little traction to the bun so they don't slip as much.

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/buttbath.html

I'm not sure how long it takes. What medicine are theygetting? And are you treating the environment? Youcould ask your vet for advice on carpet treatments and such.You could probably clean their cages with a mild bleach solution, thenrinse them.

 

[chrisl1976]

kind of what I thought..I'm not going to riskstressing him out that much. I cant remember the name of themedicine...Its on his visit sheet which is at home. Its just a generaloral Mite medicine for cattle, dogs, cats, ect...based onweight/dose. She tried to identify the species of mite, butdid not match any of the pictures she had in her books, so she justused a general med. for mites.

I've shopvaced the entire room pretty good, cages and all, I dont seemuch not getting sucked up since it just about pulls the carpet up withit. I'll look into a carpet med. to kill any that possiblysurvived.

We'll just keep trying to pick them out with the flea comb and see what happens

 

[Haley]

You can also buy over the counter flea/tick/mitespray for rabbits. I did that when my boys had mites. Its a pain bc youhave to spray them down twice a day for about two weeks, but it workedgreat.

I also bought some carpet powder made to kill mites/fleas on dogs andjust put it all over the carpet in the bunny room (moving them out fora day, of course).

 

[Snuggys Mom]

You can sprinkle Sevin Dust (5% ONLY) on thecarpet to kill the mites. Take the rabbits out of the roombefore you sprinkle so it won't be inhaled. Leave it on for30 minutes, then vacuum and throw away the bag. If youhave a bagless vac, wash the collection cupthoroughly withsoap and hot water or even better - bleach.

If you don't kill all the mites in the house, they just multiply andget back on the rabbits. I've been through thistwice.