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Mites help

Hugo's There

Hugo's There

Wise Old Thumper
One of our bunnies has a mite infestation that just will not respond to treatment.
She was treated with Xeno spot on 2 weeks apart, when that didn't work she has gone to the vets weekly for the past 3 weeks fror an ivermectin injection. But there is still no improvement :(

What else can we do? I have never know them not to respond to injections.

The bunny is waiting to have an op, and hasn't been able to be vaccinated :(
 
I have never heard of a bunny not respond to ivermectin either Liz, i'm sorry your poor bun is suffering so, she must be very run down immune wise in that case. Rather a pathetic suggestion but perhaps some echinacea will help boost her immune system?
Are you absolutely certain it is the cheyletiella mite? Silly Q I know sorry :oops:
I hope she feels better soon. :)
 
I know you can bath guinea pigs with a medicated shampoo when they have mites/lice as an alternative/supplement to Ivermec. Not heard of it as a possibility with rabbits though.
 
I've always found the spot on to be better than injection...not sure why :?

My little wildie had a nasty case of mites that didn't clear up at first with the Xeno spot on, but got better quickly when I switched to the Beapher version. Not sure if that was coincidental tho'
 
prettylupin said:
I have never heard of a bunny not respond to ivermectin either Liz, i'm sorry your poor bun is suffering so, she must be very run down immune wise in that case. Rather a pathetic suggestion but perhaps some echinacea will help boost her immune system?
Are you absolutely certain it is the cheyletiella mite? Silly Q I know sorry :oops:
I hope she feels better soon. :)
Click to expand...

I do feel her immune system is very poor as she has suffered repeatedly since a large op in the summer, and it is always in the place where the op took place that it starts :? She also has repeated eye infections and we think her eye needs to be removed, but until we can get this cleared up she can't have it done :(
 
It sounds as if it's a bit chicken and egg doesn't it :? If her ill health is causing the continuing problem with mites, I suspect that the mites won't clear up until the eye problem is dealt with. You'll just be fighting symptoms that won't resolve until the problem is resolved. Really tricky isn't it :?
 
I have used a selenium shampoo before when one bun kept getting harvest mites. The vet prescribed and supplied it. Found that it worked OK. It was a green liquid. I think it had to be left on for 10 mins or so before being rinsed off like any other shampoo - fairly easy so as long as bun doesn't mind a bath or two.
 
When you treated the bun, did you treat the living area too?
My Herbie just had mites, i had to treat the room with mite spray.

I had advice on my thread before about the shampoo
Natalie83 said:
Hello there!

My girls had walking dandruff around easter time this year and despite a course of three injections they failed to clear up. They were mainly along their backs and didn't appear under their tummies etc. The trickiest thing about clearing the mites up is that in their lifetime they are born and breed themselves, often resulting in two or three injections in order to catch the mums, dads and the kids !!!!! before any other eggs are laid...that's when I was given a medicated shampoo which I had to use once a week for three weeks and then I returned to the vets. Finally they had gone!

My vet advised me to freeze bags of hay before giving it to my bunnies because that's where the fur mites came from in our case (luckily we have an extra chest freezer in the garage!). By obviously freezing the hay it kills them off and stops a further lifecycle of mites. I have been doing that ever since and so far, so good!

As you say, washing everything extra regularly is also helpful because the mites will fall on things like blankets etc even though they can't actually live and survive there. They survive on the bunny by feeding on the dandruff they create and damaging the hair follicle and causing bald areas if left unchecked...horrid things!

Good luck, always feel free to PM me if you need any more help and the logistics of washing bunnies :shock: xx

PS - I think each injection should be given every ten to fourteen days but in that time hopefully you will start to see a difference...if not, that's when the shampoo might be better. It definitely worked for us! :)
Click to expand...
 
Santa said:
It sounds as if it's a bit chicken and egg doesn't it :? If her ill health is causing the continuing problem with mites, I suspect that the mites won't clear up until the eye problem is dealt with. You'll just be fighting symptoms that won't resolve until the problem is resolved. Really tricky isn't it :?
Click to expand...

Her eye is actually looking great at the moment, but it is an ongoing problem.

the vets wont operate or vaccinate until the mites have cleared up.

she is kept on vetbed, towels and newspaper and this is always changed daily along with her litter tray :)

ETA She is long haired and not easy to handle due to her special needs so I wouldn't want to attempt bathing her unless it was the very last option
 
Noah has recently had a bad bout mites & they made his skin very sore on his back :(

We can't bath Noah either - he would have gone beserk & been so stressed by it :( We were advised to comb through some diluted hibiscrub to try to sooth his back & it did appear to help as after 3 injections & using the hibiscrub, he is looking a lot better :)
 
We had exactly this problem with Summer, and it turned out hers was some sort of dermatitis, and not mites at all. Any chance this could be dermatitis?
 
She has now had skin scrapings done and it is definately mites. We have no idea why the treatment isn't working :(

The vet says more and more bunnys with mites are becoming resistent to treatment and need really long courses of injections as there is no alternative treatment on the market :(
 
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