hay and lice

I've been using bales of hay for my buns and guineas for a while now, i know there can be lice in hay but i have never had a problem until now, my mums buns got neutered today and the vet found lice!

My question is how can i prevent thrm getting lice and is there a cheap alternative to bales of hay? As i have 8 guineas who eat LOADS of the stuff!

Doesn't matter if it is baled or not, It all comes from a crop that is barn stored. I would imagine that is where the lice get in. In over 25 years of keeping rabbits and feeding bales I have never had lice. I personally would burn the bale you have, treat the animals and get another bale from a different barn

Has it definitely come from the hay?

tonibun said:

Has it definitely come from the hay?

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I'm presuming it is as both of mums rabbits are indoor ones and so are our cats so the only way they have got lice has got to be the hay

I think Smudge had lice not long after we got him but I'm 99% sure he had them when he came to me from the pet shop. Treated him with xeno 450 (the spray) and never had a problem since. I use baled hay.

If you have a few pets to treat then the pharmaq is the cheapest way to do it and its the same strength as the xeno. Here is a post from me a couple of weeks ago with the same problem

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...rmaq-U-D-MITE-CLOSEUP-PICS!&highlight=pharmaq

hmmm in general fleas or lice are not big hay fans they like warmth and a host, they can also live quite happily in carpet for long periods.

I would ask your vets for some advantage for rabbits and treat every twice allowing a 2 week gap. (it can be used weekly in bad infestations because rabbit metabolisms are much quicker than cat/dogs) I'm pretty sure advantage is piggy safe and it might be more effective than xeno

I would bin this bale and have a good hoover