mites that just won't die

[temblabamomo]

In December me and the boys made a trip to the vet to get current weights and some Revolution for the lovely little miteys Obie brought into our home (he was not dosed when he was adopted because my mother said she would kill me if she caught me "borrowing" one more tube of the cat Rev.) So everyone was dosed. A thorough cleaning was done. Mite-related symptoms had all but disappeared within a week.

Last night I found a big old tropical mite just steady chillin on Max's foot. I couldn't believe the little bugger had the gall to just sit out there in the open like that. Studied him long enough to confirm he wasn't a piece of mite-shaped dirt, and exterminated him.

Checked all boys all over for scabs and more mites. Haven't seen one. Find it especially odd that this dude was on Max; if Max had mites, he'd also have horrific scabs from itching himself with the massive eagle talons he sports; stubborn manrat is very resistant to nail trimming.

So...I want to dose everyone again. As of this morning, their weights range from 425g to 560g. I have the red tube of Rev, the kind for critters 20.1 - 40 lbs, with the 120mg/ml concentration. The dosage the vet gave me in December (when all weights were roughly the same) was 0.025 ml per rat. Is this correct? And is there any kind of spray I can use around the room? I'll do a hardXcore cage cleaning with bleach obviously. But the area around the cage is carpeted. What can I use, if anything? And where did this mite come from? I freeze bedding religiously. I spot clean the cage shelves daily with vinegar/water solution. I post miniscule warning signs for mites letting them know that trespassing has dire consequences. I am very frusterated to have seen this little bugger.
:gaah:

P.S. before anyone asks, my method is to apply the Rev to rat #1, put said rat alone in cage for about 5 minutes, transfer him to play area, apply to rat #2, put said rat alone in cage for 5 mins. before the play area transfer. I've been very careful to make sure no one is licking it off anyone.

 

[SQ]

Are you sure it is a tropical mite?
Are you getting bitten too?

 

[Phyllis]

Sounds like you did a wonderful job of lice removal, I would use your same procedure of cleaning, vaccum the carpeted area well dust with cat flea powder, work this in a bit then vacuum again. The is the RMCA's, rattie lice treatment, it works very well. Do be careful of bug sprays, I lost a Chipmunk to bug spray. RMCA...help!
Q: My rat is scratching and has scabs on his face and shoulders. Does he have mites?
A:
It is possible that he has mites, but most often scabs are caused by too much protein in the diet, which causes hot spots that the rats scratch. Try eliminating high-protein items such as sunflower seeds, peanuts and dog food. If the scabs persist, the problem may be mites. The horse-wormer paste products "Zimecterin," "Rotectin 1," "Equalvan," or "Equimectrin" (1.87% Ivermectin) can be used to get rid of mites (or lice, which appear as little red bugs on the skin with tiny eggs on the hair shaft). The dose is a small amount of the paste orally on the end of a toothpick (the size of a uncooked grain of white rice). Repeat dose once a week for three weeks.

 

[MomRat]

Mites are too small to be seen by the naked eye. If your boys had scabs but no bugs, initially, they had mites. If they had visible buggies from the start, they had lice. Revolution works for a month; it sticks around in the system long enough to kill each round of eggs as they hatch(and before they can start the process over with additional eggs). If you saw A bug on ONE rat and there are NO symptoms, you probably don't have a reinfestation. Mites don't live off of hosts for more than a couple of hours; carpet cleaning and couch steaming is really more than can be necessary at times. Do you have dogs or cats? Rabbits? There are some forms of mites(NOT LICE) that are not completely species specific. The mites that cause one form of Dog mange will happily nom on ratties if there are no dogs available. Another thing to note is that mites can live on animals(and people) completely asymptotically until their immune system is lowered for some other reason - our second pair of boys first home was with a dog groomer - they never had mites but when Dominic got a URI several months after we adopted them, he also started showing symptoms of mites. So, petting the neighbors dog and forgetting to wash hands/change clothes CAN infect low immunity rats with mites.

 

[temblabamomo]

SQ - I'm about 99.9% certain it was a tropical mite. Although if it was something similar looking, I wouldn't know.

Phyllis - Will flea powder also kill mites? If we are dealing with lice, ok. But would the same stuff be effective on mites? And I'm assuming that it's not really safe to let the little ones out on the carpet after applying, or at least not for some time though yes?

I'm going to dose all again with the Rev; I thought tropical mites were the one thing that Ivermectin won't treat. I guess I just want to go with whatever will cover all parasites.

 

[Kibble]

I found a full-on flea on my boyfriend once. Just sitting right there on his face. We don't have cats or dogs. Nobody in our apartment block has cats or dogs. These creepy-crawlies must be following their natural jungle instincts and leaping off shrubbery/park squirrels/odd-smelling dudes on the bus and onto our shoulders.

We hoovered like crazy, and my boyfriend started shaving more regularly, and we didn't see any more fleas. The phenomenon of the lone bloodsucker...

 

[temblabamomo]

Thanks MomRat, that is helpful information. I think I've always had it in my head that lice were almost impossible to see, and mites were bigger. But if the opposite is true, then I guess this was a louse. Phyllis says use a cat flea powder on the carpets and vacuum, I will try that. Do lice actually live on the host, or are they like mites in that they will feed and then retreat somewhere nearby?

We have cats, but they are all treated with Revolution once a month, we never miss a dose. The only dog I've been in contact with is my stepmom's, she says the beastie is up to date on flea meds but I'm certain I came home with a few flea bites last time I visited. If she had a few fleas who knows what else she might have picked up. None of my boys seem to have problems with weak immune systems, but who knows.

I feel silly that all this time I've been convinced that mites were big whopping things you could easily see with the naked eye and lice were microscopic :wallbang:

 

[MomRat]

I don't know about mites retreating from the host after eating. My vet says they burrow under the skin. Lice lay eggs in the fur. Far as I know they all live on the animal, fleas too. We let our boys free range on the couch, there was no real way to clean that and we haven't had any reinfection issues.

Don't feel bad. There's a lot of misinformation out there on fleas/mites/lice - so many times skin scrapes come back negative and vets just treat the symptoms(as they should) because the treatment is the same for all the buggies. MOST people on the interwebs(even here on the shack) have believed for years and years that ALL mites and lice and fleas are species specific, which is not true, and we had visible proof(dog mite in the microscope on a skin scrape of our rat). Lice are species specific(sometimes they are even body part specific!) And fleas will bite anything but prefer to live on their particular host. Mites have a preference but will colonize wherever they find food. =)

 

[temblabamomo]

We had our first parasite issue several years ago and had it recurr because our former vet filled us with misinformation. We've had problems a couple of times as new adoptees have been brought into the home, and it seems like everytime I go poking around for info I'll have one "expert" sound very intelligent on the subject and tell me one thing, a week later I'll find some other super intelligent someone who sounds equally experienced tell me something completely different. :wallbang: Very frustrating. But thanks to all here for the input.

 

[ATez]

My boys had lice and for the carpets i used a steam mop. I made sure i "mopped" each carpet for a fair amount of time.
They will get a bit damp but they won't get wet. My vet also made sure to tell me to throw out ANYTHING made of wood they have in their cage and replace it.
Anything that's cloth was washed in hot water with soap then rinced a second time and the cage was pulled appart and washed in the bathtub with everything else.

The smaller cage i have was cleaned, we covered the kitchen table with a plastic sheet from the dollarstore and after cleaning the little guys and putting the med stuff on their neck we left them in the small cage and took care of aaaaall the house and remaining ratty stuff. When that was done they went back together in the big cage and we re-cleaned the smaller cage to avoid "contamination". We left them in the cage for a few days to make sure the little lice would eat the med and to make sure some of them wouldn't get in the carpets again or furniture and a few months later decide to go back on one of the boys.

They had a second treatment just a few days ago just in case some of them got back.

When i actually noticed them they were all over a very bright yellow shirt i have (after holding Crank for just a minute to put him back in his cage). I could see little veeeery small red bugs. I couldn't really see what they looked like, just a red dot clinging to my shirt. About a week ago i gave Crank what i called the "yellow shirt test". I scrubbed my shirt all over him, made him go "What are you doing??!" and the shirt came back with no visible lice or red dots!

If you think you need to do a cleanup again try to see everything as "clean" and "infected" stuff. Like a knife you cut raw meat with!
Good luck! I hope that bug you saw wasn't something bad!

 

[Phyllis]

I totally agree with cleaning the carpet, I would use my steam cleaner on hot, the plastic sheet under them is a great idea, I came close to telling you it is worth a try, but don't want to sound like a know it all, I just am sharing having knowledge I have acquired from having had ratties for over 25 years. My ratties over the years have had both the red ones you can see & the ones that burrow under the skin & leave their eggs on the hair, My Vet told me that both types can come in through screens & under doors. Darn things. Hope your ratties are OK! :undecided:

 

[temblabamomo]

Well, I reckon our carpets could stand a thorough cleaning anyway, so we'll give it a try, definitely.