Mites!

[giry76]

Well I took Doris to the vet today. She had been losing quite a few quills and nothing I was doing was helping her. Yesterday I noticed that she also had some irritation at the base of a few quills. So off to the vet we went. I found one on Hedgehogs.com in my town. He was very nice and I was very impressed. He admitted to not treating a lot of hedgehogs but that one of the previous vets had lots of hedgies and left a lot of his books.

So he commented on how friendly she was. She didn't ball up on him at all. She tried to get away to her mommy. He eventually had to scruff her and she squealed a little. He did a tape test and pow there they were. He let me look under the microscope.

She was given an injection of Ivermictin and she did very well.

So do I need to throw out all her velleux stuff? Or can I just wash them a few times in hot water and bleach? She will probably get a new bag or two just incase. Any hints at beating this will be appreciated.

BTW she is going back in two weeks for a second shot.

[kaiteedyd]

I think washing with bleach should do the trick.

[Nancy]

You can't wash velux with bleach, it melts.

[HedgieSpirit]

Mmm, when Chloe had mites I used shredded paper as bedding and I cleaned and bleeched her bins every 1-2 days. Luckily it was when I first got her so I had not yet invested in vellux bedding or hedgie bags. I'm not sure what you should do about the vellux. It seems like a shame to throw it out but I'm not sure of any alternatives :confused:

I'm glad things at the vet went well. Chloe was very sociable the first time too. The second time she remembered her skin scraping and shot from the previous visit and actually ran over to the vet and bit her :eek: It was actually kind of funny but I felt bad :laugh: :rolleyes: The third time she was a complete terror. I have never heard so much popping and clicking! Fortunately, 6 months later, she has been back to the vet and didn't remember at all and was back to her sweet self :)

Good luck with the treatment! Mites are no fun, I hope they clear up soon.

[PrettyHate]

Someone correct me if Im wrong- but Ive heard that an effective way of killing mites is to freeze them. So what if you bagged all of her bedding (liners, bags etc) and stuck it in the freezer (or outside if youre lucky like me and get to live in a place with subarctic temperatures ;) ) and then send it through the washing machine?

[paris26]

If cleaning with bleach,please, please rinse extremely well! I am always paranoid about bleach residue.