What to do about mites/lice on rats?

Question

I just now found little bugs on my 8 day old rat pups and my other rats have them too including the momma. None of them had them before we moved. The pups are really skinny and they have big heads and they did not look like that before. they looked good until 2 days ago. I've had rats with this before when moved to this same house once before. Could it be the house? PLEASE HELP!!

Answer 1

it could be the house !

go to vet to make sure!  

Answer 2

If they are anywhere near a window they could be attracting bugs from outside. Call the vet and tell them your situation. They might require you to bring all of the rats in or they might juts give you the medication.

Answer 3

Relax!!! Most of the time they will get mites and lice from the packaged bedding from the store. Im not sure if you can treat 8 day old rat pups with Ivermectin but you can mom. Just take her to the vet and they will give you and oral or topical cream for it. But in my opinion the oral Ivermectin works better. Its not very expensive either. Carefresh bedding is horrible for mites and lice in the bedding. A good tactic to this is to freeze the bedding before you put it in there cage. This kills any parasites in the bedding. I would call an exotics vet and ask them about what can be done. But in my experience with baby rats they shouldnt have there fur yet. So maybe you can get the ivermectin and treat mom and disinfect the cage and wont have anymore problems. Good luck and hope I helped.

Answer 4

take all of them to the vets- they will give you something to cure it

Answer 5

The vet is the place to go. It's possible you'll have a discounted price for multiple rats. The vet will likely give them a dose of Revolution or Ivermectin (more likely if they're babies), which works quite well for rat mites, fleas and lice. After that, you need to clean the entire area thoroughly. Use a bleach & water solution and clean every item in the cage. Throw out all wood items, or bake them. Wash any cloth items in the washer, and spray everything else with the bleach & water. Rinse it, then spray with vinegar to eliminate the harsh bleach smell. Rinse again and let them dry in the sun. Vacuum everything AROUND the area of the cage, and wash things in the vicinity. Hopefully that should do for the little buggers!