first off: no you cant get lice from a rat, rat lice are species specific that done...does anybody know a better way to treat this than ivermectin, i dont want to have a potential overdose...
Ivermectin is hard to overdose on. You just have to make sure that the amount given is about the size of a half a grain of rice -- no more than the size of a full grain of rice. When one of my RB rats, Frisco, got lice due to a compromised immune system, the Ivermectin got rid of the lice right away. EDIT: Make sure it is horse Ivermectin. You could also try bathing them with an herbal shampoo that repels parasites, but make sure that it is natural with no chemicals. I would make this a last resort though, because lice prefer clean fur and hang on to fur very well, even when it is being washed. Herbal shampoos sometimes don't work very well, but it is much better than takign a chance on a chemical shampoo. Alot of those makes animals sick or even kill them. You could pour olive oil all over them. This will smother the lice. Do not use Vaseline -- I can't count how many times someone has asked me if they could cover their rat's fur in Vaseline to get rid of the lice -- Vasleline is a petroleum product. Once ingested, petroleum will kill a rat. Olive oil is good. Try to stay away from Canola oil though. And LOTS of cleaning! Their cage and everything in it will need to be scrubbed down with bleach and rinsed off very well. Some things might need to be put in the freezer to kill the eggs. Rat generally only get parasites when their immune systems aren't working well. Do your rats have a myco outbreak, or some other problem? It is always best to treat the underlying symptoms. Good luck!
Bless their hearts. Liquid dish-washing soap will also work sometimes and is gentle on sensitive animals.
they both have myco, i treat that with echinecea and garlic, it works wonders...no sneezes or sniffles, i suspect they got the lice from a friends rat.....erg.....but they love their playtime with other rats, so i can never say no.
I got this small animal pest spray from PetSmart. It's for hamsters and gerbils etc. It's for fleas and ticks. You just spray 'em all over top to bottom until they're damp and in about a day all the bugs will be dead. Then do them once a week for a month or so to make sure you get all the newly hatched ones. I have a one and a half year old berkshire dumbo named Samwise, I just call him Sam or Sammy, and a two year old agouti hoody named Bilbo. I also just impulse bought an adorable little black hoodie with a thick white blaze down the nose. I brought it home and named it Spud. That night I noticed "Spud" was curiously missing his goolies! So now her name is Spudley and in a week she's going to live with my moms neutered male and his harem of girl ratties in their converted bookshelf palace.
you should make sure that the "playmates" are 99% healthy before letting yuor rats play with them. imho... My friends and are always very careful about letting our rats meet, play or even be in the same room because of infection and desease. my rats had mites and i used invermectin, i used a tooth pick and then dipped it into the bottle, only about the size of a grain of rice. as Catahoula said, it is very hard to overdose invermetic....
