mites?

[aldoushuxley]

i adopted two male degus two weeks ago and started scratching, went back to P@H who gave me alternative hay and floor covering, however the degus are scratching like carazy, everyone in my house is scratching feel like tiny (non-visible) animals are running over us been to doctors who said it sounds like an infestation but have to take degus to vets to find out what kind. does anyone know what kind of mite etc degus get and how to get rid of tehm from them, us and our home. dont want to give them up but will have to if cant solve tjis -- please help x

[deguconvert]

What hay and substrate are you using for your degus? You might want to try Finnacard, which has excellent absorbency and no dust, and is also very reasonable cost wise. Any who have tried it seem to like it very much, and I've not heard of any allergy trouble with it either.

As for hay, there have been issues mentioned in the past, where the hay for some reason has an infestation . . . what I would suggest is perhaps buying some from an alternative store, just incase it has to do with storage or even the source it has been purchased from.

[aldoushuxley]

just back from vets, they do not seem too confident in anything to do with degus as not seen one before but examined them and could not see anything, however, they were visibly itching (as was i) so gave them drops on neck to kill off any mite there.... possibly the sarcoptic mite- trixicarus caviae??? however this hasn't helped us, as when i looked these up they are generally just visible to the human eye whereas ours arent so still no clue as to which kind of mite we have. Degus are sorted and protected for two weeks but need to find out more information on Degus mites that can stay on humans?? thanks deguconvert for your ideas and reply, much appreciated, from an itchy and scratchy degu mum xx

[aldoushuxley]

thanks smux will try that too. They live in a very clean area (and got dates wrong....have only had them just over a week) so cant work out how this has happened, although there were two guinea pigs in area next door to them at P@H that had a note saying that the G.Pigs had had mites but had been treated. This is the only thing i can think of as its not hay, not dust its actual little things that we cant see. Very frustrating at a time we should be enjoying with Aldous and Huxley : ( - thanks though for your input(s) x

[Jaiye]

I'd go back to pets at home with a note from your vet saying they have mites, and ask them to provide the stuff they used on the guinea pigs - at their expense. That way, you won't need to find out what mite it is as they will know and know what to treat them with because the piggies got over it =)

Good luck!

[aldoushuxley]

thanks Jaiye, i will do that as this is getting more and more expensive : / will let you all know outcome....thanks again x

[Jaiye]

Welcome =) Hope it goes well!

[malteser60]

Just had a very quick look on the degutopia website and it seems like degus can get mites. So it looks like the mites could have come from the guinea pigs. Jaiye's suggestion is a brilliant one.