# Mite questions



## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

I had a problem with a buck that I had to pts, so I'm sorry I don't have pics. He started scratching and developed hair loss and reddish-brownish scabs around his face neck and shoulders. His ears also got them really bad. Could mites cause this? In the end it got so bad that his ears were literally being eaten away. One was split entirely in half, the other was down to a half nub. I was trying to treat him for mites, but it wasn't getting better, and I felt he was suffering too much. So could mites have caused that much damage, to actually eat away at his ears?

Also, I want to know if I was treating him with the right stuff. I went to the pet store and got flea and tick spray for small animals, and that's what I've been treating him with. It doesn't say anything about mites, but the ingredients are pyrethrins .06% and piperonyl butoxide .60% and inert ingredients. Is this the right stuff to use? What should I have been using, and where can I get it? I treated another mouse that bred with him and had some baldness with the same stuff, and she got better. Was he just too infested to heal?

Thanks all!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I wouldn't use anything with pyrethrins as I'm not familiar with dosing for mousies. It's easier for you and less annoying for the mousie to use IverOn or Or Pour On. It's sold in relatively small quantities and can be diluted for use with meeces.You get it from farm supply stores, and I think I paid about $20. for four ounces. When diluted with five parts water, and used in three drop doses, that lasts a good long time. I've used it on week old babies with no problem. With mites you see the mousie scratching under the leg, around the tail, behind the ears...and sometime between the toes, especially with young mousies.

Sorry you lost your little buddy.

The problem you describe doesn't sound like mites, in any case. Perhaps it was a food allergy or allergy to bedding. And, sometimes, when a mousie develops such a problem, the itching persists long after cause is removed. Ears are the hardest, as once the skin is broken, there are opportunistic germs that dig in and very, very hard to get rid of. Examining your meeces ears regularly so that you spot the inflammation early is essential. It's not uncommon for problems in the ears to sort of spread all over the head, neck and shoulders.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks! Where do you put the three drop doses? On the scruff of the neck?


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

There or between the shoulders. They wiggle, so it's hard to be too exact. Whichever, dilute a portion five parts water to one part chemical. With babies I just touch them with the full dropper, one out of a hundred times a babie might get too much and die on you, but that's better than seeing them suffer from being bitten and sucked dry.

There's another good product called DeFlea that I use on cages, bedding, my hands (so I don't transfer any bugs or eggs or have one of the little devils take a taste of me. The bites when you get bit the first time are incredibly itchy and long lasting) It's sold with the dog or cat products, and is also available in a very small spray bottle from the same company under the name Reptile Relief. I though it was pretty funny that a product for reptiles worked on mousies, and had never thought about reptiles having mites....in any case, I like it well enough that I ordered a whole gallon of it a few weeks ago.


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## tinyhartmouseries (Dec 30, 2010)

I just wanted to say that i finally PTS my buck with a similar problem-after a certain point it becomes almost a neurological disorder. They are suffering and though the decision to PTS is a hard one, sometimes it's for the best. These obsessive mice are VERY hard to cure. I'm sorry!


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

DeFlea... that name sounds familiar. I think that's what the vet told us to use when a stray cat we adopted had kittens and they all caught ringworm! The vet said you could use it even on very young kittens, so good to know it's gentle enough for even meesies!


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Hmmm...can't imagine using it for a fungal infection..

About ear and skin problems...it tends to run in particular lines, who for whatever reason are more susceptible to these things, but I can admit, form my own experience that cleanness of the mousery and the tanks is essential in avoiding them. Dust, dander, shed hair, dirty litter, cluttered and dusty mousery area...I am doing a much better job taking care of all these things, and I have had had a LOT less itchy, scratchy, scabby mousies. I used to have carpet in the mousery, which came out last fall, and wooden shelving, which was replaced with steel wire shelving. Carpeting always holds a buttload of dust even when it looks clean. The open wire construction of the shelving gives better ventilation, allowing ammonia and dust to pass into the air to be dealt with by multiple measures-1) The room sized HEPA air cleaner with activated charcoal. 2) a floor fan to increase air movement in the mousery and 3)bag of zeolite place3d at various locations to absorb ammonia in the air. Of course, most of you won't have the press of a couple hundred of the adorable little stinkers to deal with. If I were building a shed I'd definitely include a built in vent fan, as that would reduce the amount of counter measures and cleaning needed.


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