wishforwings
New Member
My rat has mites or lice and is weak compared to usual. He is 2 years old, but this is a new thing. He has a bad infestation of bugs. I bathed him and disinfected his cage. The next day I went to a pet store and they gave me mite/lice spray for birds. I used it on him, it did get rid of some of them, and he has mostly eggs coming off of him now. Some people have told me using the spray may not be a good idea?
I called around to all area vets, only one place treats rats, and they told me they had nothing to treat mites/lice in rats.
From what I read online, it seems like maybe the bugs are of the blood sucking variety and he is anemic from them? He has nothing else visibly wrong, and seems almost suprised when he can't make a normal jump. He is hating his cage for some reason too, I gave him lettuce inside his cage and he hardly touched it, I gave him it and some other stuff outside of his cage and he just sat there eating it until it was gone. Normally he would want to take the food to his cage.
Any ideas? Could he be weak because of this or is it likely something else? I'm going to use the spray again today(unless it is bad to use?) and get a new bag of bedding. I already got a new bag of food.
I called around to all area vets, only one place treats rats, and they told me they had nothing to treat mites/lice in rats.
From what I read online, it seems like maybe the bugs are of the blood sucking variety and he is anemic from them? He has nothing else visibly wrong, and seems almost suprised when he can't make a normal jump. He is hating his cage for some reason too, I gave him lettuce inside his cage and he hardly touched it, I gave him it and some other stuff outside of his cage and he just sat there eating it until it was gone. Normally he would want to take the food to his cage.
Any ideas? Could he be weak because of this or is it likely something else? I'm going to use the spray again today(unless it is bad to use?) and get a new bag of bedding. I already got a new bag of food.