Olive Oil method for Mites (now with PICTURES)

Advertise with us
Shop with us on Ebay
Fins us on Amazon
The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
R

realisedsin

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2010
Messages
47
Location
Brampton
I cant find the original post for this, but it's working! On friday I noticed some scabs on Spector, and inspected further to see that under his fur there were tons of them! His brother had them too, but to a lesser degree. On sunday night after reading this method in the forums, I coated them completely in Olive Oil (I also did every other rat I have, just in case). It didnt seem to bother them too much, and they thought it was delicious, licking themselves, each other, and my hands more than ever before, tho they looked like a 13 year old first learning to use hairgel . . .
24 hours later I gave them all a quick scrub with baby shampoo, and a thorough rinse. Tonight I checked Spector and Phantom, they are practically free of scabs! Not only did the olive oil help heal the cuts, it seems to have taken away all their itchiness! They each have one or 2 scabs left by their eyes (which I avoided the first time, but will try to carefully get with the second treatment), but are otherwise perfectly fine!
They suggested 2 more treatments, 7 days apart, so I'll update when I know for sure, but this all seems very encouraging!
 
Lol, I shall take up the position with joy! I have a hatred for chemicals, and the more things I can treat with only visits to wholefoods, the better.
 
Maybe I'll try this for ron. He's itchy, and my vet tested him for mites, and it was negitive...he doesn't have scabs or anything, but he scratches a lot...
If I do it, i'll post pics for sure :)
 
Interesting.
I had always heard that the use of olive oil gave temporary relief from buggies until the rats could be treated.
It will be interesting to hear how it goes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
handmeafish said:
Maybe I'll try this for ron. He's itchy, and my vet tested him for mites, and it was negitive...he doesn't have scabs or anything, but he scratches a lot...
If I do it, i'll post pics for sure :)
Click to expand...

Testing for mites gives false results and is painful.
That is why it is recommended that it not be done.
 
Yeah, you have to get REALLY lucky for a mite test to come back positive, and it can remove skin from an already damaged area on your rat.

Next time you treat with oil, can you get someone to take pics? We wanna see hilariously oiled ratties!
 
I didn't know that testing was pointless. That kind of makes me angry... because it did at least seem uncomfortable, Ron was unhappy about it, and they charged me 20$ to do it.
I don't think he has mites though, because i've been doing intro's with the babies and they aren't itchy like he is. I think he's just got dry skin/maybe allergies.
 
When rats are itchy, many of us treat with revolution.
That usually solves the problem.

Mites often have a greater impact on some rats then others due to their health conditions.
 
It's true - almost all mites can live asymptotically. Your rat can have them their WHOLE life, and never show symptoms/itch/scab over, and then their immune system gets weak from something(or their cagemates get sick from something) and you have one mysteriously infested rat in the middle of a big healthy group. Treat em all, save trouble. =) Thankfully our vet doesn't charge us to scrape skin cells and look at them in a microscope. She even let us look at the buggies in the scope ourselves!
 
I can't get revo with out a vet prescription... and it appears my vet is dumb.
She is also the only vet in the area even remotely comfortable treating rats.
for anything big I'm going to have to drive 3 hours to the smart rat vet.
 
I was supposed to take my boys into the vet earlier last week so they could get there second dose of ivo. However, after reading this and some other reports of the Holstirat Group. I decided, well, lets see if this works and save money, if not, whatever. So I doused them in Olive oil, and lo and behold, no they have stopped itching, as much as they were. I'm pretty impressed. Hopefully the less itching will keep up.
 
Some pics of some of the boys after the second treatment!
Phantom stole the lid to the olive oil, after he was done

Lovecraft was only annoyed because I seperated him from his precious corn


Specter, however, was annoyed this time. He says this look doesnt suit him




As for the effectiveness, Phantom has no scabs, and the others are all still bug free. Specter has a few left by his head, and on one shoulder. I would say maybe a fifth of what he had last week.
 
Godmother said:
:thumbup: Great news! Love the photos. Poor Spector does not look amused!
Click to expand...
Nope. Decidedly unamused. Took him like 2 hours to want to cuddle again. Or maybe his revenge was making me cuddle a greasy rat.
 
I've done the olive oil deal until I could get into the vet, it's pretty effective. My boys were a heck of alot more PO'd than your rats though. lol
 

Latest posts

Back
Top