Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...however, I don't know what thy are. I just spotted them a few minutes ago. They appear like elongated bugs. What should I do? Can this be cured without a vet's help? Or would the vet be cheap anyway? Thanks in advance!

By the way they do not seem to be affecting him at the time, but I know they eventually will. Please help Clubber!

I see them at the tips of the fur then scurry down under to the skin.... PLEASE HELP I THINK THEY ARE LICE I DONT WANT HIM TO DIE!

Yes you need a vet because the medication you need is sold only by prescription.
Revolution for puppies or kittens works better than ANYTHING I have ever seen on rat lice.
The reason it works is because it's absorbed into the subcutaneous layer of skin, doesn't go into the blood stream which makes it a bit safer than some of the older methods.
And it lasts for a full month so when the nits or eggs of the lice hatch they all die too & you're done with treatment.

There's been info published in veterninary journals that other topicals such as Frontline can cause death in rabbits & rodents so don't use something similar to Revolution just because you don't need a prescription.
Check with a vet sometimes they have samples of Revolution so maybe you wouldn't have to buy a whole box of 3 because you're not going to use the whole tube anyway.. you only need a tiny amount for a rat. Vets who treat rodents should have a suggested dose for you.
Get it done soon & the baby Clubber should be just fine. They are blood suckers so you do need to act pretty quickly.
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PHRatz

Well does my description even fit that of lice? They're small brownish things that seem to not look like mites, as they have long slender bodies ocmpared to the mites I've seen(dust mites, those little red mites). They were crawling on him when I spotted them and soon scurried down the fur to the skin.

yes it does fit the description of lice. The reason why is they are long bodied and you can easily see them. You can't see mites as easily .. at least not rat mites. Ear mites you can't see without a microscope. The way you described what you saw it really does sound like lice to me.
Even if it were mites the Revolution would kill mites too.
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PHRatz

Now according to a friend I could use something like a generic flea powder for a hamster/rodent/whatever is on the label to get rid of the lice. Is this true? I would appreciate a vet, but being a college student I don't have that much money to spend.

>>Now according to a friend I could use something like a generic flea powder for a hamster/rodent/whatever is on the label to get rid of the lice. Is this true? I would appreciate a vet, but being a college student I don't have that much money to spend.

I know it costs more money up front to see a vet but in the long run it doesn't.
Powder won't work, you'll be treating forever if the powder doesn't kill the rat first.
I think most of us who've had rats for a long time have been through this.. you can try this powder, spray, foam.. whatever that you find in a store and in the end it won't work.
By the time you've spent all that money on junk that doesn't work- you could've had the money to pay a vet.
The Revolution works with one treatment then you're done & you didn't have to put the rat through a lot of misery.
Ivermectin for horses is an old way to do this. I don't like it because #1 years ago before Revolution existed I tried ivermectin that I got from a vet. Guess what? It didn't work!
#2 I don't like it because it's more dangerous, I've seen a mouse & a dog drop dead from ivermectin- it's very toxic and there is no antidote.

Remember though.. if you do try something over the counter and it doesn't work you can't use something else right away because the combination of products can be dangerous.

Last year in my lab animal class I borrowed some ferrets from someone who had used a spot on treatment for fleas for them that he bought in a pet store.
This was a week later when I borrowed them.. they were covered in fleas but because he'd put the spot on treatment on them already.. we couldn't use flea shampoo on them but the students bathed them anyway & picked the fleas off by hand. :-x
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PHRatz

Well I just went out to the pet store hoping I could find SOMETHING as I wait. I found a professor who is apparently a qualified vet, so I emailed her and am awaiting a response.

Well I went to Petsmart and found the Mazuri blocks..so there's one thing down.

The other thing I got was RATS magazine..and as I was reading I came upon giving a rat a bath. Now I did see they recommended it for older rats but would it work with Clubber!?! Thanks in advance.

I never bathe my rats unless there is some reason it really needs to be done. It's worse for them to catch a chill while wet than to leave them unbathed.
If you keep the cage clean they don't need baths. Sometimes for parasites you can bathe them but like powders, sprays, foams it's a temporary solution because you have to keep doing it over & over & over.

Lucy or Rikki Ratcardo I don't recall which got loose one night then I heard her screaming under the dresser.. I'd forgotten I had a bug glue trap under there & she was stuck.
Vegetable oil is what gets the glue off so she had to have a bath to get the oil off.
Sometimes older males get a build up of greasy dander & they need a bath but in general they don't baths.
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PHRatz

At the very least it will give him temporary relief. And it will help if I still have to wait get the nice professor on campus to take a look at him. ust need baby shampoo or kitten shampoo and I'll be on my way. I'll keep you guys up to date on Clubber.

Get some olive oil and rub it into his skin VERY well. Leave it on him for 24 hours, then give him a bath with small animal shampoo, or puppy shampoo. I use Earthbath puppy shampoo. Repeat this in about a week. That suffocates the bugs and isn't poisonous to Clubber.
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Kadee Sedtal

home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), pretty girl Fancy (beagle), the rats-Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Pachebel, Fillmore, Norbert, and baby Franz, the mice- Vivaldi, Brahms, Schubert, Bartok, Rasputin, Johann, Chaminade, Dorothy, Glenda, Em, and baby Rosa, and the wonderful winter white dwarf hamster- Feather
"I wish I had a dollar for every time I spent a dollar, because then, yahoo! I'd have all my money back." -Jack Handey