Itchy mouse: Revolution; possible allergies

Question
QUESTION: My mouse pepper still has mites, im abit worried because hes still scratching alot. I changed from spraying him every three days to spraying him everyday. Its painful for him but i cant risk leaving him with mites for such a long period. Hopefully spraying him everyday will break the mite reproduction cycle :(
When pepper recovers, should i use revolution, the drops that you put behind the neck? Because i have a pet dog aswell and im wandering if i can just use one drop of my dogs treatment every month to stop mites from reappearing again?

ANSWER: HOLY COW please STOP treating him! You're going to kill him!

Give me a chance to wake up and find your old question/s and answer your question (I work nights) but I just want to save him from his treatment today. I will write back later today.

You will get an email saying I have updated my answer.

Give him lots of kisses, poor boy, he has been going through a terrible time.

Squeaks,

Natasha

- I can't find your question, did you use another name? How long ago was it? Use a followup question to answer this.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sorry but my phrasing might have been misunderstood. I havent started treating him everyday >_<
I treated him yesterday, when i wanted to treat him today, i thought i might needed some advice so i didnt treat him, so technically i only treated him once, and once three days before...
Im sorry for my bad phrasing, i was just panicking and worried because hes been affected for so long.

ANSWER: Dear Rachel (I didn't match the name Ray to Rachel before),

First, can Pepper go to the vet? When the spray-- and especially the rodent spray-- doesn't work, that's really the best thing to do. There are other, less common, causes for itching and scabs besides mites-- such as ringworm or allergies. This is really the best thing for him, especially since he is suffering from the mite spray.

If you can't get him to the vet, I suggest you do two things. First, treat with one very small drop of Revolution. That stuff is powerful, so I'm talking very small. About 0.01 ml if you have a tiny syringe.  You rub it throughly into his skin at the back of his neck. It kills mites which bite him, so it has to get into his blood through his skin. It doesn't help on the fur.  Maybe rubbing it in with a *blunt* toothpick would be easiest.  His immune system is waaay down right now so you have to be careful not to overdose.

Although it may take a few days - longer than with the spray - for him to be less itchy (he may even get more itchy because the mites are going through death throes ; )  ), IF the problem is mites this should do the trick. I'm guessing it should be quite a lot better within 5 days, though I only have a little bit of experience with it. I just know I was thinking it didn't work for my guys because it didn't alleviate the itching right away, but now they are mite-free.

Depending on how much you think he is suffering, you may want to treat for allergies at the same time. This can be rather extreme, but read the following post where I also dealt with the question of mites or allergies for an itchy mouse:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mice-3824/2010/6/Itchy-Mouse-1.htm

I'm getting into guessing territory here, but if these two remedies don't make a big difference within 6 days he has to go to the vet.

Best of luck. Keep me posted. Try not to change your name again ; ))

Give Pepper a kiss for me.

squeaks,

Natasha

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello, yesterday when i was keeping an eye out for peppers scratching, her scratching has significantly dropped, it used to be scratching nonstop but yesterday it was maybe like a scratch every hour or so, which made me think the spray two days ago was starting to kick in but Ive also realised pepper seems to be itching her scabs/wounds rather than scratching elsewhere, is there anything to do to ease itchiness of her wounds, so she won't reopen the scabs? She also tends to only scratch near her ears and in her ears.and hes cleaning himself more than usual, especially near his bottom. So im not sure if its still mites or shes cleaning herself too much :s (she also get really irritated when i touch his thighs)
And also i started going to my pet store and warehouses to find the revolution product, but they all seem to stock in stuff like advantage, advocate, purina total care and exelpet. Do you have any good trusted websites where i can order them online? I am also lookint for a vet closeby with experience with mice... Not much luck yet

Answer
Dear Rachel,

Good. When I talked to Tamarah (the other expert) about your situation she did say the one thing she would have done differently was to have you wait an extra two days to see what happened. I had mulled that over and decided taking action now couldn't hurt, since you were so worried.  Also she didn't know you can use Revolution on mice (I have had it prescribed by a very good rodent vet, so I am sure); but anyway waiting a few days was a good thing.

So don't do anything for the moment. I can't give you something specifically for itching, but if you cut open a capsule of vitamin E and mix the oil with 1/2 vegetable oil to make it usable, you can rub a little bit on the area to help it to heal faster. It may stop the itching as well. She will eat it but it is edible.

You still do have to retreat everything in NOT LESS THAN 7 days. You have to give the eggs a chance to hatch; treating earlier will not take care of that problem. The instructions are 7-10 days, so don't cut it short and do six.  It won't help and it will hurt, because more eggs will hatch the next day. Don't forget to do absolutely everything in the cage, best with boiling water, and including freezing everything for 48 hours that you can't wash.

You seem uncertain about Pepper's sex. Here is a link to help you out with this. The reason this is important is that girl mice should not live alone. If Pepper is female, once the problem is solved she needs one or (better) two friends. This will also help prevent recurrence of the mite problem-- she will be happier so her immune system will be stronger; and someone will be helping her to clean the mites out of her fur. I always recommend three mice so that when one dies, the other one isn't not only sad, but also lonely and more prone to mites.

http://www.thefunmouse.com/info/sexing.cfm

I was a little uncertain about your sex too, when you were Rachel at first, and later I didn't know Ray was the same person : )) but I don't think this link would have helped me with that!

Best of luck to Pepper. Keep me posted.

squeaks,

Natasha