Seven Dust Follow-up Question

Question
Hi Janell,

Saw your wonderful post in December about using Seven Dust to treat mites, lice, etc on rats. Just got back from a Pet store where they recommended the same thing. One question though...any idea if this will be harmful to rats with mycro?

I don't want to cause any severe flare-ups but I need to kill these bugs and the vet is not being helpful in this area. She keeps trying to charge me an arm and a leg to treat my four elderly boys.

I have them on doxclyclin(sp?)for the myrco but still have the red mites issue and I now believe lice issue.

Thank you!

I appreciate any advice.

Answer
I recommend using sevin-dust only after you've (or if you can't afford to treat with) treated them with ivermectrin (which you can get at any horse supply/tack store, it's a wormer). You treat your rat with the equivalent of a grain of rice, once every two weeks (or once a week for really severe infestations), and usually after two doses you see a dramatic difference.. simultaneously to really stamp out any buggies you can use Sevin, which provided you don't fluff it all over the place and really stir up their bedding is usually okay for even myco rats. It's not recommend by most experts to use any kind of spray or dust on rats in general, but in my way of thinking, either they're going to be at danger staying covered in mites or they're going to be in danger of having a respiratory flareup.. if you can use Sevin one time and get them feeling better, it can be done safely enough to eliminate a lot of the worries and fears.

I find the easiest way to use sevin is to clean the cage throughly (while the rat is removed), and lay sevin down under their bedding, keeping clear of their food and water. Some people opt to put it directly on the rat, and they take small pinches of the dust and gently rub it into the rat's coat. As long as you're careful, you can eliminate a lot of the flying dust.

Good luck!