Parasites on my rat

Question
I have had my rat for going on two and a half years. When I had adopted jables and his brother cage from the humane society they were already almost a year so they would be three and a half. I just lost cage to lung disease the vet said he had it from birth. Now his brother jables has little red parasites on him. He is losing his hair and is very stressed. We bathe him at least once a week but the bugs seem to be getting worse and I don't know what to do can anyone help me.

Answer
Hit it with a double whammy - go to your vet and have a skin scraping done to confirm it's parasites (which, if they're moving, definitely is, and I'd skip this step).

Have the vet prescribe, or go to your local tack store, and buy ivermectrin. (In the tack stores, it comes in a paste for horses). If you're dosing at home, give your rat the equivilant of a grain of rice and smear it on his teeth or a treat and make sure he eats it all.

Then bathe him in a combination of baby/puppy shampoo and tea-tree oil (or melaluca.. I like to hit it with both and use Melafix, which is an all-natural medication used for fish parasites). I like using a 1:4 ratio, Mela:Water, and if you're using shampoo, 1:1:2, mela:shampoo:water. Let him sit, sudsed up, for at least 3 minutes. This will kill the live bugs on him.

The ivermec will begin to work pretty much immediately, and you can redose every 2 weeks. If he's stressed, avoid bathing him again until you need to, and use the melafix mixture. Regular water won't kill the bugs... you have to smother them with a natural essential oil.


Good luck!