Fur mites

How do you guys treat your rabbits and, what is the best natural way to disinfect there cages.

I prefer diatomaceous earth rubbed on the rabbit and sprinkled around the bedding. I've only actually suspected fur mites once though. Either the DE worked, or else whatever was wrong quickly resolved on it's own.

Ok we're do I get it and just use on the bedding and rabbit

AndrewJ":2mapfzaz said:

Ok we're do I get it and just use on the bedding and rabbit

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I found some at our local feed store. It is important that the DE (as it is called for short) is FOOD GRADE, and not the stuff they use for swimming pools. You can also find it online.

Ok and do I just put it on there necks or how do I put it on them

I just did this today too. I bought ivermection but it's not exactly what Homer posted, the box looks the same but the wording is different.....I pretty much just doused him in it, back, belly, butt and a little on the head

MaggieJ":aeng9mnq said:

AndrewJ":aeng9mnq said:

Ok we're do I get it and just use on the bedding and rabbit

Click to expand...

I found some at our local feed store. It is important that the DE (as it is called for short) is FOOD GRADE, and not the stuff they use for swimming pools. You can also find it online.

Click to expand...

I also found it at Tractor Supply the other day, I wasn't looking for it but it caught my eye and I made a mental note about it for the future. It was over in the goat/chicken area by the syringes.

Livestock feed grade or human food grade (the former is falling out of favor and less common outside of things only sold as insecticide treatments) around and in cages. It is nontoxic except not ideal to breathe so I've even put it in food mixes when I have those pantry moths try to take over. Some stick with that only and put it on the rabbit. Personally if I really confirmed mites instead of just thought maybe or was doing it preventatively for parasites I'd rather get some ivermectin and apply topically to anything I'm not butchering soon but it is not without risk. While usually animals besides cats and a few random ones are quite durable to ivermectin, even if not dosed accurately, much like in dogs there seem to be rabbit exceptions. Rare occasions of multiple deaths have occurred in specific groups of rabbits. Not that I haven't gone that route anyway but it's happened to some.

Akane, so you dont dust the actual bunnies with it? If you do, how do you do it? Just literally dust the surface or do you kinda massage it or finger brush it in? Really want to get this guys coat looking good, asap! And keep him healthy of course too Thanks!

I kill the mites around the animals before they can bite and to get rid of them thoroughly you have to treat or sterilize the surrounding area anyway. I don't put the DE on the animals except in some cases. If the avermectins (ivermectin, revolution, etc...) or advantage are not possible or the animals suffer too much blood loss and irritation from the bites before the critters die then I will rub DE in their fur. I had rat mites indoors and all it would take is one female reproducing and overnight a gerbil tank would fill with so many mites they could send the gerbils into shock and seizures. I actually only found one still alive and twitching. The rest dropped dead in 12hrs or less of being stuck in a glass box with all those newly hatched mites. I still didn't DE the gerbils directly though. I put a layer in the cage while changing bedding so the gerbils would come in contact with it in the bedding and the mites would not live in the bedding. For chickens I'll put it in their favorite dust bathing spots. Of course this doesn't really work with wire bottom cages since there is nothing to hold it where the animal will get into it on their own so it's less effective as a rabbit treatment in those situations. Beyond that I coated the floor, some in the food which also took care of those pantry moths like I said, and so on. That way hatching parasites that fall off or try to expand from one cage to the next all die and secondary hosts like pest rodents cannot carry them. Actually dusting the animal itself I consider a fairly weak long term solution. It can cut a parasite load immediately and like I said was useful when the mites were killing my gerbils faster than the ingested meds could kill the mties or it can be a good preventative if majority are not showing symptoms yet so you don't want to expose them to chemicals unnecessarily but you get a more thorough die off with repeated ivermectin or 1 dose of the meds that last a month long. You also don't have to worry about the animal and just keep the surroundings clean for an entire month with revolution. More expensive but drawing it out with a syringe 1 large dog tube treated everything I had including dozens of guinea pigs and gerbils. DE will fall off and ivermectin will only kill for a short time so you have to keep treating again for 3-4weeks to get every egg that hatches until they are gone.

My extra problem with rat mites that isn't as big of deal with fur mites is the secondary host. Fur and mites that fall under mange are often species specific but the 2 rat mite species and 1 mouse mite species are not. The pest mice will bring them back in or fail to get in the DE so it's never ending. I finally ended it in an odd way. There are predatory mites that will eat all other mites and many other small critters. They are often used as a nontoxic solution around reptiles and I'd just started keeping reptiles. I didn't buy predatory mites specifically but setting up naturalistic enclosures I used some yard soil. Turns out my soil is just jam packed with mite species. It's rather insane. I have grey, white, brown, black, red.... I could see them running around next to the glass. Happens some of those were predatory mites. They spread from the tanks through the house and eliminated the mites on EVERYTHING. No more mites can live in my house at all. I was even treating skin irritation and infections on the cats, a dog, and myself. I thought I had bed bugs, then I thought I had scabies, and then I found the rat mites just coating my arm after being around the small animals. Nasty buggers. Makes you glad to have fur mites for as durable as those guys can be.