Rat mites

Why not? It's available OTC but only vets sell it(sometimes Petsmart/Petco does too). I can walk into any vet and buy Frontline/Revolution, etc without them needing to see the animal. Now, they DO need to see the animal to sell you heartworm preventative, so they can test them for pre-existing heartworm infestation. If they don't test, and the dog has a massive load of heartworms, the huge amount of worms dying could cause an embolism. But anyway! So no, vets don't require that the animal be present when you're buying flea/tick products.

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Originally Posted by jglass38

Look at the big brain on Charlie! Thanks bud. I am going to order one of these now just to have. I have some flies in the rat room since the AC unit isn't sealed particularly well. Also that little mite problem.

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Don't forget that it will also kill feeder crickets.....(think uro, crestie...)

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Originally Posted by monk90222

Don't forget that it will also kill feeder crickets.....(think uro, crestie...)

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I don't mess with feeder insects much. Uro gets vegetables and fruit and the Crestie gets CGD.

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

Why not? It's available OTC but only vets sell it(sometimes Petsmart/Petco does too). I can walk into any vet and buy Frontline/Revolution, etc without them needing to see the animal. Now, they DO need to see the animal to sell you heartworm preventative, so they can test them for pre-existing heartworm infestation. If they don't test, and the dog has a massive load of heartworms, the huge amount of worms dying could cause an embolism. But anyway! So no, vets don't require that the animal be present when you're buying flea/tick products.

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Erm...Revolution is a heartworm prevention. Maybe you're thinking of Advantage?

Anyway...I like and trust Frontline. My friend who is a herp keeper at the Tulsa Zoo says they've been using it for years on all their reptiles on a regular six month cycle with no issues. She's a big fan of it. I also used it to treat mites on a snake I bought. Awesome stuff. :-)

*smacks herself upside the head* Duh... I totally forgot that is was a heartworm preventative. I don't use it as such, and wouldn't have to worry about getting a dog/cat tested before buying it. I just tell them it's for my rats and it's no biggie :)

Revolution is also for heartworm. Perhaps that is why not. I read the Revolution website, it's not available OTC.

CAUTION
US Federal law restricts this drug to use by or on the order of a licensed veterinarian.

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Originally Posted by jglass38

So last night I found that one of my rats (a male that hasn't been too healthy ) had rat mites all over him. Since its a closed colony the only place it could have come from is the bedding I bought last. I sprayed him with Reptile Relief which has been tested and is safe for rodents. Today I have to change all the bedding as I saw a few here and there on a couple other rats. I wrote to Bob Pound at Pro Products (the makers of Provent A Mite) to ask whether PAM could be used for rat mites. His response indicates that even though PAM is not approved for use with rodents and recommending it would be against the law, that it has been tested and does work without complications for the rodent or the animal that ends up consuming it. Here is his response:

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I don't mean to dispute the information you got but I did have a bad experience using PAM on mice a while back. I applied PAM to the bedding and to the best of my judgment gave it ample time to dry. If I remember correctly within 24hrs I had dead and dieing mice. I changed the bedding and washed out the bin as soon as I noticed and *most* of the sick mice recovered for me well and where still used in successful breeding. I posted about it when it happened if you want to try and find the discussion. Again I admit I could have done something wrong but I will never put chemicals within direct access to my rodents again it was not pretty :(

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Originally Posted by TekWarren

I don't mean to dispute the information you got but I did have a bad experience using PAM on mice a while back. I applied PAM to the bedding and to the best of my judgment gave it ample time to dry. If I remember correctly within 24hrs I had dead and dieing mice. I changed the bedding and washed out the bin as soon as I noticed and *most* of the sick mice recovered for me well and where still used in successful breeding. I posted about it when it happened if you want to try and find the discussion. Again I admit I could have done something wrong but I will never put chemicals within direct access to my rodents again it was not pretty :(

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I think a mistake that people use with PAM is spraying too much. A couple short bursts and you are done. The bedding (or whatever substrate if you are using it with reptiles) should never feel wet and should dry within seconds to minutes. Now I am not saying you made a mistake. Could have been a freak occurence although the extensive testing done by Pro Products should have assured that it wouldn't happen. As of this morning all the rats and even the pinks are still fine. I'll check them later today.

I just wanted to add to the topic of Frontline and Revolution. When we had our problem I took 1 of our rats to the vet to make sure I was right about what I was looking at. I told them that the best thing I could find on the pet forums was the revolution for cats. So they gave me some and told me to put 1 drop on each of the adults. When we were there they put some on the one I brought up there and the next day no lice or eggs were on the rat. So it worked great but then I started checking and the revolution actually gets into the blood stream where the frontline only gets into the oils of the skin. So the frontline fads away faster when the animals clean themselves and revolution does not. So we started to worry about feeding the offspring to the snakes and decided not to feed them until 1 month later.

Now we only treated that one rat and decided not to do anymore. Keep in mind that at the time we probably had about 60 breeders( 2 racks out of 4) with lice and not to mention all the babies. So then we talked to someone else about the problem and they told us to us the No Pest Strips(this is not the sticky strips) that you can get at Home Depot. We went and bought those and put 1 of them in our room and no more lice. And we have not had any since then as I keep a strip in my room all the time now.

Well I just called the closest vet, they have Revolution, and they absolutely refused to sell it to me even after I told them it was for rats and not dogs or cats.

Vets are a**holes. They don't care about the animals, all they care about is getting their money for the visit.

As for the frontline and advantage, do they actually work on mites or just fleas and lice? Revolution is advertised for mites and the other 2 are not. I actually have frontline on order, ordered before I heard about revolution, and that might get here today so I'm wondering if I should use that on the really bad males right away. But if I use that then I probably can't use the revolution for a month once it comes in.