Have no money to take my guinea pig to the vet

[luciatheresa]

Hello,
I am new on this site , so I hope I am doing this right? I have a 3 year old guinea pig, that my son brought home for my Granddaughter as a surprise, well it became my baby.
I am on disability and on a very tight budget, but I love her and did not want to take the chance of giving her to a "better home" that could afford vet bills.  I am able to buy her plenty of hay, green veggies , pellets, carrots, and bedding, Just what she needs to eat well and be happy, but after that I have nothing left, even for my self. Last year she developed a cold so I went out and bought her some vitamin C drops and made sure I administered them properly and with alot of prayer it worked on the cold. But now she has what seems to be mites, I have read up on this and I know it can be dangerous, and I see my poor baby itching and she is losing patches of fur. I have called EVERY VET in my area and they WILL NOT SEE HER WITHOUT PAYMENT.  I am stuck, is there anything I can do to treat this at home or at least make her comfortable until I can save for a few months to get her to a vet.
Thank you , and again I am new , so if I did something wrong let me know.

[Kayleigh]

If she has mites you dont need a vet. You need ivermectin, a spot on treatment available online and in petstores.

Are you sure its mites? Treating with ivermectin wont do any harm so i would do this.

Are there are rescue/breeders near by who would be willing to help even if its with advice?

Kayleigh

Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards

[popcornpiggy]

Hi do you have PDSA vet in your area ? They help people on benefits I believe.. you may have to pay a small amount, but it is worth checking

[luciatheresa]

Thank you I am not sure it is mites, but from EVERY THING I HAVE READ, (which is a whole lot) it seems just like mites. Thank You for your feedback, I have called EVERY vet in my area, and NONE of them are willing to work with me. I will look for the ivermectin online now. I also heard about bag balm does this help or is it a myth?
I could not find the Ivermectin online, DO YOU KNOW WHAT I CAN DO TO KEEP HER COMFY AND SOMEWHAT HAPPY JUST UNTIL I CAN PAY THE VET? I HOPE THERE IS SOMETHING.

[stscavies]

Ar you in the UK or USA? In USA you can get Ivermectin at any Tractor Supply Store for about $40.00 for a bottle which will treat many Guinea Pigs. We don't have Spot on here sadly, but I do know from Rodent mites on my many Syrian Hamsters that a spray bottle with 1 part Bleach to 9 parts water shaken well and sprayed in the cleaned out cage, and on all shelves, and floors will kill adult mites and in the cages it will kill soon to hatch eggs as well. You'll need to find out how the mites came in as well because even with treatments if the housing unit or bedding is infested your gonna be battling and on ward battle. For my 20 bins of Hamsters it took daily spraying of the bleach water and a full clean out of all bedding, as well as soaking the cages in strong bleach water in the bath tub every 3 days until they were gone. Not fun to do as each Hamster also had to be bathed in flea soap made for kittens every week too.
If your dealing with Demodex Mites then you'll have to get some Ivermectin and treat as directed cause they burrow under the skin. Rodent mites can be seen by the naked eye as tiny little gray to blood red specks moving about the cage and you when you handle your piggy. The other two types of mites can only be seen with a microscope.
Hope this helped you

[Naomi]

If you're in the UK you can get a spot on by beapher which I buy from Wilkinsons and has ivermectin in it, it has the dosage on in but generally 2pipettes per adult pig every 4weeks keeps trouble away. As the above post says though you need to thouroughly treat all cages and toys etc and I would certainly recommend regular treatment as a preventative measure as mites are definitely easier to prevent than cure. Good luck.