Pest question, not a louse or mite...so WHAT IS IT???

[Tootsie]

I have a roo at an animal hospital recovering from a broken leg, He has been there over a month and all of a sudden today they call and ask me to come treat him for lice and said they are all over the place. He had nothing going in.

I went and treated him but I know they were not lice. They were very tiny and I had never seen them before and the thing is he is in a stainless crate and right above his crate are a bunch of different dry food bags for dogs and cats. These tiny critters were crawling all over the stainless stell cages traveling about and that is why I think they are something else perhaps came from the feedbags. about the size of or a little bigger than ground pepper I think. If they were a louse or mite I think they would stay on the host.

Anyone know what this could be???

 

[CMV]

Mites are about that size and tend to linger in the environment more than on the host. He's at an animal hospital...why didn't they tell you what he has? They are the doctors. Regardless, sounds like mites. A little Sevin dust should clean up the problem. Just make sure his crate is also cleaned and disinfected, and re-dust him in a week.

Good luck.

 

[ladybug99]

I think I saw something on here a few months ago about a lady whos whole house got infested and she had no idea why and it was from some type of critter she found in an old feed bag in her garage....

 

[KellyHM]

Are they black? Stick tight fleas?

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Wait, they told YOU to come treat him? What kind of animal hospital is that? They should be able to identify what the bugs are and treat him themselves. They can look it up in a medical manual or online, even if they aren't experienced. I can do that myself.

I don't know if they're mites, but there are different types of mites. Some stay on the chicken all/most of the time, some only come out to feed on the chicken at night and hide in cracks or the litter during the day. Some mites eat only plant matter. They can be in stored grain, cool compost bins, worm composting bins or eating decaying plant matter on the ground.

Good luck sorting this out.

 

[Tootsie]

Well he was there since right around Halloween so I am thinking why all of a sudden and just so happens as I said that all the feed bags are above his crate, it is a lot of stainless steel animal cages there. Also other dogs and cats in them.

 

[midget_farms]

Quote:
I'm sorry to ask - & mean no disrespect - but since halloween? That has got to be crazy expensive! Roosters are free! Why not just get another?

& I would put my $$ on mites - they come out & night & hide / leave the host animal during the daytime (some do anyway). Expecially if they are red.

easy to treat though - I've used 7 dust & neem oil with great success.

That said - I wouldn't leave the guy at a place that didn't know what they were dealing with & certainly not one that wouldn't treat it. Don't they treat animals there for illness & parasites?

 

[Tootsie]

I got a very good price $125 for everything. They said if they treated him it I would be charged and I don't think they knew how and the doctor was away. Easier for me to do it but then they didn't want me to take him out of the crate so it took me a lot longer to do. They set his leg and then I found out they had to reset it and thus the delay, plus the tech who was tending to him left the place a month ago so that could have come in to play. I felt sorry for this guy and people know I am a sucker for these things so I took him to the hospital.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I hope he gets to come home soon.

 

[Tootsie]

Maybe tomorrow, and BTW they just sent me a bill for another $100, oh well.