Well, we're less itchy here at the Keil household now. The cat was doing
just fine after his shot, and changin our own bedding and a good vaccuming
helped. The source for all this nonsense was Miranda, our new gerbil, whom
we got from a once fairly good pet store (I have since come to realise each
of the fabled Andersons in our area is managed sperately, one takes very
good care of it's critters, the other gave me mites. Grrr.)
Anyway, I got some LM Flea, Tick, Mite & Lice Spray for Small Animals from
the petshop down the road. There were 3-4 sprays there, but LM was the only
one that claimed to kill Mites, despite all being exactly the same formula.
Sigh. It works by spraying the hapless gerbil all over, excepting the face
and eyes, and letting them dry while you clean out the cage, spraying it
with the same stuff. I did this to all my cages (3) while I boiled all the
stuff in those cages that was going back. That done, they get quarenteened
for a couple weeks, until the cat gets his second shot and I stop itching.
Then they get another mite bath. Best to err on the side of caution, I
always say.
As far as using the formula goes, here's some tips for others: Gerbils
wiggle a lot. You already know this. If yours are fairly tame, you might
not have a real problem. Prachett and Jordan took well to this, actually.
It's easy to avoid the face if they aren't moving a whole lot. Otherwise,
for Faustus (who has always been a jumper) I held him by the base of the
tail and the head (cupping it to cover it) while Kelly gave him a couple
good squirts, which is all he would
stand for before wiggling out. You can work it in with your fingers, so
you needed spray the whole gerbil, just get it wet enough you can rub it
about. Again, Prachett seemed to enjoy this. The belly was trickier, since
few gerbils will tolerate being rolled over, and my early solution of
dangling them by the base of the tail and squirting them was both
unsatisfactory and terrifying to the gerbils. So, I suggest squirting some
in your hand, and then putting the gerbil in that hand. He'll get wet on
the bottom, and you can rub it around. They all seemed to like this, BTW.
Once the gerbil is good and soaked, and it's all worked in, then you can
move on to the next one.
I'll let you know if it works, although when I watch them, they don't seem
to be scratching much at all. That's a good sign, I suppose.
Chris Keil, GML Poet Laureate
