Help Lice!

OK feeling a bit hysterical here as Monty now seems to be infested with lice, at least I think they're lice, they look like reddish ticks only really tiny with legs out to the side, I only noticed because I thought I was covered in little bits of dirt and then they started biting. Please tell me I can't catch them whatever they are

He's on his own without Theo so it odesn't take a genius to work out he's stressed but I feel overwhelmed. If he lives through the stress I obviously want to get him a friend or two asap, as I really don't want to rehome, and I have some ivermectin.

Basically do people think lice or mites? Do I have to treat all the rats? Do I have to treat the cats/ myself? Does anyone need to rehome an older boy?

Thanks

Mites. Ivermectin. Don't worry about the others unless you see signs. If you see lice on *any* of them - then treat them all. You don't need to worry about the cats as they are species specific. Not sure how they came in, perhaps on bedding (bought any carefresh lately?)

Do you want me to lend you some lads? I can't for the life of me think who though :/ Maybe Forz and Switch if Ky doesn't mind? I'm not using them for breeding now - so that's a possibility... Will talk to Karl if you'd like that?

xx

No carefresh but I think you said Bertie showed signs when we first got in so maybe there's been a low level infestation since. Thanks again for the offer of a loan of the boys.

i thought lice where the red ones and mites can't be seen & it's mites that come in carefresh, not lice and rats always have mites but sometimes there is a flare up ie. with carefresh?

Lice are the red ones, and you can't see mites, and it's lice that have come in carefresh - mites are always there and flare up if the rat is stressed

xx

wait, these are red and I can see them. Does that mean they are lice? they're not easy to see though and look more like mites.

Bah - noticed my initial typo (was reeling from hearing about Theo ) - I did mean Lice in my first reply to this thread. You can't see mites at all, they're microscopic. If you can see them, they're lice!

xx

sorry about my confusion, hope i didn't confuse everyone!