An update from my last post, re Rio's Lice.
This has been the worst nightmare ever - I took her to the Vet weeks ago as she was scratching, she said she had a "bit of dandruff" and to Frontline her just in case.
I have been in hospital having a hip replacement - Rio was groomed every day before then with a Slicker Brush. I couldn't get her on the grooming table for about 10 days after I got home, and in that time I had ordered and received a Spratts Cocker comb. It wasn't until I pulled it through her ears that I found these damn lice. They look like tiny little scabs - you can hardly see them move.
Took her straight back to the Vet, who said Stronghold, the only other treatment being an injection made for cattle, and could kill Rio it was so toxic, or a dip which is dangerous for the dog and if I got it on my skin would cause diabetes. She told me Frontline does not kill lice, (so even though she had been treated with it each month - it was a waste of time). No improvement with the lice over the next three weeks, I was dragging them out daily, got so fed up that I shaved a load of hair off her ears and down her neck (they live around the ear area for some reason). The hair still had far too many of them in it, plus eggs.
I thought "this Stronghold is not working" but treated her again after 3 weeks - which was last Wednesday 17th May. Friday comes and I am still dragging these things out - it was just awful for poor little Rio, and not nice for me either. All grooming equipment washed, disinfected, same with table, all the floor and her bedding washed. My clothes washed straight away and I'm showered too.
This was every day......
I telephoned my Vet again that day, told her the situation and she advised me to let Rio have the injection (for cattle) saying now that it was "not a very nice injection and a little dangerous" bit different from her last statement I think. She had telephoned the drug companies and there was nothing else to treat lice.
I totally refused the injection - and telephoned the Pharmacist, who knows me well due to all the pain killers I had before the hip!! Told him the problem - he said to try Lyclear, which is for head lice in humans, adding that at the end of the day, they were lice after all and to give it a go.
Saturday morning I did, and low and behold, the lice are now very dead, and so are the eggs. Thank goodness, and what a relief for both me and Rio.
I phoned my Vet - she didn't want to know, saying that she could not recommend anything that was not licenced for dogs - so she would rather give her the toxic injection than quietly tell me to go to the Chemist? I am changing my Vet!!
The Stronghold now seems to have kicked in, and the stray ones in her coat are dead also. These lice are very rare apparently, but they are out there, Rio got them from somewhere - if someone as diligent as me can miss them (so did the Vet, I'm sure the "dandruff" was eggs) then how many dogs have them and the owners don't know. It doesn't bare thinking about.
Its been a nightmare all round - so be aware of lice!! Check your dogs ears with a very fine comb.
