hamsters and bedbugs

[LilMochi]

so we have found out we have bed bugs wich is horable and my female hamster has them she had some once before in her cage and i just cleaned it out really well threw away everthing that i could not boil to clean like the diy toys and gave her new bedding she has been doing fine for a while and then i notice she lost hair in a spot and had a scab there i put coconut oil on it till it healed but i can feel other scabs on her and so i changed her bedding out again but i noticed tiny baby ones are still getting off of her i know its not mites and my new male hamster i got last month dose not have any in his bin cage im not even sure how they got in my girls bin because they cant climb smooth things any idea on what i could do or if i should give her a bath with warm water to get any off of her that could still be on her right now she only had her wheel and food bowl a ceramic hide and tissu on the bottom of her bin insted of bedding my biggest worry is she is looseing fur in the spots she is getting scabs i imagin the scabs she is only getting because it itches were they bite her so she is scratching i took her sand bath when i started to dr her scab wich took about a week we are trying to get rid of these things when we spray my room were they are i bring them to the liveing room so they dont breath any of the spray for a few hours

[Pixel Hamstery]

Hi,

There's certainly a current a UK-wide bed-bug outbreak of cimex lectularius. However, these insects much prefer human hosts to other animals. They aren't very well equipped to trawl through fur. Kind of like how fleas are instead flattened from side to side, which instead actually helps in moving through fur.

If the offenders are large enough to collect, you could take a sample to your vet. They would be able to run tests to look at what kind of critter you are dealing with. Once you know this, you can use the most appropriate remedy to try and get rid of them.

In the interim, you can try a 'deep quarantine', reserved for the most tenacious of pests. Treat the Hamster with a broad-spectrum treatment like ivermectin. Freeze their food, freeze their bedding, and omit any cage accessories. Provide two water bottles and a weeks’ worth of food. Leave the cage somewhere isolated, and don't handle. This should allow your Ham some respite while you deal with the source of the problem. Most parasites are tough creatures, able to withstand warm and cold. A mere wash would be unlikely to help, and may even worsen the situation by stressing your Ham, or compromising their skin integrity.

However, ivermectin won't prove effective against all offenders, and it would be far better to specifically identify which parasite was at fault.