[Gpdd] [Health] Emergency! Tea Tree Oil Ingestion and basil and cilantro and salt wheels

[Penny Charlesworth]

Hello Sasha,

I am simply appalled at your friend's vet for suggesting combing out a 
piggy's coat with bleach. I am quite prepared to be shot down in flames by 
other gpdd members who say that they do this all the time but a guinea's 
skin is so sensitive! The vet should have prescribed an anti-pesticidal 
shampoo for the lice. I don't know where you are, but in England we can use 
Seleen or my favourite Vet-Sect. I would suggest that your friend seeks out 
another vet asap.

As for the tea tree oil, I have used tea tree cream as an antiseptic on 
minor wounds but not where the piggy could lick it. It says " for external 
use only" on the jar but does not say what to do if it is eaten. I can only 
suggest that you take a look at Peter Gurney's website-www.petergurney.com 
and click on his A-Z of guinea pigs. Look at the section on Poisoning. I 
hope that it is not too late for your friends piggy. Obviously time is of 
the essence here.

Maybe someone else has experience of this and can be of further help.

Keeping our paws crossed.


To Lisa,

I had to google cilantro to find out what it is!! In England we call it 
coriander and some of my piggies enjoy it whilst others just walk on it and 
shout "where's the food?" Same goes for basil ( which we do call by the same 
name but probably pronounce it differently ).

I have never used salt licks or mineral wheels. I don't believe that piggies 
need either and I would imagine that if a piggy got a liking for salt it 
might take too much. We are constantly being told in our newspapers that we 
shouldn't be eating much salt so perhaps the same goes for our piggies.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sasha Yates" <raya07 at mac.com>
To: <Gpdd at gpdd.org>
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 3:43 AM
Subject: [Gpdd] [Health] Emergency! Tea Tree Oil Ingestion


> Hi GPDD, I rarely post but my friend just got a guinea pig and she's a new
> owner.  The guinea pig she got had lice and so she took it to the vet but
> the vet just told her to comb out the lice with a comb dipped in bleach.
> Since that didn't work, she tried rubbing tea tree oil on the guinea pig 
> and
> the piggie started licking her hair.  My friend has been giving the guinea
> pig tea tree oil for 5 days now and she seems like she's in a lot of pain.
> Is tea tree oil bad?  What's a good way to get rid of piggie lice?
>
> Thank you so much,
>
> Sasha
>
>
>
>