Whiskers w/colored specks?

[LovinTheSmallAndFurry]

I noticed last night that my male chin has little red/brown spots on his whiskers...they're tiny spots. I have no idea where they could have come from; only things in his cage are pellets and hay (besides fleece and marble chillers). I've been feeding him Pet Pectillin, but that's white.

His sister doesn't have them on her.


Any thoughts???

 

[LovinTheSmallAndFurry]

Could it be.....

We just found out our rats have mites (our newly-adopted pet store rat gave them to our never-exposed-to-anything lab rat). We are treating them for it, changing bedding, etc. And the vet advised checking the chinchillas, and their bodies look fine; I see no sign of them. But the little spots on my chin's whiskers kind of look like the mites on my rats.....but the whiskers look more like there's something smeared on them.

How would I be able to distinguish?
:help:

 

[Laurie]

What color is your chin? I have beige chins with freckles and they also have freckles in their whiskers if that makes sense. I have never heard of mites in chinchillas. We have been told fleas cannot penetrate the fur of chinchillas but I'm not sure about mites. As I said though I have several chins with freckled or mottled whiskers because of their tendency to freckle due to their color.

 

[LovinTheSmallAndFurry]

He is a mosaic. I've just noticed them in the past two days, so I think whatever it is has appeared lately. I'll see if I can get a pic up later on today.

 

[Spoof]

How would I be able to distinguish?

Take your fingers and rub it down the length of the whisker. If they come off, they're mites.

I helped some people with a mite infestation in their chins/rats years ago. They spread to the whole house and were causing sores on the cats and people too. They weren't bothering adult chins, but they were definitely on the one baby they had.

There was an over-the-counter bug spray that we discovered that had a chemical in it that would kill the mites. They pulled everything living out of the house and sprayed the heck out of everything. Left it for 12 hours, opened the windows up, let it vent and moved back in. Never had a problem after that.

Good luck!

 

[LovinTheSmallAndFurry]

Take your fingers and rub it down the length of the whisker. If they come off, they're mites.

I helped some people with a mite infestation in their chins/rats years ago. They spread to the whole house and were causing sores on the cats and people too. They weren't bothering adult chins, but they were definitely on the one baby they had.

There was an over-the-counter bug spray that we discovered that had a chemical in it that would kill the mites. They pulled everything living out of the house and sprayed the heck out of everything. Left it for 12 hours, opened the windows up, let it vent and moved back in. Never had a problem after that.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info.
I tried that, it won't come off. I'm thinking it's not mites because whatever it is seems evenly (though not in the same places) distributed on both sets of whiskers. :hair: I shall get a pic up!!!

 

[LovinTheSmallAndFurry]

Sorry the quality's not good....my camera's dead and I used my bf's IPhone.