Hamster Spray, is it safe?

[veggiegirl]

I posted a thread last week about my new dwarf hamster and how she's been scratching a lot. I haven't taken her to the vet yet because she seemed to be getting better. Now I'm seeing her doing it again so I went to Petsmart (where I bought her from last week) to see if they knew anything about it or if they would pay for a visit to the vet that they have there (yeah right) Well they gave me a spray for no charge but I'm very wary of using it. For one thing, its not just for hamsters. Its for rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, mice, ect. Rabbits are a lot larger than dwarf hamsters! It also says that its flea and tick spray, not mite spray.

The manager told me to spray it on her and avoid her eyes and nose. Hmm, ok what happens when she washes herself? It says "warning harmful if swallowed" right on the bottle.

A lot of the dwarf hamsters at Petsmart were scratching. I brought that up to the manager but she just got defensive.

I know that there are some people on here that work at vet clinics, so I was wondering if you have any advice about this. Here are the active ingredients:

Pyrethrins 0.06%
Piperonyl Butoxide .60%

Oh, and its called Ultra Care Flea and Tick Spray for Small Animals
by 8in1. I'll probably give my vet a call too and see what she says, although she doesn't like to diagnose over the phone.

[veggiegirl]

Well it looks like no one knew the answer to that question, but thats ok. I ended up getting something else called Wipe Away by Zodiac. Its basically the same thing but in a wipe instead of a spray. I used it on her tonight and she's not happy. She's running around and scratching like crazy. I don't know if she's upset because she's wet or if the stuff is making her feel weird. Ugh, I hate pesticides! This stuff says its safe for hamsters and then has all these warnings on it. If Petsmart took better care of their animals then I wouldn't be going through this. I went there today and all their hamsters were scratching. They just leave them like that and people buy them. I feel sorry for the hamsters that are bought by people who don't notice those kinds of things.

Hopefully this stuff will work and help my little hammy. I just hope it doesn't make her sick. I only used it because I had to. I liked this stuff better than the spray because it said that you don't have to wear gloves when applying it. Hopefully that means its safer.

[yamazumi]

Take alot at hamsterific.com, someone suggested a anti-mite thing of
1 pint room temp water
1 tbsp witchhazel
1 tbsp listerine
accordingly its all natural, and safe

[Chinchilla_Girl]

Sorry, I really know nothing of hamsters...have you actually seen fleas on her? If not, I would bypass the flea products...it could be a skin allergy though...I would talk to the vet

[veggiegirl]

Thanks. I posted that a long time ago, and I never ended up using the spray. I used these wipes made for hamsters instead. It seemed to help but she still scratches sometimes so I'll probably use another another wipe (the pack came with three). They are a lot easier to use than a spray too. I've been back to Petsmart since and every single hamster was scratching like crazy, which leads me to believe that they all have mites.