From:
Dawn M Pedchenko
Date: 2001-04-06 10:06:00 UTC
Subject: Question of Lice & Animals
Hello,
I'm not sure if anyone can help me. But maybe someone can point
me in the correct direction to find the answer.
I was wondering if human head lice can be transferred between our pets
and daughters?
Here's the situation:
Our household consists of 3 dogs (Am. Bulldog, Aust. Shep, Sib. Husky),
10 ferrets,
two daughters, 5 & 4 yrs old, my husband & myself. When my 5 year old
(Kaitlyn) started
kindergarden, she also began attending an after school program. She has
a friend there
who had head lice 4 times between October through February (1 more
confirmed
episode = exclusion from after school program for this child).
Unfortunately, I found
that Kaitlyn & ultimately Brianne as well had gotten the little critters
- on 3 of the
4 occassions. Each time, everyone in the household was treated, and all
the
usual procedures done (tons of wash, hairbrushes & all accessories
cleaned,
stuffed animals packed into trash bags for quarantine - in fact they are
still there).
Everything has been fine for about a month - then yesterday, I found
Brianne had them again
(5-6 adults, a couple teeny tiny & lots of eggs). So again we began the
cleaning spree.
Kaitlyn was absolutely clean. I had only 1 adult but Bri has been super
clingy being sick &
slept with me. Hubby on a business trip since Wednesday morning.
This past week - Kait had been sick - out of school on Monday. Bri was
sick Wed & Thurs
so she was out of her preschool. Kait only went to afterschool care on
Tuesday. I notified
the preschool and they did a check yesterday, and I don't believe
anything was found. But
Bri hadn't been there since Tuesday - a parent could have treated and
never contacted the
school (due to the stigma - most don't report it to either the schools or
the afterschool
program in my area).
Is there any way that the dogs and/or ferrets could have gotten the
little buggers during
one of the last episodes? I would think that if that was the case, then
we would have a
reoccurrence before now? Brianne is our Dr. Doolittle and is constantly
playing with the
dogs, holding & playing with the ferrets. Kait also plays with them -
just not 24/7 like
Brianne does. Also, one of our dogs is being treated for Demodecosis -
but those you need
a microscope to see - he's bathed almost weekly with sulfadex and dipped
monthly with midoban.
The other two dogs & the ferrets haven't been bathed in a few months.
Should I give all the animals baths this weekend with insecticidal
shampoo?
I'm at my wits end - seems I have gotten rid of the critters only to have
them show up
about 4+ weeks later. I never really see the bottom of my laundry pile.
Thanks for your help.
Dawn & Prov10
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.