Okay, so after I had gone through my crazy vet day with Mac and Manco, the vet had mentioned how Mac's skin (the dirty yellow-ness) could be a sign of mites.  Any truth to this statement?  Any help appreciated.

*Will try to get a picture*

Would buck grease be something that shows up on all of them? (They're all male).  Because all of them have that dirty yellow color.  I've looked through all the information on mites and I didn't find anything about a yellow dirty color.

It could be just normal buck grease, or if it's an increase in buckgrease, it could be from stress.  But it could be from mites, too--my boys seem to step up production of the stuff when they have mites.  So, the answer is maybe? hehe

Buck grease is an orangey-yellow substance usually seen along the spine and hip areas in boys.  All boys make it.  Usually it's not really noticable, but if it starts to be obvious or more noticable than usual, I try to figure out why.

Wouldn't hurt to treat with kitty Revolution, just in case, especially if they seem to be scratching more lately.  The olive oil works great for conditioning their skin and coat, like Pie said.

Robin

Sick rats and mite flare-up often go hand in hand because the rats' weakened immune system gives mites a stronghold.  I would treat them.  Probably not do a full submersion bathing, but a warm wet washcloth would probably be ok, unless that would freak them out, then I'd just let it go. 

Robin

Whenever my intact boys were getting greasy, I'd wet them down, rub olive oil into their skin really well, wash them with Dawn dishsoap, and then wash them again with some sort of puppy/kitten shampoo.  They would always come out with gleaming white skin and glossy fur 

I have never used it personally but I do know that Ivermectin is a paste that is an oral medication, there will be no "grooming off" 

Ahh there is a topical version buy there the one most commonly used is the paste...sorry. 

Okay, so the one on the link I posted is the topical paste? And I can use it orally?  ... Still the size of a uncooked piece of rice? I've never used this stuff before, so any suggestions will help a lot! Thanks

The paste is oral.  The liquid (eg. Ivomec) is an injectible liquid, that you can give orally (per my vet, w hich I have used).  I've never used the paste, but I know you have to squirt all the paste out and mix it up til your arm falls off to make sure it's consistent.  Then use an uncooked grain of rice as your comparison for the dose.

I think Ivermectin is a pain in the rear because you have to do it 3 times, clean everything around the rats like mad.

Bleh, too much work for me! hehe  I much prefer Revolution.  One dose and that's it.  Finito.

Robin

This is from guinealynx.com but it will give you a good idea
http://www.guinealynx.com/topical_ivermectin.html

I did a forum search and found this.  Towards the end of the thread, a member talks about using Ivermectin, topically, per her vet.  And it even had dosage info.

http://www.goosemoose.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,118/forum,rat/topic,38655.0

Hope that helps,
Robin

When my rats had mites, my vet sold me a single package of kitten revolution for $15 which treated six rats, and I still had a bit left over. Some vets will only sell them in packs of three though, so it might cost some more. My vet was going to sell me the three-pack but luckily they had an opened pack in the back so they sold me a single one  . Good luck!

Eh, I went to go check it out and there are no links- Everything takes me back to the splash screen