Flies in the house

[JimD]

Laura wrote:

If I see a fly, I don't rest until it's DEAD!

Yeppers....everybody goes on alert and I don't rest until I hear "The fly's dead !"

If I see a fly in the house, I move the HEPA filter in front of the bunnie room door so the fan blows up in front of it. When the fly gets to the door the fan blows it up and away from the bunnie room. Not sure-fire, but it helps some.

 

[maherwoman]

Okay, the bunnies (and the kitties) officially have the appropriate amount of imitation vanilla extract added to their water (per Buck Jone's instructions...thank you, guys!). Boy, if I thought Flower drank like a fiend before, wow....she's drinking even more now! Lol!! It's good, though...lol!

All of my animals seem to be happy with the addition, so everything's good. We cleaned out the kitties' litterbox with the vinegar solution yesterday, and it was so funny...you should have seen our boy, Hobbes, looking at it like it arrived from another planet!! We rinsed it out well, so it's not like it smelled to high heaven of vinegar...but I think he was puzzled and thought it was a new box. Lol...he's such a cutie!

As far as the bunnies, I'm going to do a top-to-bottom cleaning today to be sure there isn't anything yucky going on. I inspected thoroughly with a good flashlight the other night, and didn't see a single thing, but I'll be doing the vinegar solution cleaning today.

One question though: Flower has become incredibly difficult to pick up...is there any other way to tell if she has Fly Strike? Would there be any in her litter? Would any drop off of her at all?

Thanks for all your ideas, guys! Today the flies are numbered at absolutely zero. My husband taped my daughter's window yesterday (which had a good hole in the base to allow water drainage...long story), and we haven't seen any since the cats obliterated their population. So, we think we're in the clear for them being in the household. We'll be doing the thorough bunny cage cleaning today, so that'll be handled, too. *sigh* Here's hoping the problem's handled!!

 

[JimD]

maherwoman wrote:

Okay, the bunnies (and the kitties) officially have the appropriate amount of imitation vanilla extract added to their water (per Buck Jone's instructions...thank you, guys!). Boy, if I thought Flower drank like a fiend before, wow....she's drinking even more now! Lol!! It's good, though...lol!

When S'more stopped drinking during GI stasis, we added vanilla and she seemed to like the taste. Right after we added it she drank more that she had for two days on her own.

maherwoman wrote:

All of my animals seem to be happy with the addition, so everything's good. We cleaned out the kitties' litterbox with the vinegar solution yesterday, and it was so funny...you should have seen our boy, Hobbes, looking at it like it arrived from another planet!! We rinsed it out well, so it's not like it smelled to high heaven of vinegar...but I think he was puzzled and thought it was a new box. Lol...he's such a cutie!

Most of my bunnies have to chinn the heck out of their litter pans after cleaning with white vinegar. I always follow up the vinegar with a good rinsing and washing with Dawn dishsoap.

maherwoman wrote:

One question though: Flower has become incredibly difficult to pick up...is there any other way to tell if she has Fly Strike? Would there be any in her litter? Would any drop off of her at all?

Unfortunately, the bun is the most important thing to check. There have been cases of flystryke making victims of bunnies that are clean and live in clean environments. I'm afraid that, if you discovered it anywhere but on the bunnie, serious damage could already have taken place. Fly eggs can be laid, and hatch, on the bunnies.

 

[maherwoman]

Guess I should just gain more confidence and be Big Kahuna Bunny with her, then!! I'll handle checking the two of them today. Thanks for letting me know, JimD!