Columbian Boa with mites

game992 · #1 (**permalink**) 12-16-2006, 05:43 AM

Hey everybody, I just joined the websight. It seems like everybody knows alot about snakes on here.

I just bought a Columbian Boa on Monday 12/11/06. It seemed to be doing really well for the first three days. He is very friendly. I fed him for the first time on Thursday 12/14/06. I went to check on him Friday morning and it seems that he has somehow gotten mites. I asked the pet store if I should feed it a baby mouse live because i knew it was bad to feed the adult size rats live. They told me that when they are fuzzies, there is no danger of them biting the snake. What I didn't know is that it could get mites from them. I have a few questions about the subject. Could anyone please tell me if this is how it got the mites, or is there another way it could have got them. Right now I am using paper towels as the substrate. Also, any information on how to kill them inside the tank and on the snake without harming him would be very helpful as well and is it okay to handle the snake since he has them or will it just irritate him worse. I read that mites can eventually kill a snake. Does anyone know how long it takes for mites to kill them. I have an appointment set up at a local exotic vet with a snake specialist on Wednesday to have him checked out. That is about four days away and I didn't know if it would kill him before then. The infestation doesn't seem too bad, but I don't want to take any chances. I just want to get this nasty problem taken care of as soon as possible. Any replys and info on this matter would be very much appriciated. Thanks

mark5019 · #2 (**permalink**) 12-16-2006, 06:23 PM

http://redtailboa.net/forums/help-me...tml#post281835

Demona · #3 (**permalink**) 12-16-2006, 07:07 PM

Hey there and welcome to the forum

This is a great site to find information and friends

Because your using papertowel its not likely that that was the source of the mites, I believe the biggest suspect is that you got your snake from the pet store. This isn't always a bad thing, but mite infestations are common in pet stores. The other option was the mouse.

Feeding smaller live prey is safer for your snake than feeding large rats live, but both are very dangerous.
when your snake gets used to feeding live, it will become more and more difficult to get it to accept frozen/thawed. As your Colombian gets bigger, you'll want to increase the size of the prey item. Its best to switch them to pre killed, or frozen thawed as soon as possible.
Freezing the prey also helps kill parisites (this includes mites) so its actually healthier for your snake to feed frozen.

As for the treatment of the mites, there are lots of methods out there.
I personally use Nix, its a lead lice cream that you can buy at the drug store. Dilute it with half the bollte to 6 cups of water. seperate about 2 cups of the solution to clean the entire cage, let it sit for about 15-20 min and rinse well. use the other 4 cups to soak your snake-getting as much of the snake wet as you can, (20 min) and all of its accessories (20 min). be sure to rince everything well.
before soaking the snake, remove all the adult mites with a warm pait of tweesers.
This got rid of my mite infestation in one shot

I have heared of snakes duing from mites, but its not something that will happen overnight. Mights agrivate a snake, so its likely to refuse food, this could, after a very LONG time cause death. Mites feed off of blood, and they may have fed off of another reptile before they found yours, this can transfer diseases, some of these can be really bad like IBD.
I've heared that mites around the eye sockey can do dammage and cause perminant blindness.
Its definately a good idea to start treatment as soon as possible.

game992 · #4 (**permalink**) 12-16-2006, 11:39 PM

Thanks for the information. I just picked up a can of repel today. I will try that on the cage Wednesday while my snake is at the vet. On another note, are there any symptoms associated with the mites. I know a snake with mites will sometimes soak in water, but is there a symptom such as the snake's head shaking. Mine is doing this a little, it doesn't really look like a seizure, but more like it is shivering, or maybe a slight twitch. Thanks again

Brandon28 · #5 (**permalink**) 12-16-2006, 11:46 PM

The head shaking COULD be from the mites, but maybe not. I would definately bring that up to the vet. Please keep us posted on this!

btw....welcome to rtb.net! We will all be glad to help you in any way possible if you need us.

....and post pics! They make your snake grow faster!

luker3232 · #6 (**permalink**) 12-17-2006, 12:24 AM

welcome to rtb.net its good that your asking questions thats what its here for and definetly bring the shaking up to the vet

game992 · #7 (**permalink**) 12-17-2006, 05:49 PM

Hey guys, thanks again. I asked a few people I know about its head shaking because I thought it might be serious. I thought about IBD, but they told me to do a few tests on it, so I tried and they said that it wouldn't be IBD they snake is very responsive and active when I would try to distract him. He likes to explore. I turned him over on his back and he didn't have any problem turning himself back over. They said that should rule out any possibility of IDB. I was told that sometimes when a snake is holding up its own body weight their head will somtimes shake, but other than that it is most likely just the mites irritating the snake. Nonetheless, it is still a point I will bring up to the vet.

One other question I had was about feeding. I was going to feed him again on Friday, but, I wanted to feed him one that was F/T to avoid any further mite problems. it would be a shame to get him started on treatment and two days later have a new infestation. I saw a couple of online companys that sell frozen in bulk. I couldn't find any local places that sold pre-frozen. The only question is, does anyone know how long it takes the shipment to arrive and do you think it would arrive before he needs to feed again? I was also told that even if it arrives after friday, it would be okay because snakes can go about a month without eating. Is this true, would it hurt to be a few days late. I don't plan on going a anywhere near a month, but just a few days if the shipment comes after friday. Thanks again for all the help everybody.

game992 · #8 (**permalink**) 12-20-2006, 10:26 PM

Hey everybody,
I just got back from my vet visit and everything seems pretty good. The doctor informed me that there are a few different types of mites. mites that come from rats and snake mites. She told me that my snake has snake mites. She said I was lucky enough to catch that I had them so early. She also did a stool sample and said my snake has pin worms which are caused by mice, but, she said I didn't need to worry because they don't harm snakes. She said once I get him to start eating F/T mice it will take care of the pinworms since they come from live mice. Other than that, she said he is free of all other parasites and he is in good health. There were a few bad shed spots, but nothing major and she said he may be a little under weight due to dehydration that may have been caused by the petshop.

I also asked her about the head shaking and she said since it is just a baby that it might still be a little nervous when holding itself up, but she said the main reason is most likely that it is being irritated by the mites and said I shouldn't worry about it much since it isn't constantly doing it.

As for the treatment of the mites, I asked about using the repel permanone and she told me that since the snake was so young, that I probably shouldn't use it because the chemicals could cause some respiratory problems easier than it would in an adult snake. She said an easy way to clean the tank would be to dilute bleach with steaming hot water and it will kill the mites and the eggs. She said to clean it like this once a week for three to four weeks and to make sure I also cleaned the lid too and also in dark corners of the tank where there is less light. She gave me a medicine vile of 10 MG/ML Ivermectin and said to dilute it with one quart of water and to spray it directly on the snake once every two weeks for the next four weeks. She said I could also spray the walls of the tank with the solution also. She said in about a month the mites should be gone.

Well, thats about all I have to share. So it seems like everything is going to turn out good hopefully and the infestation wasn't as bad as I thought. Hopefully in about a month I will be done with my mite problem. Once again, I want to thank everyone for their responses to all of my questions. It really helped.

Oh, by the way, the vet bill wasn't very expensive either. There was a new pet charge of 2.35 for all first time visits, there was a 36.50 charge for the doctor to see the snake, the Fecal exam was 17.50, and the medicine was only 5.50. so my total bill was only 61.85, which is way better than I thought it was gonna be.

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