I found a tick...

[Wrath]

...or a chigger or a mite! When I first got my lizard, I noticed a scale that looked bigger and slightly lighter than the rest close to his tail. When i took him to the vet because he had not eaten in the one month that i had him, he said not to worry about parasites or his skin or anything, just to get him to eat.

Now, a week later, I'm giving him vitamins and it looks like he's eaten a worm or two :) The other day he ate some orange too! He seems much better, and so does that DOT on his scale. I moved it with a paperclip and it has legs. It's grey. It's much much bigger, it must have been dormant before. I have a follow up appointment with the vet, but the guy (who I trust a lot) at the reptile store that I go to recommended a really good reptile vet. I'm going to try to get an appointment to go there this friday since I have the day off from work.

Since I disturbed this damned whatever it is, do you think it's ok to wait until Friday? Can it reproduce if there's just one? Will it travel up to his face??!! I'm so worried.

I really want to check out this other vet instead....not that mine is not good, it's just that I was concerned about it since I saw it, and my vet could've cared less about it. Maybe I'm just a worried mommy :( None of my other pets have had parasites, then again, none of them have been wild caught.

[Zoe]

Well, that depends on if its a mite or a tick. If its a tick, it will stay in the same place and keep getting more and more engorged with blood. A mite will be tiny and move around. I'm thinking it's a tick, just slather a big hunk of vaseline over the tick and it will suffocate. After a few hours, grab it with pinkies as close to the lizards skin as possible, and pull steady and firm until it comes out. Sometimes they come out on their own if they suffocate, too, so keep an eye on it or it will just bury itself somewhere else.

Zoe

[Wrath]

It's probably a tick then, it has been in the same place for a month, but now it's seemingly alive.

Do you think I should leave it there until my vet appointment on Friday? Or should I remove it and take it with me?

[V.hb]

its easy to remove ticks... i prefer using mineral oil because you can still see the tick. put the lizard into a rubbermaid with some newspaper, get tweezers, let the oil sit on the tick for about 30 minutes. After 30 mins it'l losen its grip and you can easily just pull it off. Good luck

[Wrath]

Well, after work yesterday I went home to check up on him and try to remove the bug but it was gone!! I started to panic just a tad because I did not want that thing anchored to his face or anything, not to mention having it go over to one of my snakes (I know I should quarantine but I really can't).

Anyway, I found it on the floor of the tank. Interesting. It's a little round grey bug. I put it away in a plastic baggie to take to the vet when I go. He left a little white spot on the scale that he was attached to. Bugger!