poo head

[danarchy911]

so today when i woke up hank (turned on his light and to spray him down) i noticed a blackish brown spot on the top of his head...my mind immediately jumped to 'oh my god he burned himself!' of course this couldn't be the case bc he was fine when i went to turn off his light and he can't actually touch the light. i then noticed the fresh poo...and put two and two together. hank had gone to the bathroom then got into it.

i have gotten most of it off w. a little tlc and q-tip w. warm water, the rest i'm hoping will come off tonight in a soak. my only concern is that it does look like he got it around his eye and possibly in it (although i can't really tell bc his eye and eye cap aren't cloudy or dis-coloured). should i be worried that he could've gotten fecal in his eye? how could i clean it out (other than the soak)?

thanks in advance,
Danielle

[Reptile_Reptile]

warm water just seems like the best option maybe turn his heat up for a few days by 2-3 degrees to make sure it doesnt get infected.

[danarchy911]

i didn't even think about upping his heat! thanks for that :D

[blindfireak40]

As far as I know, Snake eyes are covered by one scale continuous with the others around it, so I don't think he could have gotten anything in there from the outside. They do have tearducts, but they drain into the mouth, so he would've had to try eating his poo to get it in his eyes from that route.

Obviously it's better to be safe than sorry, but I wouldn't worry TOO much about it. Any more experienced keepers have anything to add? I'm far from the most knowledgeable around here :)

[danarchy911]

well i just thought since mites live in eye caps that fecal matter can too, but after a little rubbing w. warm water on a q-tip and a good long soak it's all gone lol. and he just ate again on tuesday so i'm assuming i'm in the clear lol.

[blindfireak40]

Awesome! Glad to hear everything's straightened out for you :)

Good point on the mites thing, too, I didn't think of that...

[danarchy911]

i don't think it would've occurred to me either if i hadn't lost a neonate to them earlier :/

[infernalis]

I think babies are a lot more vulnerable to mite related deaths.

The only snakes I ever had die from mites were babies.

The racer was sad, all it would eat was live Anoles, and all live Anoles sold in the pet trade are wild caught. The mites sucked that poor little snake dry really fast.

Thankfully I got 2 Black racers, Toby had already switched to pinks, and they were housed apart and I had no reason to put one of those live Anoles in his tank.

[danarchy911]

well that's good to know, that i'm not to blame. every day i think to myself 'if i had just bought him sooner, i could've seen the mites sooner'. the little guy fought until he couldn't.

[infernalis]

Mites are like fleas, they feed on your pets blood, and will not stop until there is no blood left to drink.

In nature, adult snakes will go into a shed cycle and leave the mites behind with the old skin.

Unfortunately, when they are locked in a cage with that old skin, there is nowhere to go to get away from the mites.

[danarchy911]

ye i know all about mites. but when i was in the process of buying her i didn't think to check, since she'd been there for a few months i just figured the owner would've done it already. i found them the night i took her home and immediately started treatment.