i need help, sick bp

lanalizard · 04-14-09, 07:38 PM

hi guys, my bp seems to be sick. I got her/him a week and a half ago and was told not to hold him for at least 2 weeks to let him settle in. Last week I offered it a f/t fuzzy mouse (the bp is 1.5 feet) and he refused. He was free of mites and stuff and was very very healthy when i got him. By the way i traded my hedgehog for him from a guy in town. His tank is a 10gal since he is a baby still and he has a heat lamp which provides his heat which is 90F on the hot side and 76F on the cool side. well i bought some sort of reptibark from petsmart for it, i knew i shouldnt, i never used substrate like that for my bp's in the past but this girl seemed very knowledgeable and was holding my snake so i took her advice and got it. I threw the bag out after so now i dont know what it contained or even the name of it but its like reptibark or something. ANYWAYS, to my main problem, something this evening told me to take him out of the tank short of the 2 week period. He hasnt moved in a couple days so i knew something was wrong. I pick him up and immediately i notice MITES. I take off as much as i could on him and flip him over to find his underbelly scales brown, as if he was sitting in smeared feces. He also needs a good shed. whatis wrong with him??? i am aware of scale rot but im not sure if that is what it is.
anyone have any suggestions on maybe over the counter remedies i could use to treat both?

mykee · 04-14-09, 08:08 PM

Snake mites do not travel nor can they live on or feed on anything but snakes. They do not travel in wood, bark, bedding or any other substrate. If what you are seeing are in fact snake mites, your snake got them from it's previous owner. If they are wood mites, they are harmless to your snake and are one of the joys of owning reptiles.
Do a search on Nix and follow the instructions to rid your snake of snake mites if that is the case.
Good luck.

starry11 · 04-14-09, 08:26 PM

Mabye try bathing him to clean him up a bit and also help to shed. Try and keep the area clean, dry and warm if you think it could be scale rot. Personally i hate reptibark my boa had the exact same symptoms as your royal. He got mites on him and a brown discolouration on his under side. I removed the substrate and replaced it with kitchen roll paper and bathed him every few days briefly and dried him after and it seemed to heal up fine. The brown area cleared up after a shed or two.
Hope you royal gets better.

lanalizard · 04-14-09, 09:17 PM

thanks so much for responding guys, im going to take everything out of his tank tomorrow morning and give him a bath and warm him up again and see what happens, and friday im going to buy a live mouse for him. hopefully things clear up. im gonna talk with my reptile savvy vet and see what she says as well. but he looks very thin and dehydrated, even though he has been drinking so he may need some fluids. Ive given fluids by injection to an iguana before, a snake shouldnt be too much different, correct me if im wrong.
also how safe is that NIX stuff, what if it gets in the eyes and/or mouth?

Chu'Wuti · 04-14-09, 09:27 PM

There are excellent instructions on this forum for using Nix to rid your snake of mites. Nix will get rid of the eggs, too.

Here's where instructions for getting rid of mites is posted:

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/gener...ake-mites.html

Additional info:
http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/gener...elp-mites.html

citysnakes · 04-14-09, 10:13 PM

it is possible that your snake contracted the mites when you brought it to the pet store.

if you want to permenantly get rid of the mites you will need to use either a nix solution or provent-a-mite.

mykee · 04-15-09, 09:16 AM

Yup, a bath and heat will not kill mites. They'll just be cleaner and warmer.

starry11 · 04-15-09, 10:17 AM

Yeah i was meaning warmth and a bath to keep the under belly clean if it had suspected scale rot.

BEASTWITHINYOU · 04-15-09, 08:22 AM

Hm, see i saw a similar case of this at my local pet store, What heating sources do you have? Ive seen a BP that was free of mites, but had nice dark under scales from a pretty bad burn. If thats the case make sure he can bathe enough to please him/her. Dunno if im right but i spend a lot of time in exotic pet stores.

Kmef07 · 04-21-09, 10:29 AM

When i was using reptibark my snake's underbelly would become stained because of the dyes they use to make the bark the color it is. when i use wooded substrate i boil it all and rinse it very well to help the excess dye get off it. so it doesn't stain my snake.

mykee · 04-21-09, 12:21 PM

Quote:

"Yeah i was meaning warmth and a bath to keep the under belly clean if it had suspected scale rot.
"

Too much moisture is what begets belly rot in the first place! Dry for belly rot. Common sense.
Not to be mean or critical, but if you simply do not know something, posting with the wrong information is worse than not posting at all. Let someone who does know what they are talking about help resolve the issue and not make it worse.