Frustrating day...

[sclark]

Ever have one of those days where nothing goes right.. Let me tell you about mine. If you read the for sale section on this site you have seen the light baby boa I have been trying to find a new home for. Well that hasn't been going so great, mainly because it is owned by a local pet store and his prices are a bit high. Anyway. This little guy has been chilling and minding his own business and while I was out taking care of some other business someone dropped by with a baby resuce boa and they had to get rid of this boa today, seems their son brough it home without asking first and they said he could keep it but needed to sell it quick because his mom is deathly afraid of snakes. So two weeks pass and the kid isn't able to sell it locally so they were told about me and snake rescues by some folks and the bring it by and drop it off with my wife. My wife trying to help out takes it no questions asked and figures since I will be gone for most of the day she puts this new arrival in with the light boa listed in the for sale section. I get home and she tells me what is going on and I very quickly take the new rescue out, make a new tank, bleach clean the other tank, air it out and set it back up.. OK so far doesn't look like much harm. I call up the people who dropped this little guy off to get all the info I can. Everything seems fine except since the kid had this snake, its been regurging every meal.. O joy.. Figure it may just be the kid is feeding prey too big for this little guy or the temp in the tank is too low. So I figure I will grab a hopper mouse and see if he will take it fresh killed. He does with full excitment. So I am happy at this point. 5 hours later he regerges it back up.. OK he is thin, reguring so I do a swab to see if he has parasites. Turns out he needs some Metronidazole (Flagil wanna be). So I weigh this guy and dose the meds and squirt it down his throat. OK I can deal with this, no big deal. But after I place him back in to his tank I look at my hands and I got mites on them.. ARRRGGGGHHHHH.. I have dealt with snakes for 5 years now and never had one case of mites. So now I have this to contend with.. I hate mites way more then ticks.. And since I never had mites I don't have Provent-a-mite, and no store is open till Monday.. I hate to see this little guy suffer. Trying to dig up some home remedy till Monday, any sugestion?
So I now have one guy with mites, one I am worried got mite from this guy, etc.. Fun day huh...
Sorry just venting..
Steve Clark

[XzyluM]

Re: Frustrating day...

Got a local Wal-Mart or something? Try getting a can of Sawyer's Tick Spray. ;D

[redtailedmel]

Re: Frustrating day...

oh fun i can tell you needed to vent dont you hate those peskie boogers i hate them!!!!! hope your snakes get better!!!!

[sclark]

Re: Frustrating day...

XzyluM and redtailedmel,

Thanks for the help. I got some great info and pulled out my old files on mites. Someone who's name I can get in front of me emailed me a great treatment with Mineral oil. Gonna try that and prevent a mite tomorrow until the mite eating mites arrive in the mail. I did some research on these preditor mite that kill the snake mites and their eggs and then when all are dead they die from lack of food.. Sounds like the way to go. There is another treatment that I have used with other ppl that had mites but very little money, the name of the stuff escapes me but it is basically fine ground up clam shells that when the mites, ticks or fleas cross over any of the fine partical's it cuts their belly's open and they die. It doesn't harm the snake or anything else. Going to hit the garden shop tomorrow and look for the name and post it..

As for the two snakes with mites, so far the house has been stripped out, washed and scrubbed with a bleach mixture and aired out for an hour while the snakes were in a soak tube. Now they are back in the clean house on paper towels with low humidity.. So we killed alot of the buggers so far. I can't tell you how much I hate mites. Tomorrow I start stripping out all the other tanks and checking each one for any signs of mite.. Its war on mites in this house..

Thanks again..
Steve

[Slither]

Re: Frustrating day...

Sorry to hear about your predicament (sp) Steve. I haven't had any problems with mites so far but years ago I did and I know how irritating they can be and how hard they can be to get rid of. I always keep a can of provent-a-mite around now just in case. Hell I use it on all my new substrate and let it air out before using it just to insure I don't run into the problem.

When taking in rescues though the chance is always there. It is great what you are doing by taking in rescues (I wouldn't have Yugi if you didn't! haha), keep up the good work.

[sclark]

Re: Frustrating day...

Hey Bill,

Yeah it knocked me for a loup because I have always been so careful and have been luck enough to not have had a problem with them. One small goof and the luck is over. Good news is I got agressive pretty fast. I think i have things under control. Even treated the snakes that had no sign of mites.. Just to be safe. I tried something extra this time. I moved all the cages to the garage and pumped heat in, inside temp got to be 160 degree's (snakes were in the house in feed bins) and left the tanks bake for 3 hours.. Supposed to kill off mites. Plus the Provent a mite on the newspaper, long baths for all the snakes, and a mineral oil wipe down. The real bad part of this was the boa I had up for sale found a new home, but I had to stop the deal until I am 110% sure all is perfect with him. Glad we got Yugi to you in time before all this happened. One thing I will never do is sell a sick snake or ones with any problems. So since it was my house that infected this little guy, I paid the pert shop for him today. So if he sells great, if not the light saddle guy is mine..LOL

TTYS
Steve

[XzyluM]

Re: Frustrating day...

Lori was the one that came up with the mineral oil technique. I believe she has stopped using ill with larger boids because it seems to cause dehydration. Maybe if she gets around, she'll clearly explain it. ???

[sclark]

Re: Frustrating day...

Well its 27 days later and I just cleaned the paper towels from the tanks. Looks like I won the war. Only one mite seen on the paper towels and that one was on its back dead..)

I looked all my snakes over, very closley, all clean, even after the soak, no black specks in the water. So I will just treat their bedding with Prevent a mite and keep a close eye on things. Try to make sure this never happens again..

Thank for all the suggestions..
Steve Clark

[sclark]

Re: Frustrating day...

Sorry that was supposed to be 7 days later..