New Rescue Bad Shape :/

I rescued another ball python about 3 days ago. She's a wonderful 1200 gram female normal, and absolutely sweet. Her previous owner was terrible, and I'll tell you why...For the first few days she was with me, I kept her in a quarantined room with just a hide box, a waterdish, and paper towel as substrate. I let her settle in for a few days, then offered her food. She gladly took an adult rat. Today I took a good look at her and noticed she definitely has mites. I let her soak in warm water for a few minutes today to hopefully drown some mites and maybe sooth her skin. I couldn't get to the store to get mite treatment as the stores closed early before I noticed the mites. She wasn't a fan of the bath, and I soon found out why. I was inspecting her after her bath and checked out her belly, only to notice she was badly burned and the tip of her tail seemed rotted and scabby. It looks like scale rot on the tail and a thermal burn on the belly. Does anyone know what I can do to sooth her burns and scabs? :( Poor thing.

First of all, I'm glad you have her. Hopefully she will have a better life. Second, do not apply any oil based salve at all. Such as neosporin or bacitracin. This will only make it worse.

Pick up some iodine/betadine and make a solution in a tub of tepid water that comes just up her sides so she does not need to swim. Put just enough in the water to make it a light tea color and let her soak about 15 minutes..

Keep her on dry paper towels and do not spray the enclosure. Put the water bowl over the heat and cover the top of the enclosure to raise humidity but otherwise keep her dry.

Give her a soak in a fresh solution like this once every couple days. This will kill any bacteria to prevent infection and help it dry out.

If its as bad as you say I strongly suggest a trip to the vet for some silver sulfadiazine cream (silvadine). It's burn cream which is only available from the Dr. It will speed up healing, prevent infection because it soaks into the skin and into the blood stream, and helps it dry out.

Within a couple sheds it should look a lot better and eventually you'll barely notice it.

Oh, and try to find a vet that has some reptile experience. If you can not, please do not listen to them if they say to put neosporin or bacitracin etc, on it.

She will be fine with the proper care. Just do as I said, continue treatments, get the proper cream to apply, keep her dry but still keep a healthy level of humidity in her tank.

I'd hold off on applying mite treatment until the wounds appear to be completely dried out and nothing is open. You don't want to put any dangerous chemicals on this area or where she can get into it.

Most of the mites will come off in the soaks. I'd pick up a can of flea powder if you have carpeting and put some down on your floors between her enclosure and your other snakes to prevent any from wandering to your others.

I'd also order a can of proventamite and do a preventative treatment of all other enclosures (enclosures only, be sure to follow the directions). This will ensure you do not get mites on any other snakes in your home. The proventamite also has a residue effect and will keep working for many weeks or until you wash out the inside walls of the enclosures..

AaronAshley you will not be able to legally get prevent -a-mite here it has a good chance of being impounded at the boarder. I think Mike J may have some unless he sold it all. I would suggest reptile relief as it is non toxic. It too is an order product. I would agree with waiting anyway the soaks are fine you need to make a decision about the benefits and how much stress the animal is under having one. Stress is a serious issue as well and there are cases where 'skilful neglect' is better than messing about with them.

silver sulfadiazine cream is the best product to use. I would also have a vet take a look I would suggest Dr. Dibblee although she is heading to the reptile vet conference with Dr Madder soon I don't know when they are leaving and for how long. It is this month but I don't recall the dates.

To droned mites it takes a drip or two of plain old dawn dish soap. This is only part of the step, you must isolate the enclosure completely from the room (mites will walk 2-4m away from the enclosure to lay eggs) The best way is to place the enclosure in a tray of diatomaceous earth (ant killer powder) it is a mechanical abrasive and breaks apart the mites. The mites then cannot leave the enclosure while the snake is soaking the enclosure needs to be completely cleaned (spotlessly) Heat is the easiest method boiling of near boiling water will kill all the eggs/mites if you keep both up for a 4-6 weeks daily this will kill all the mites. If you have a tub and an extra after cleaning placing it out side for the night will help. (mite eggs are wicked small) I sold off the last bottle of mite treatment I have I have some on order currently when it will arrive is anyones guess. If it comes soon and you want/need it I can PM you and you can just replace it with the same and it is yours.

there is some debate over the use of iodine solutions with wounds it is a powerful anti bacterial but also kills new tissues as well. It is your discretion. I have no personal opinion on that matter. It is not used in human treatment of cuts anymore, only new wounds.

Okay, I apologize if I'm unclear, there was just a lot of information there..

So for her burns on her belly, I should soak her in what?

And what kind of mite treatment could I get at a local petstore in NS for her?

I can make a run to the stores tomorrow and pick up whatever she needs. Unfortunately, booking a vet appointment would take at least a week or so and I don't really want to wait that long.

How helpful is dawn dish soap?

Thanks.

Send a message to interloc

He is a fellow friend and canadian who used a shampoo called nyx to get rid of mites.

As for the burns use a watered down solution of betadine. Like foschi said soak her in the bath but add betadine to the water to make it a almost tea colour. You can pick betadine up at a pharmacy.

Also like foschi said. Do not treat for me mites UNTIL you get her burn wounds closed and somewhat healed so no chemicals get in it from treating the mites.

Good luck with her!

Thanks everyone! The mites aren't bad right now, but I want to treat them as quickly as possible. I knew I should probably make sure her wounds are healed up a little better before treating the mites. I'm thinking it's a thermal burn on her belly, not %100 sure. It could also be scale rot. Any suggestions for that?

Sorry I'm too lazy right now to post pictures, it seems like a lengthy process.

The treatment for burns and scale rot is the same. A few soaks in betadine solution to kill bacteria and dry it out, then applying silver cream to help it heal right away.

Yeah, thanks. I was speaking to a vet friend today and got some easy solutions to my mite problem and my burn problem! :)