One dead another dying HELP!!!

I treated my snakes last night and put everyone in rubbermaids until I thoroughly disinfected the tanks. Went to check water bowls this evening and my pastel was twisting around horribly. I washed him off thinking somehow I didn't fully rinse him last night, shortly after this he went into more severe convulsions and died. My het albino male is twitching and twisting as well and I am terrified I am going to loose him as well. Is there anything I can do to save him???Was this due to the mite spray, did I do something wrong??? The mite spray I bought was from a local reptile store I used to work for. Asking a current employee, the stuff is now stonger b/c people were complaining that he was "watering" down the spray too much. I was not told this beforehand and was not told that instead of letting them soak, just spray/dunk them and then rinse. Did my soaking them kill them? The other snakes I treated are fine, just these two from the same breeder (who btw I think is a great guy) who are having issues. I am so upset thinking that I killed my snakes, please if anyone has any ideas let me know.

you soaked, and dunked your snakes in mite spray?? thats definitely not good. i would put my money on thats what did it. you have to understand that even though safe for the snake when used properly (and soaking them in it is not properly) is safe, mite spray is still a pesticide. take the living animal to the vet and see if anything can be done, if not you jmight have to uthenize it so it doesn't have to suffer the poisoning (if that is the case). definitely bring the snake to the vet.

Is this a homebrew mite killer?:eek:

what did you use?

sending hugs your way! https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../4/7/heart.gif

I sprayed them, and let them sit for half an hour like told by the guy who owns the store. He makes it himself and has sold it for as long as I can remember. I have used it in the past with no issues- it has been used in the store with no issues. But from what I am hearing, he watered it down quite a bit in the past and did not water this down as much. I cannot get ahold of my vet and Medvet is dog/cat only. I cannot quit crying, I don't want him to suffer. I feel so helpless right now.

Oh and I do not know exactly what is in it but I do know promethryn is in it.

:hug: I wish I knew what to say. :hug:


The only thing I can think of is to call every emergency vet clinic anywhere near you and ask/beg them to see your snake. I wish I could be more help.

how could they sell that to you without proper instructions? i'd have them replace your losses (at least).

i'm so sorry to hear what's happening but i doubt you other snake will make it... and that breaks my heart as well. sending you some more hugs... (((hugs)))

If your snakes were exposed to any kind of permethrin-based pesticide for any extended period of time, they would experience moderate to severe nervous system damage which is probably what killed them. I did, in fact, learn this one the hard way some time ago.

I treated two of them via bogus instructions from someone I trusted at the time. I was told to soak the affected snakes in a diluted solution of a permethrin based flea/tick killer. After about 20 minutes, I noticed both animals "spinning" and otherwise exhibit symptoms of some kind of major neurological damage. One snake died sometime overnight and the other pulled through and recovered fully.

These types of pesticides are NOT meant to treat the animal directly and this thread should be a warning to anyone who gets this kind of advice from misinformed people.

I don't think I would trust some homebrew like that