Is this a tick?

I think my ball has a tick. Here is a picture, let me know what you think. It is right behind her head.
https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...snaketick2.JPG

Tick or injury, I think you still need to see the vet.
I'm in West Palm Beach, Florida :)

With the grey color it sure look's like a tick engorged with blood, but not positive. I wouldnt force it, but try carefully with a toothpick or something similar to see if you can lift one end of the grey object up. If you can move it some, check to see if it has any legs. If it does, you could use tweezers to pull it out, just make sure you get close to the head of the tick (if it is a tick) and pull slowly trying to make sure the head comes out with it. A vet would also be a good idea to be on the safe side.

Also if you have a magnafying glass that would make it a lot easier to look at it.

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I'm in West Palm Beach, Florida

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Blink....I have several cousins that live in West Palm Beach! Im originally from Eau Gallie/Melbourne and spent my teen years in Merritt Island Florida before moving to Illinois.

Once you confirm it is a tick, do not pull it out. You can either light a match, blow it out, touch it to the tick and it will back out on its own right away, or try putting alcohol in it..someone told me that works too.

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Originally Posted by Ironhead

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I'm in West Palm Beach, Florida

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Blink....I have several cousins that live in West Palm Beach! Im originally from Eau Gallie/Melbourne and spent my teen years in Merritt Island Florida before moving to Illinois.

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I actually just moved from New York (Brooklyn) not so long ago.

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Originally Posted by Jeanne

Once you confirm it is a tick, do not pull it out. You can either light a match, blow it out, touch it to the tick and it will back out on its own right away, or try putting alcohol in it..someone told me that works too.

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Err, I think its best if thats left for the vet to handle with.

The alcohol trick works for removal, but you can't just pour it on. Get a cotton ball and pour some alcohol on that, then press it against the tick cutting off it's air supply. The tick should back out on it's own. THEN burn it with a match. Why burn it? Because ticks have such thin compressed bodies that trying to smash it will only leave it alive and you frustrated. I believe I heard the alcohol trick works because ticks breathe through their legs, sounds strange but I've heard stranger. Any scar left behind should clear up in a shed or two. In the meantime, apply bacitracin once a day.
Good Luck

One gameplan for getting rid of ticks, is a good soak in some dish-soapy water. Just make sure the water is warm, not hot, and you may want to put a UTH under the Rubbermaid in which you soak the snake, to keep the water frrom cooling. I usually soak them for an hour or so, if I am checking for mites, but with the tick I'd look every few minutes to see if the little nasty has let go yet.
Good luck; I had a snake with ticks, and I know how stressful it can be.

It's almost certainly a tick, and suffocating it is a good way to get it to let go without doing any damage to the snake (obviously don't squeeze too tightly). In addition to alcohol, petroleum jelly makes a good agent of suffocation, but don't use both at the same time. Once the tick has let go, you're free to kill it in any way you see fit, including burning with a match head, pinning to your corkboard and letting it starve, dropping it in a nearby spiderweb, or zipping it in a baggie and dropping it off at the vet's office.

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Originally Posted by Marla

Once the tick has let go, you're free to kill it in any way you see fit, including burning with a match head, pinning to your corkboard and letting it starve, dropping it in a nearby spiderweb, or zipping it in a baggie and dropping it off at the vet's office.

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Twisted Marla! :) I always prefer the toilet flush ride myself.

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Originally Posted by led4urhead

Twisted Marla! :) I always prefer the toilet flush ride myself.

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Hee hee. Yeah, I've been known to use that method myself, but I prefer to make sure they're dead first, just in case. :toilet:

Tick... Nasty buggers. Especially when you find around 12 in one ear of a cat... *bleh* But yeah, it is a tick. At school, we just get tweezers, grab their head, NOT THE BODY(because you can detach head from body and cause an infection), and maintain steady pulling pressure, letting the tick let go on it's own.
OR
Take cotton ball, soak in alcohol, hold to tick firmly for a few minutes to let it suffocate and then attempt to pull it off. As Marla said, try to not squeeze the body of the tick very hard as you may squeeze some of his saliva into the snake. That saliva can contain some pretty nasty bacteria and diseases.

This really isn't a needed trip to the vet. It's just a tick. And a vet would likely charge you a fee for the visit. Have fun killing the little booger. :-D

Well, just an update. It was a tick. I pulled it off before most of you had replied. I used tweezers. I have pulled many off of myself with tweezers and have become quite adept at pulling the head out. I just wasn't sure if it was a tick because all of the ticks I have pulled from myself were darker in color, and because I was a bit anxious about touching her head. I had never touched her head before and she didn't seem real interested in letting me, but she didn't bite and was generally a good girl about it. At any rate thanks for all the input, I think next time I will try alcohol or the suffocation method.

As for getting rid of the tick I chose burial at sea (flush down toilet).