OMG...MITES and possible RI?!?

[Salamander Rising]

Several months ago, fairly close to the same time, I got my Orangetail girl and het Albino girl Boas.
They are in condos stacked one atop the other.

I noticed the het girl soaking a lot but the breeder said a lot of his Boas liked to soak and they usually were doing just that when I went to his shop.
I didn't think much of it except for having to constantly wipe up spilled water and refill her bowl.
She ate well.

The the OT started acting weird.
She'd had babies this year and was thin so I was told to feed her 1 jumbo rat per week to get her weight back up which I did and recently switched her to a 2 week feeding schedule.
She became very restless and kept acting like she was looking for a way out of her condo, rubbing her nose rough with all her poking at any possible escape crack.
She ate last week and then acted twitchy again so I tried to feed her tonight.
She was not interested.

So I got BJ's rat and tried to feed her only to discover BJ looking like a shriveled dry mummy as if she had seriously stuck shed which I couldn’t understand until I took her out and she was COVERED WITH SNAKE MITES.
COVERED!!!
They were falling off of her like pepper.

Bella, who lives in the condo below her, had them too.
Now I know why she’s been so restless and upset.
They were sucking the life out of my snakes.

I just spent two hours shop-vaccing, wiping down and spraying their homes, soaking the girls to drown as many mites as I could and *then*, when I took Bella out of her tub, either slime or water ran out of her mouth and I could feel rattling in her lungs and her nose bubbled.
She had her mouth open like a severe RI for a bit but has since stopped that.
I can't feel the rattling like I did when she was fresh out of her soaked and highly stressed but it doesn't mean it's not still there.

I don’t know if it’s an RI or water or what but I'm terrified she might be getting very sick.

As back story to this mess, on Oct 24, the people from whom I'd purchased a Dobermann puppy called me to tell me she was 'in really bad shape, possibly seizing' and to come get her right away.
$1000, many tests, IVs, observations and 24 hours later, she came home from the emergency hospital and I've been doing 4 hour rotations with the hubby, watching over her and giving her food, medicine, etc.
[she nearly died and still has neurological issues from the frigging traumatic brain injury she 'mysteriously acquired' while at the breeder's, along with her having a completely healed broken elbow at the tender age of 5 weeks]

Because of all that, I have not been paying my usual obsessive attention to my snakes.

I feel guilty as sin for that because if I had been, surely I would have noticed this reptile train wreck bearing down upon me.

I have ordered PAM and it's supposed to be here within 3-5 days from "The Bean Farm".

I used DeFlea Reptile mite spray in the mean time.

I am exhausted, sleep and food deprived, a nervous wreck, so broke I can't even pay attention and now this.

How will I know if Bella has an RI?

I have Baytril, Amkacin and Tylan but a trip to any vet is positively out of the question.

There is simply no money left to do so after 'Halla the puppy's bills and the $300 spent on my support dog just last night to make sure his sudden vomiting wasn't a bloat or obstruction.
I'm 'borrowed out' for months.

Could she have inhaled water and that's what I'm hearing?
She was very upset about the soak whereas BJ took it fairly calmly.

What more can I do until the PAM arrives?

I checked my other snakes for mites and so far, there's no sign of them having them, possibly due to the fact that on feeding/cleaning days, the Boas are always the last in line.

I have a neuroses about ectoparasites so naturally, I ran up and hot showered immediately after cleaning them and threw my clothes in the washer.

I'm at a loss.

So much misfortune in such a short time.

How do I safely use the PAM?

Why were some live mites still coming off the girls after their soaks?
I noticed them on the paper towels as I was drying them.

And, they were walking on my arms which just about gave me the screaming-meemies. [see neuroses, above]

It's bad enough that I'm going to have to sell some of my beloved Beeps to make up for the puppy vet bills but I was definitely keeping my Boas.

This is heart breaking.

[foxoftherose]

Seriously, screw mites. My little one came from an infested pet store, and I didn't notice he had them for the first week or so that I had him. Here's how I got rid of Will's mites:
I took everything out of his tub. I threw away all of the bedding, and I put his hides and water bowl in a weak bleach solution to soak for an hour or so, and then rinsed them. I put Will in a smaller emergency tub, and let him soak for a while.
I then took the PAM and sprayed it on the floor and wall where his tub had been. I know that this sounds like a no brainer, but definitely open the windows and turn on the ceiling fan while you do this, or use a portable fan in the room if you can't do that.
Then, I followed the directions on the PAM can and sprayed his tub. I'm overly cautious by nature, so I let his tub dry for an hour in a well ventilated area.
I would recommend switching to white paper towels during your infestation, because it's much easier to see the mites that will be dropping off, and whether they're alive or dead.
This is the most frustrating part. The mites will not die immediately. I had to go through this procedure once a week for a month to get rid of mine, and it's nerve wracking knowing that the stupid things are in there with your animals, but it will work.
If I've missed something, I'm sure that someone else will be able to correct it, and give more thorough instructions. I wish you and your critters the best of luck.

[snakesRkewl]

An outbreak like you describe takes months to build up to, so they probably came with them

I suggest every time you take a snake in to treat it as if it did have mites.
PAM is something every reptile owner should have a can of sitting on the shelf, glad you did the right thing and ordered up a can
Until the PAM comes I suggest just keeping the cage clean and them on newspaper/paper towels.

The water might have been recently swallowed, ball pythons will spit water out if you hold them right after they drink, so maybe??

Treat once a week for 3 weeks and the problem should be gone.
Treat the whole area lightly including the carpet if there is carpet.
What you are seeing is the results of eggs hatching numerous times creating all those little bugs.

Good luck!

[Salamander Rising]

Seriously, screw mites. My little one came from an infested pet store, and I didn't notice he had them for the first week or so that I had him. Here's how I got rid of Will's mites:
I took everything out of his tub. I threw away all of the bedding, and I put his hides and water bowl in a weak bleach solution to soak for an hour or so, and then rinsed them. I put Will in a smaller emergency tub, and let him soak for a while.
I then took the PAM and sprayed it on the floor and wall where his tub had been. I know that this sounds like a no brainer, but definitely open the windows and turn on the ceiling fan while you do this, or use a portable fan in the room if you can't do that.
Then, I followed the directions on the PAM can and sprayed his tub. I'm overly cautious by nature, so I let his tub dry for an hour in a well ventilated area.
I would recommend switching to white paper towels during your infestation, because it's much easier to see the mites that will be dropping off, and whether they're alive or dead.
This is the most frustrating part. The mites will not die immediately. I had to go through this procedure once a week for a month to get rid of mine, and it's nerve wracking knowing that the stupid things are in there with your animals, but it will work.
If I've missed something, I'm sure that someone else will be able to correct it, and give more thorough instructions. I wish you and your critters the best of luck.

Thank you and I'm so glad Will is all better.

Mites are tiny little demons!

HATE them!

I'm still jumping every time anything touches me because I feel like something might be walking on my arms.

[Salamander Rising]

An outbreak like you describe takes months to build up to, so they probably came with them

I suggest every time you take a snake in to treat it as if it did have mites.
PAM is something every reptile owner should have a can of sitting on the shelf, glad you did the right thing and ordered up a can
Until the PAM comes I suggest just keeping the cage clean and them on newspaper/paper towels.

The water might have been recently swallowed, ball pythons will spit water out if you hold them right after they drink, so maybe??

Treat once a week for 3 weeks and the problem should be gone.
Treat the whole area lightly including the carpet if there is carpet.
What you are seeing is the results of eggs hatching numerous times creating all those little bugs.

Good luck!

This is my first ordeal with snake mites....

I would bet money that BJ brought them because Bella is very light colored and I've never seen anything on her or seen her soaking prior to this.
Plus, she didn't have nearly as many as the much darker, always-soaking BJ did.

BJ's breeder is a good friend...do I mention the mites to him or just let it go?
He certainly would have never knowingly sent her home with me knowing she had cooties.

They're both Boas...I've seen them drink by submerging their heads but I can't imagine them drinking warm water.

I worry that Bella may have gotten panicky in the tub while I was cleaning her house and inhaled water....or that having mites gave her an RI.

Giving Beeps shots is an ordeal already...I can't imagine how much medicine and how big of a needle I'd need for a 7 foot Boa.....:-\

At least I can be thankful there's no carpet in the house.

They're in a room with a concrete floor that used to be a porch.

Would diatomaceous earth spread under their racks and shelves kill mites like it does fleas?

[snakesRkewl]

Mites are easy to kill it's the eggs you need to make sure get killed.
PAM will do that for you.
I've never used anything but Permethrin products to kill mites and it works wonders used properly.

I would suggest to him that maybe they came from him and maybe not, but it might be best for him to check to see and make sure he doesn't have them.
But honestly if he has them bad enough to spread them to you, he already probably knows.

[RoseyReps]

Would it also be a good idea to treat your other snakes enclosures with PAM aswell? Even if they aren't showing signs, as a precautionary measure?

[Salamander Rising]

Mites are easy to kill it's the eggs you need to make sure get killed.
PAM will do that for you.
I've never used anything but Permethrin products to kill mites and it works wonders used properly.

I would suggest to him that maybe they came from him and maybe not, but it might be best for him to check to see and make sure he doesn't have them.
But honestly if he has them bad enough to spread them to you, he already probably knows.

I can't wait for it to get here.

I just checked the girls and saw some more but smaller mites crawling around and they've been soaking, again.

[but at least Bella's not roaming and freaking out now]

Did those mites hide under their belly scales to avoid drowning?

I used a damp white paper to wipe out their houses and saw nothing on it but some dust after cleaning them and spraying the DeFlea Reptile stuff inside.

Poor babies.

I'm going to get a bigger, better tub and soak them tonight to help them some more.

I feel so guilty.

He did suggest that I keep a flea collar hanging from the wall of my snake area to 'kill bugs'.

I was worried about it making my snakes sick so didn't.

He also said something about using "NIX" [?] on snakes.

I wish I could remember how that even came up in the conversation but I don't.

[Salamander Rising]

Would it also be a good idea to treat your other snakes enclosures with PAM aswell? Even if they aren't showing signs, as a precautionary measure?

I don't know.

PAM sounds a bit scary to me since I've never used it.

Hopefully somebody will answer us both.

I checked everybody else's tubs and water bowls and so far, no sign of my BPs or Boa boy having mites.

[DooLittle]

Follow directions on the Pam to a tee. Personally I would preventative treat the other enclosures, to keep them from spreading. *knock on wood* I have never had to battle those little buggers. But I do have a can of Pam on hand, just in case.

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