Update on Monty - behavioral advice? 2 year old male bp

[alilak]

Hi everyone

I am sure some of you had seen my threads on the unfortunate issues I had with my snake Monty.

After having him for a month and all going perfectly well- 3 successful feeds every week + switched him onto weaner rats with no problem; I noticed him blowing bubbles showing symptoms of RI and also noticed mites. After a trip to the vet a couple of weeks ago I feel things are improving. I wanted to share what I have done so far with you and also share his behavior so maybe some of you could give me some advice and thoughts as many of you have way more experience then me.
Being a new owner it's a lot to take in and I am doing my best to learn and understand how best to take care of my noodle! I have underlined a few questions below and would really appreciate your opinions

• He was taken to the vet on the 13th of this month, so just about 2 weeks ago. Advice was to get rid of the mites, increase temp in the warm hide and keep him under observation to see if his breathing clears up.
• Did a complete clean up of his terrarium (two times, once a week) and gave him a lukewarm bath (two times, once a week). The last time I soaked him I noticed his eyes were cloudy / blue, I realized maybe it was not the best time to give him a soak but because of the mites I had to. When I put him back into his terrarium he also struck at me twice and just seemed really pissed off. I've learnt from this now and will not disturb him next time during the shedding process.
• He finally shed last Friday on the 23rd almost all in 1 piece with a tiny bit left at the end of his tail. He shed in his warm / humid hide, took a massive piss and moved across to the cold hide.
• I don't see any mites on the white kitchen paper towels which I am using for substrate at the moment, and his breathing seems normal - cannot hear wheezing or notice any mucus on his nose or face.
• Today I will treat the terrarium again with reptile mite spray. Would it be okay to wipe Monty down with Jurassi Mite as well or is it too early since he only shed last week?
  
  
  
• Behavior: Since he shed last week I only caught him outside his hide the very next day and immediately took a couple of pictures (attached below) and since then he seems to just want stay in the hide on the cold side and has no interest in eating. I can't help but feel that because of everything that happened - getting sick, mites, taken to the vet, being soaked etc, he has lost trust in me and is really scared whenever I am around - am I right to think this or being paranoid?
• Its been exactly 2 weeks and 5 days since his last meal and it would just be amazing to see him at least just sticking his head out of his hide (ready for a meal!) in the evenings which is what he used to do before.

Sorry for the long post, but I thought it would be good to provide an update and ask a few questions which were on my mind.

PS, the pics below are taken literally the next day after he shed- since then I haven't seen him come out....

Thanks!!

[Ax01]

sorry to hear about your troubled BP.

1. did your vet do a culture on the RI and prescribe any anti-biotics? either way, glad that he is doing improving on this front.
2. i would not soak as the only mite treatment. snakes will soak themselves to relieve the itching and drown the mites. i got mites twice from 2 new snakes (keep in quarantine if u have multiple reptiles) and pre-soaked only before treatment.
3. i used Natural Chemistry Reptile Spray for direct application on the snake and Provent-A-Mite on the enclosure, decor, substrate, etc. use as directed. i'm not familiar w/ Jurassi Mite but i think it's fine to use as long as it has a sodium compound to kill the mites.

on his behavior, i would not handle him unless necessary. he's agitated b/c he's not well. let me be RI free and mite free, get in some good meals, get his enclosure back to normal, get husbandry on point, let him resettle and hopefully things will go back to normal and u will have a nice, friendly snake again.

good luck, get well soon Monty!

Edit: there's a 2 thousand threads on mite treatment. you may use the search bar to find them if u want more specifics.

[Bogertophis]

He's looking beautiful! His "attitude" right now is totally normal, after all the weird stuff he's been through, at least it's "weird" from his perspective.
This will pass, just be patient. It's unfortunate that your very first snake brought some challenges. Next time you consider a pet snake, I'll bet you
check closely for mites...they're such a pain and a health risk for the snake too.

Snakes normally "lay low" during a shed, because they cannot see & they're more at risk from predators...so don't take it personal when he's 'cranky'.
These instincts are what keeps them alive in the "real world" on their own.

His set-up looks great, only one suggestion: those hides have wide "doorways", ie. not much privacy. Most snakes are happier when they have more
secure, closed-in hides (those "instincts" again), and what you can do is just crumple up a paper towel or two, and stuff one in the hide and one in the
doorway, to add privacy & "back pressure" (more closed in feeling).

I suspect you need to keep up mite-eradication measures for a while yet, but sorry, I cannot comment on the specific product you asked about- maybe
someone else here will? Only because I haven't had to deal with mites in many (happy!) years, so I'm not familiar with it to say one way or another,
except to say follow the instructions it comes with. When I did have a snake with mites, I bathed the snake daily with mildly soapy water, as it's very
effective & completely harmless, unlike the other chemical methods used to kill mites: the more you can get rid of with soapy water, the better, IMO.

That would be awesome if his RI is totally gone now, just keep a close watch (& listen) for a while, to be sure.

Were you able to help him remove the shed left on his tail tip? Moisten & rub off gently...

Don't be overly concerned that he hasn't seemed interested in food just yet...it's normal with all that's going on & he looks good from where I sit...
It probably won't be long. (I hope)

[alilak]

sorry to hear about your troubled BP.

1. did your vet do a culture on the RI and prescribe any anti-biotics? either way, glad that he is doing improving on this front.
2. i would not soak as the only mite treatment. snakes will soak themselves to relieve the itching and drown the mites. i got mites twice from 2 new snakes (keep in quarantine if u have multiple reptiles) and pre-soaked only before treatment.
3. i used Natural Chemistry Reptile Spray for direct application on the snake and Provent-A-Mite on the enclosure, decor, substrate, etc. use as directed. i'm not familiar w/ Jurassi Mite but i think it's fine to use as long as it has a sodium compound to kill the mites.

on his behavior, i would not handle him unless necessary. he's agitated b/c he's not well. let me be RI free and mite free, get in some good meals, get his enclosure back to normal, get husbandry on point, let him resettle and hopefully things will go back to normal and u will have a nice, friendly snake again.

good luck, get well soon Monty!

Edit: there's a 2 thousand threads on mite treatment. you may use the search bar to find them if u want more specifics.

The vet said she only wanted to do a culture if he didn't show signs of improvement because when she checked him over the listened to his breathing and said it wasn't severe. Luckily he his looking better his mouth / 'nostrils' look dry.

I will keep up the mite treatment- I'm using Callington mite spray for the terrarium and jurassi mite on Monty which does contain natural active ingredients.

Will stay on the case and post updates over the next couple of days.

Thanks