Dumerils boa problem

[mozbink]

I have a baby Dumeril who was born may 15 of this year. I have had him for 4 weeks.

About two weeks ago he started spending alot of time in his water dish. Starting a week ago, he never would come out of his dish. I changed his water and sure enough there were some mites in the water. There were about 4. I bought PAM locally and the next night I treated his enclosure with it.

When I pulled him out to treat his enclosure I noticed his eyes were opaqe. Also he had a pinkish undertone to his underbelly.

After treating with PAM he went back into his water dish and stayed there over the next couple of days. So last night I took him out and treated him with some mite killer reptile relief. This was safe to spray on his body. After treating him with this he initially went back to his water dish but eventually burrowed into his substrate and hung out there.

I checked on him midday today and he was actually in the process of shedding off his skin.

I just went to check on him and he was back in the water bowl. I took him out and there were several strands of loose sheed. In fact when I picked his him up some came loose in my hands and I peeled quite of bid of skin off him. In his tank there was dry shed from ealrier today.

Did this just not get a good complete shed? I peeled off as much as I could but that is when I noticed on his underside of his head/neck area there is a small patch of white skin that appears to be missing scales.

Could this be caused by scale rot? The patch is less than the size of an erasure of a pencil. Roughly half that size. It is irregular shaped.

I plan on re-treating with PAM once a week and I can spray him again with the reptile spray in two days per its instructions. Not sure what to do with him.

I am now concerned with the missing scales and the fact he has basically lived in his water dish for a little over a week, and then spent allot of time in it a week prior that he may have scale rot or something and that is what took those scales off.

I am a newb to boas and snakes in general.

[MattU]

As far as the mites go, the pam will take care of that no problem. May take up to a few weeks though.

I'm surprised he didn't have a complete shed if he's been soaking a lot lately, but no worries if you helped him get it off. A damp, warm cloth helps with that btw.

I have no clue about the missing scales. Maybe someone else can help there.

Oh btw the reason, if you were wondering, that he's soaking a lot is probably because of the mites. I'd remove his water dish, and soak him in a separate tub in lukewarm water every 2 or 3 days. Make sure the water only goes halfway up his body or so.

[Void]

All dums have that spot of missing scales...my two have the same thing under their neck also. Far as the mites go...the other person said it all

[JimiSnakes]

Looks like you got two great answers. Most Dumerils have that white spot under their jaw, not all. I have one that doesn't, but it's a very common trait. Mites irritate the heck out of snakes. It's not uncommon to have a bad shed when dealing with mites. I can't say that I'm a pro when dealing with mites though. I only had one instance of them and that was probably 10 years ago. I now treat every quarantine with PAM to ensure they stay out of my collection.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[Vypyrz]

I agree. For the bad shed just hold a wet towel or washcloth in your hand and let the snake crawl through it.

As long as you don't need to change the substrate, one treatment of Provent-A-Mite will last for 30 days. Just make sure you treat everything except the snake and water bowl. Make sure you treat the insides of the hides and furnishings. Also, it helps to pray some on a paper towel and wipe along the top edges of the enclosure. To treat the substrate, if you are using paper towel or news paper, lay it out, spray one side, let it dry, flip it over, spray the other side, let it dry and put it in the enclosure. If you are using aspen or cypress then put it in a separate tub or container, spray it, let it dry, shuffle the substrate around and spray it again, let it dry and put it in the enclosure. Remember, you don't need to saturate everything, just an even, thorough coating will be sufficient...