Very very worried about baby ball python (Alice)

[kerz11]

I got a female baby normal (alice) at the beginning of septemeber. When i went to see her the first time i checked her for mites and her eyes and all, she is stunning looking. she was freindly too. I put down my deposit and arranged to pick her up in a week.

When i went to pick her up she looked a bit duller, like blue and the guy in the shop said she looked like she was going into shed. He said she'd been eating very well-2 baby fluffies a week.

All was well, she has always fed well on two fluffys a week and she strike feeds. The only issue is she never did shed. On closer inspection i held her up to the light so i could see her eye better and realised that the haze in one of her eyes is in fact an old eye cap that has not shed properly( i thought the haze was behind her eyes in the shop lighting). I decided to leave her to shed it right the next time instead of stressing her out trying to get it off. Her viv is in my bedroom and in the last week and a half i began to notice she was very active all the time. I thought it was odd and checked her over and she seemed ok and still eating well.

Then last thursday i looked into the viv and was staring at her when i noticed tiny specks moving on her. She has mites. They were hard to see and i sort of had to relax my eyes a bit to see them because of her patterns made it difficult. They were crawling into her eye sockets and everything! That night i noticed she was going insane, she was actually rolling herslef round and round to scratch herself, rubbing off the sides of the tank and then that night was horrible as i kept hearing a thud which was her climbing the side of the tank and throwing herself down. I had nothing to help but water because it was the middle of the night.

I went to another reptile place the next day to see the 'local expert' were i live. He explained what to do. He gave me stuff for the mites and said to spray the snake, and let her sit for a short time, at the same time wipe the inside of the tank, spray it from top to bottom and let the stuff sit for a while, then wipe it down. Meanwhile everything i took out of the tank i have sprayed, boiled in water and was told to put everything in the freezer for 24 hours. defrost and then spray and boil again-and to keep it all out of the same room as the tank.

I went home and took the whole viv apart to get into the cracks, vacummed the whole thing and around it, sprayed everything and the snake. I was also told then to let the snake soak for 1/2 hr and then put her into an empty viv with kitchen roll for substrate. I have to do this for 10 days at least- everyday.

However, i can still see the odd mite on her. she is not going crazy like she was but im worried its because she is weak. I noticed on saturday the scales under her chin look as if theyve been bleeding-its like a brown dirty patch. Her vent is looking better thankfully. I tried to get her to eat today and it was stressful! She did strike the fluffy but the whole feed was like an effort, she tried to eat it sideways and then when that was taking too long she gave up and it took another three attempts at me dangling it for her to go for it again the right way around (i had to position it the right way for her). What has worried me most is how she ate it-she seemed too weak to hold her head up. She had rolled onto her back with the mouse and instead of holding it up lay on the floor eating it with her belly facing me and her head flat on the floor-that cant be natural, an animal i assume would want to see around it while its eating for predators.

I wanted some advice on what you guys think-is there anything else i can do? there is no reptile vet here. I have a corn snake also and i checked him and he's fine. To be honest i have had an uneasy feeling about alice like something just wasnt quite right since i noticied her eye caps. She wobbles a bit in my opinion-but shes a normal not a spider. I was not sure if its the difference in the corn snake next to a royal, just cos im used to the cornsnake being fast wheras Alice seems more chilled and slower.

sorry this was so long-im freaking out a bit-this is my first royal and i adore her.

thanks

[The Serpent Merchant]

what exactly have you been spraying her with?

[kerz11]

what exactly have you been spraying her with?

hi-the rep guy gave me mite off spray.

[mattchibi]

hi-the rep guy gave me mite off spray.

Can you specify a brand ? what does it say on the spray bottle?

If the mites still arent gone after a full treatment, I suggest trying Provent-a-Mite from pro-products.com. For now, just soak her daily and switch her substrate to paper towel, so its easier to see if mites are still present.

As for the eye cap, I would really deal with the mites first imo, she was probably going crazy at night because she couldnt see out of one eye and because a bunch of things were sucking blood out of her. I think the fact that she's calmed down a little is a good sign.

[The Serpent Merchant]

I've never used that.... so far I've never had mites. Almost everyone seems to recommend a product called Proven a Mite or P.A.M. Some sprays shouldn't be applied directly to the animal but it appears that Zoo-Med Mite Off is fine to. I have a feeling that she has caused herself to bleed a bit by rubbing her face on something so much (like scratching a bug bite until it bleeds) As long as the mites go away and the bleeding doesn't persist I think it's not a big deal. it the mites and/or bleeding continue past the 10 recommended days plus 1 or 2 I would go to a vet, even if they do not specialize in reptiles/snakes. Something is better than nothing and you never know maybe they know another vet who does specialize n reptiles.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Can you specify a brand ? what does it say on the spray bottle?

If the mites still arent gone after a full treatment, I suggest trying Provent-a-Mite from pro-products.com. For now, just soak her daily and switch her substrate to paper towel, so its easier to see if mites are still present.

As for the eye cap, I would really deal with the mites first imo, she was probably going crazy at night because she couldnt see out of one eye and because a bunch of things were sucking blood out of her. I think the fact that she's calmed down a little is a good sign.

I think she is referring to Zoo Meds Mite off spray

[kerz11]

Can you specify a brand ? what does it say on the spray bottle?

If the mites still arent gone after a full treatment, I suggest trying Provent-a-Mite from pro-products.com. For now, just soak her daily and switch her substrate to paper towel, so its easier to see if mites are still present.

As for the eye cap, I would really deal with the mites first imo, she was probably going crazy at night because she couldnt see out of one eye and because a bunch of things were sucking blood out of her. I think the fact that she's calmed down a little is a good sign.

Hi again. The brand is Zoomed Mite Off spray. It does seem to have made a difference, i have to really search her for the mites now and has calmed down. I have the paper towel down, its white so i can see the mites easily and monitor the whole thing better. As for the eye caps i dont want to stress her so i may wait until the next shed, the guy in the rep shop also said once the mites are gone i can bring her down and they will give her a full health check and remove the eye caps if theyre still there.

should i be concerned about how she fed? im worried she's anemic from the mites and its causing her to be weak.

thanks for your help

[The Serpent Merchant]

Ball Pythons tend to wobble when they get stressed (spiders wobble for no reason, and not all of them have a noticeable wobble) as for the feeding you can feed her meals that are 15% of her weight (a 100 gram snake should eat 15 grams of mouse/rat) Ball Pythons are known to be finicky eaters so I think she is fine it's just the stress from a bad shed and mites that is making her not want to eat. Once this whole ordeal is over she should start eating again. Ball Pythons are known to just stop eating for a few weeks up to a few months in extreme cases for no reason at all so patients and making sure she doesn't lose too much weight is all you can do. If you don't already you should get a digital kitchen scale to weigh your snake and even her food (if your as OCD as me lol)

[The Serpent Merchant]

as for the strange way she ate, it probably is mostly from the mites and the treatment to get rid of the mites. Stress is the worst thing for these snakes. as I said in my last post you really can't judge anything for sure while she has mites and is undergoing treatment. All you can do at this point is get rid of the mites and make sure she had good husbandry: a hot side of her enclosure that is 88-92 degrees f, a cool side that is 78-82 degrees f, and 50% humidity. I would recommend that you use digital thermometers/hydrometers as the dial type ate terribly inaccurate. If she is still having trouble with eating after this is all over she really needs to see a vet. It may take awhile but if you put the time in and make sure everything is set up right you should have a happy snake in a few weeks.

[MidSouthMorphs]

Well Spiders do wobble for a reason but that is off topic. Anyways, treat the snake as you have done. I would switch to paper towels but if you do not want to do that treat the substrate with a Mite Spray. I do that with any new snake and when i change out the substrate, mites or no mites.

Look into Provent-a-mite though.