Please Help...

[zeeberella]

About a month ago, Aurelius had mites, we spotted them quickly and got rid of them, but he hasn't been eating for me since, and now I'm noticing a few whitish bumps growing under his scales...

I'm really nervous and wondering what these things could possibly be

I'm going to take him to the vet soon, but I wanted to get an idea of how panicked I should be.

[jknudson]

About a month ago, Aurelius had mites, we spotted them quickly and got rid of them, but he hasn't been eating for me since, and now I'm noticing a few whitish bumps growing under his scales...

I'm really nervous and wondering what these things could possibly be

I'm going to take him to the vet soon, but I wanted to get an idea of how panicked I should be.

If you ever have doubts at all about the health of your animals please schedule a vet appointment always before you come here for advice. My thought would be ticks, which could mean that you bought a wild caught ball python, which could also be carrying internal parasites, those factors could be the reasoning behind the feeding problems.

However we can try to help you rule out other reasons for the non-eating issue out if you can list your tank setup, temperatures, etc.

First I would take him/her to the vet to get a fecal exam, and treated for ticks/mites.

And then read this:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=59

Any other questions feel free to ask!

-Jason

[lord jackel]

Hi...first welcome to BP.net.


I agree with Jason...sounds like ticks (but if you she also had mites) then internal parasites are a real possibility. I would get her to the Vet ASAP.

Also, what did you use to get rid of the mites you saw awhile ago?

[zeeberella]

A lot of things I read online contradicted themselves in terms of solutions for the mites. My brother and I owned a bp as kids, and when I told my mom she said a soak in Extra Virgin Olive Oil would clear them up. They were all drowned and floating in the oil by the end, and Aurelius was calm enough to let me pick the last remaining ones out of this "chin" area. We bleached the cage, (used paper towels for liner now) and got him a new hide, which he actually interacts with more.
I was just so leery about the variety of weird mystery chemicals out there for him, and like I said, I haven't seen any since.

so if he has ticks.. they're living under his skin??

[AzureN1ght]

Someone made a post similar to this awhile back, and what your describing sounds like what they were. People felt that it could be Blister Disease. Here's a definition from Peter Kahl's website:

"Ball pythons are native to very warm, but not hot, dry areas in Africa. Many people make the mistake of trying to keep them in a too humid overall environment, using damp sphagnum moss or misting them frequently throughout the day. The problem with this is that keeping the overall environment damp leads to conditions such as blister disease where in the skin, usually of the belly, becomes covered with blisters, leading to bacterial infections of the skin, which in turn leads to overall health problems." ( http://www.pkreptiles.com/informatio...allpythons.asp under heading "Humidity and Ball Pythons")

I'm not sure if that describes accurately what your snake's showing--but I'd definitely get him to the vet.