I wish I could say they are doing well.

Once I got them treated, and set up, then I got all my snakes out of the house and set up (was in the middle of a move) I got to examine them better.

There were still a few strangling mites... but worse.

It was heart breaking.

I looked in the day after I treated, and it looked like someone had thrown a cup of dirt in the tub there were so many dead mites.

At this time we thought they were dead till we saw them move.

I got the male bathed and some of the stuck shed off of him, but as I was examining him he turned his head and drooled. My heart just sank. Then he started breathing very heavily and gurgling.

I put him back and examined the female. She had stuck shed, retained caps, scale rot, and a worse RI than her previous cagemate.

I was not sure they would make the night. When we first opened the tubs 3 of us were sure the female was dead. I have seen dead snakes before so this was not a new sight.

I got hold of the breeder and we were able to make plans to get the snakes returned to him for emergency vet care. I simply did not have the resources to deal with them. If he had not taken them back I really do not know what options I would have had available to me.

My friend Colleen came over and we were able to meet a ways out of Montreal to transfer them.

I did not attend to the female though, as soon as I went to adjust her the wheezing was so bad that I did not want to stress her anymore than she already was. She had little strenght and began to fight me as soon as I laid hands on her.

There was a lot more to this experience than I have chronicled, but I have to say it brought out the best and the worst in people. There are many days that I know why I spend my nights off holding snakes...

Bruce