Death by mites :(

[ickle_moose]

I euthanised my striped snow, Rose, this morning.

I noticed she had mites last week. I swiftly quarantined her, then checked the boards. Another poster, Plissken I believe, had just been given a bunch of advice to deal with his mite problem so I continued to lurk and stole said advice. I didn't have any mite-killing medicine, it's now on order. (Remember I'm in Taiwan, the best the pet-store could offer was anti-tick stuff for dogs). I bathed her every other day, it was amazing how fast those things could swell up again. I wanted to bathe her every hour, I was so repelled by the things! She was so tiny, if anyone's been following along she was the one who barely ever ate for me, her siblings are twice the size (easily) she was. As of yet no mites spotted on any of the others, she was on a different shelf to them, and believe me no-one has ever scrutinised paper towels so closely!

So I bathed her again (and attacked the tank again) last night, but this morning she was....well.... shrivelled. She was still alive, but really it was heart-breaking to see. I could see where the mites had dug under her belly scales, horrible black blood-suckers, she was so dehydrated her tiny amount of skin was folded over... ack.

I decided that much as I loved her and hated myself for doing it, I'd feel even worse if I left her in that state, so I followed the fridge/freezer method. I really hope she felt it as a relief to go to sleep, she seemed to be suffering so much.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the mites came in with a live mouse (my BRB has been refusing food so I brought one in for him) as I can't think how else. I use paper towels as substrate. To be totally honest when I saw the mites I thought, 'Gaaaaah, ick, must shower.....oh well, I can keep her going until the medicine gets here, no big deal'.

They can be a big deal. Maybe not to older snakes, but to what was basically a hatchling, they can kill. Beware the mites!

[MegF.]

Very sorry to hear you had to do that. Hope you get rid of them before they attack the rest of your collection.

[Plissken]

Very sorry to hear that, and quite a frightening thing, especially since yes, it is me who has a mite infestation at the moment. I utterly detest those hideous little bugs.

[Eremita]

That's sad to hear. When you have already been putting in so much effort, to have some other problem slip in the side door and do her in is either too twisted or distressingly "fate" sounding. I'm sorry for your loss.

I expect you'll want to quarantine your BRB until you can get them eating safer food. And keep that medicine on hand!

-Sean

[Mary-Beth]

I'm so sorry for your loss. :(

[Roy Munson]

Sorry to hear that. :( I hope the problem is now under control.

[ickle_moose]

Thank you all for your replies. To be honest, the state she was in, I'm not beating myself up too much. It had to be done, the main thing I'm upset about is that I didn't have the medicine on hand to help her. I was convinced that mites couldn't find their way in, as all my snakes are on paper towels, eating f/t. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

As Teratoma said, it is all a bit 'fate-esque'. I guess some snakes are just more vulnerable to various ailments than others. We protect them as best we can, but at the end of the day there's only so much we can do to help them.

I'm going to keep up my vigilance and continue checking the rest of my crew. As I said, no mite sightings as of yet. She was my smallest and I'm hoping that if they do show up in my BRB or my older corns that they'll be able to withstand them as an irritation, relieved with baths, until the mite-removing stuff gets here.

Plissken: I hope you have better luck with this than me. I'm sure you will, as I've read many threads where mites seem to be mainly an 'ick' factor than a life-or-death problem. So sad that the only one (hopefully) out of mine to get them was the weakest to begin with.

R.I.P. Rose

[Beothon Lover]

so sorry for your loss. she was such a pretty little snake

[bill38112]

Sorry to hear about your little one. Makes me a lot more vigilant.

[Mrs InsaneOne]

My condolences on the loss of your little one. I too dealt with a fairly large mite infestation with my PetCo purchases (2 Bp's and a corn) and I remember feeling very frustrated each time I found more of the nasty little buggers.

I hope the rest of your critters make it through just fine and that the medicine, when it arrives, helps prevent the mites from returning!

Jenn

[jenkva]

I am sorry to hear that you have lost your Rose and that you had to do what you did.
*R.I.P*