Hi guys,
One of our carpet pythons has a mite infestation. We have been treating it with dilute iodine baths to kill the mites - on advice seen here from some members, and other websites. This ended up being an ineffective long term way of killing them, they kept coming back. So we went to a reptile store and purchased, on advice from one of the staff, a product called Fidos and Top of Descent.
We were told to bathe the snake in a solution of Fidos, which is an anti flea/mite treatment - said to be fine with reptiles, and clean his cage with the solution, then spray with TOD. When we put him in the Fidos solution we instantly noticed the mites dropping dead off of him. He looks to have had a bad infestation - its been going on for about 2 weeks. But he seemed very uncomfortable in the solution, constantly trying to get out and moving about irregularly. Other times that he had been bathed, once in the bath he was very comfortable and often held his head underwater for long periods of time.
When we decided he was ready to get out he started behaving very strangely. First he started repeatedly opening his mouth very widely, then made a hissing/gagging sound. Then he defecated a large amount of faeces into the bath. His body became very rigid and he seemed not to be grip to my hands when I picked him up - which he usually does. He seems disorientated and is moving very strangely, in comparison to his normal behaviour.
We have him in a click clack container (quarantined from the others) but he is still acting very strangely - its been roughly 15 minutes since he finished his bath. His body is rigid and arching and he is constantly pushing his face against the walls of the container, like he is trying to find a way out.
What I am worried is that, that product Fidos was in fact toxic for snakes (even though we were assured it was not, and that the salesman used it himself on his snakes) and he has ingested the solution and it has poisoned him.
I have heard that when a snake is bathed for mites, often when a large amount of mites all die and release their grip on the snake, they all release a venom, that can send the snake into a type of shock that can cause them to behave erratically - I am hoping this is the case.
Does anyone have any experience with this product Fidos? Is it safe or have we done the wrong thing and hurt our beloved pet. My partner and I are distraught to think that we may have caused him damage. We have never dealt with mites before, as we are first time snake owners, but we have been researching ways to combat them.
Any advice or suggestions...or a possibly reason for our snakes state, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Mike and Amy
**EDIT**
Thought it would we worth mentioning also that in his faeces, there was a mucousy substance that came out at the end. Trapped in the mucous were a large amount of black dots that look like poppy seeds. This looked unusual, something I've never seen before in a snake's faeces.
One of our carpet pythons has a mite infestation. We have been treating it with dilute iodine baths to kill the mites - on advice seen here from some members, and other websites. This ended up being an ineffective long term way of killing them, they kept coming back. So we went to a reptile store and purchased, on advice from one of the staff, a product called Fidos and Top of Descent.
We were told to bathe the snake in a solution of Fidos, which is an anti flea/mite treatment - said to be fine with reptiles, and clean his cage with the solution, then spray with TOD. When we put him in the Fidos solution we instantly noticed the mites dropping dead off of him. He looks to have had a bad infestation - its been going on for about 2 weeks. But he seemed very uncomfortable in the solution, constantly trying to get out and moving about irregularly. Other times that he had been bathed, once in the bath he was very comfortable and often held his head underwater for long periods of time.
When we decided he was ready to get out he started behaving very strangely. First he started repeatedly opening his mouth very widely, then made a hissing/gagging sound. Then he defecated a large amount of faeces into the bath. His body became very rigid and he seemed not to be grip to my hands when I picked him up - which he usually does. He seems disorientated and is moving very strangely, in comparison to his normal behaviour.
We have him in a click clack container (quarantined from the others) but he is still acting very strangely - its been roughly 15 minutes since he finished his bath. His body is rigid and arching and he is constantly pushing his face against the walls of the container, like he is trying to find a way out.
What I am worried is that, that product Fidos was in fact toxic for snakes (even though we were assured it was not, and that the salesman used it himself on his snakes) and he has ingested the solution and it has poisoned him.
I have heard that when a snake is bathed for mites, often when a large amount of mites all die and release their grip on the snake, they all release a venom, that can send the snake into a type of shock that can cause them to behave erratically - I am hoping this is the case.
Does anyone have any experience with this product Fidos? Is it safe or have we done the wrong thing and hurt our beloved pet. My partner and I are distraught to think that we may have caused him damage. We have never dealt with mites before, as we are first time snake owners, but we have been researching ways to combat them.
Any advice or suggestions...or a possibly reason for our snakes state, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Mike and Amy
**EDIT**
Thought it would we worth mentioning also that in his faeces, there was a mucousy substance that came out at the end. Trapped in the mucous were a large amount of black dots that look like poppy seeds. This looked unusual, something I've never seen before in a snake's faeces.
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