Likelihood of RI or Mites

Pythons Ball Pythons
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Hi everyone,

I want to start of by saying I am a firm believer in quarantine. My question is what is the likelihood of bringing home animals from a show with mites or RI? I’m mainly interested in the folks that regularly vend shows responses. Have you ever brought your animals home from a show and they had mites or RI? What are your precautionary steps to ensure your animals don’t get sick? Do you treat your animals as if they are brand new and quarantine them as if you just got them? Thanks in advance for the responses.

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I don’t know the actual probability of these but this is my experience. When my partner and I were new into snakes, she visited a reptile show and inquired about a sub adult BP. Before purchasing, she noticed black dots on it (easy to see on a white snake), asked the seller if it was mites, and they assured her it was just substrate particles and the snake was mite free. After bringing the snake home she observed the “dots” were crawling around, confirming the snake had a moderate case if mites. Luckily we had quarantined the animal and the mites didn’t spread. But treating the animal took many weeks and was hard on it. It would be a nightmare to deal with a whole collection infested with mites.
We learned our lesson and now we always quarantine new reptiles just to be on the safe side.
Another vender who carries a Burmese python display animal for visitors to get pictures with informed is that after every show he gives his snake a prevent-a-mite treatment.

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Thanks for the response. I wonder if the snake had them when they brought the animals or if it got them from the show.

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Mites at shows is a very good possibility not has much from vendors also it can still happen but from the general public who is often allowed to bring their own reptile at local snake shows.

I have seen people (general public) plucking mites off their snakes and doing it very casually, like no big deal :rage: and it is because it only takes on to hitchhike on you or a newly purchased animal.

What do I do:

As a visitor

I do not touch any animal unless it is one I intend to purchase.

Once home whether I bring an animal home or not, I strip down soon as I arrive, throw my cloth in the washer, and head to the shower.

I avoid going to my snake room until the next day.

If I buy an animal well it’s like any animal purchased whether online or at a show, it goes in quarentine in a pre-treated enclosure (I use provent a mite)

Now as a vendor (which I only do once or twice a year for local exposure)

I pre-treat all my display with PAM (Provent a mite)

On the day I setup I spray PAM on my table cloth

I do not allow people to hold my animals just to hold an animal (that’s a frequent request), only if people want to buy the animal can they inspect it.

When returning home same as above cloth in the wash and shower than unpacking.

I know it sounds excessive but I never has any issue with mites in the last 15 years visiting shows.

Now for RI that is where a good general inspection and strong QT comes to play in the event a sick animal would be sold to you also it should not happen.

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Thanks for the response. I always wondered what the vendors did to prevent the animals from getting mites. It does sounds like a bit of a hassle but worth it in the long run. :+1:t5::+1:t5:

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