I bought a baby male ball python and put him into quarantine with strict measures in place. He’s been with me about a week?
The tub, which is a transport tub to take my animals to the vet anyway I cleaned thoroughly before I put him in there. Then I put in white paper towels, a large water tub for soaking and two hides (which are plastic)+UTH.
I was told by the breeder that he hatched in May of this year.
I did not handle my other ball pythons before I put him in the quarantine bin. Within 2 days black specs which do not move appeared and then more black specs into the water dish and he’s not full body soaked in there, but has dipped his tail in a number of times. And a bloody smear showed up on the paper towels.
I only handled him once between after the black specs showed up. And once today to check in on him and inspect his vent to see if there were any signs, and I could not physically see them, but he’s very black and yellow, so it would be hard to spot.
It’s like 5 specs so it’s not a ton. I tried smearing them, but it comes up black like charcoal. He’s still alert.
I saw a previous thread about treating ball pythons with mites, but it cautioned about hatchlings.
I did notify the breeder just in case and if he does have them. I don’t think the breeder knew beforehand. (I’m not posting a picture of the snake so as to not indict the breeder and anyway, I might be wrong.)
So I’m thinking I should treat him “just in case”, but I’m unclear on how to treat hatchlings which are much more sensitive than older snakes (which the other thread I found didn’t really address). As I’ve been super cautious to quarantine any new snakes, make sure they feed, etc pretty sure it’s only him.
So I need mite treatment for a hatchling that’s safe on a snake that might not have mites, but precautionary measure.
BTW, I have dealt with mites on a thamnophis before but that was decades ago and it might not be the best idea to use the method I used back then. (The person whom I bought the snake from gave me an anti-flea collar to put on top of the cage, which oddly worked at the time.)