Just a wonder, as I’ve only heard it spoken of but never the process of treating, but how are wild caught snakes treated for parasites?
I have none wild caught at the moment. Not sure if treatment is species specific? Thanks for your knowledge!
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Depends on the what parasites the animal has.
Ecto-parasites can be handled by physical means and the use of something like Frontline/PAM/Nix
Internal parasites would require knowing what they are for proper medication: antihelminthics for worms, antiflagellate for something like giardia, antimicrobial for bacteria. You would need a fecal float and microscopic examination for proper ID
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My rat snake Mercedes was wild caught (rescued from a car engine) my vet did some tests and treated her for flukes and nematoads, also for the burns from the engine.
She’s a really nice
snake. I’m glad to have her.
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I do not know how common the practice is, but I’ve heard that, especially for bioactive enclosures, predatory mites can be used specifically in the case of parasitic mites on the snake. The outdated name was ‘Hypoaspis miles,’ I think (?). They eat the mites bothering the snake , then turn on each other once those are all gone. I have used them previously, when I kept hermit crabs and they got mite infestations. They worked like a charm in that context.
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Small clarification, predatory mites will switch diet to pollen, plant matter, fungus (in some species), and other arthropods before becoming cannibalistic. So if you inoculate a bioactive they tend to stick around for a good long time. I typically spike some in to my naturalistic setups as just one more commensal part of the clean up crew
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