How to Handle Corn Snake Mites

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village I'm Nicole and I'm here to tell you about corn snakes. Corn snakes are also proned to internal parasites if they are wild caught most captive red don't have the internal parasites. But one thing to look out for is bloody stools and regurgitation is one of the main tell tell signs of internal parasites. If they can not keep their food down then there is probably something going on in there. Another problem would be mites or ticks which will be characterized by little black bugs on the body. If you can't actually see the bugs a lot of times you'll see a scale that has been lifted and this can possible have a mite underneath it. Mites need to be treated with a base treatment that is something you would use on cats if it has flees. Just make sure to dilute it to .05% if you don't have pyrethran spray you can get at your local pet stores mite treatment. They will often have it may not be pyrethran based but they will often have mite treatments that will work. Usually it involves cleaning their cage out every day and treating the snake probably for about 3 days, maybe up to a week. Now ticks can be pulled off with teasers and the wound that it has made on the snake can be covered with a triple antibiotic ointment. That is generally all you need to do to take care of ticks. Now left untreated ticks and mites can cause disease and death in your snakes so this is something you want to make sure to treat it right away. Another problem with snakes can be neurological problems if you see star gazing which is starring straight up into the ceiling for no apparent reason. Or kind of spacing out or weaving back and forth that is probably a sign of neurological problem and should be checked by a veteranian. Most people wouldn't think you can take a snake to the vet but you'll be surprised how many local vets in your area have a background in herpetology. You can go ahead and call you vet offices that are local and ask if they have a specialist in herpetology and if they don't then they will often times be able to refer you to somebody who does have a background in snakes or in exotic animals at all."