I recently had a small mite problem in my collection with my retics and a few of my venomous (mites seem to have expensive taste, only hitting my retics and baby taipans). My lavendar and my tiger retics are both '03s, the lavendar being much smaller than the tiger though at about 3' whereas the tiger is over 4' already. I ordered some Reptile Relief from Big Apple, as it seemed to be the only product safe enough to spray onto the reptile without taking any chances. The stuff seems to work great, however I have found myself with a little problem right now. My tiger is doing great, mites are gone, he's eating, and everything is spiffy. However, the lavendar is acting slightly lethargic and has some sore-looking things on her sides. I was assuming that these small red areas were maybe where some mites had died on her and since the Reptile Relief "melts" their exoskeletons, they had just leaked on her. I bathed her though and they are definitely small sores. I just attempted a feeding with both a rat and a mouse, and she is showing no interest. This is really worrying me as she has never missed a meal and usually has the appetite of a normal retic. Is there any chance that the mites could have caused a sickness, and if so does my rather vague description point to anything in particular? You can bet she'll be accompanying me to my vet on Monday first thing, but because of the vast amounts of money I have invested in her I don't exactly want to wait too very long and would like someone to ease my paranoia for the time being. So please, if you read this and think you might have some idea, either reply here (I'll be checking it often), shoot me an e-mail at rvsnakes@direcway.com, or even call me at 479-477-0434. I hope I don't sound too freaked out, but I'm sure many of your can understand my concern. Thanks for any and all help anyone can give!

-Chance Duncan

http://www.rivervalleysnakes.com

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• Just got over a mite problem, but should I panick now?? - Chance, Sat Dec 13 23:00:12 2003