Reptile & Amphibian Forums

the vet i went to today thinks my male has mites. i'm skeptical. she said that red coloration inside the frill was a mite infestation. i saw a picture of a nice looking female frill on this forum with a similar red coloration on her back. both appear to be from new guinea and that particular breed shows little red. i just am not positive that mites are the issue. i had a blue tongue w/ mites about 10 years ago and they were visible around eyes and ears a lot of the time, sure as shinola little black mites. i see no such thing on my male's eyes and ears. mites also leave white excretions, again not present in my male. i've already tossed a bunch of costly logs and grapevine and have no desire to go freaking them out by spraying w/ ivomec if i don't have to. The female in w/ him also has a little bit of red rust coloring in the more concealed areas of the frill, but no other symptoms. could this just be normal colorations and a case of an inexperienced vet? she also questioned his activity level, but the room we were in had a lot of air conditioning piped in, not to mention that the male is fairly accustomed to handling (I've been handling him for over 2 years). He was very active when I took him freshly from his warm cage to give him his medication this evening, hissing and frilling and the like. she also recommended turf as a substrate, something that is regularly dissed in these forums. i'd basically just like to know if other keepers of new guinea frills have observed reddish colorations on small parts of the frill. also, she asked me what lighting I was using. when i said mercury vapor, she told me i needed to be providing a uv source (no, seriously). I was polite and didn't debate w/ her, as she may be a lot of help in some respects. it's just that after observing my skink and my ackie, housed in other cages, there are zero signs of mites, so i have no clue where they could have magically appeared from. the vet said it was the substrate (jungle litter from the pet store, in a sealed bag). Please help before i start fumigating!?
thanks.

in my experience ( which is very little to do with mites) any type of " hitchhiker" on a lizard/gecko will noticely be moving, or noticely be attached to the skin. here is a link that was posted on the uroplatus gecko forum that may be of help. http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/index.php?photo=192522&si=bsmith251
seeing as how you have seemingly delt with mites before, i would guess that your animal does not have mites ( just a guess). and it is just showing a few red scales.
frills and around mouths and eyes as you have mentioned are most noted for mites in frilled dragons and would be the # 1 place to check. if you cannot physically scrape them off with your fingernail, i would guess they are not mites.

a rusty coloration is normal and you need your vet to take a sample of the area and look at it under the microscope. "exotic" vets are not always experts, but sometimes are the few who will deal with reptile problems. Do not expect her/him to know more about the daily care of frillys than you do. she probably looked on the internet to find out some info.

anyway, i am not sure it is the same but my frilles male had a small tear at the top of his frill on each side, the skin was a bit discolored and began to peel back down along the outer frill. i also went to the vet only to discover that my "exotics vet" really only had general knowledge of lizards. she did however take samples of infected areas and had culture samples sent out. a course of antibiotics solved the problem and his frill has healed nicely. i would also recommend a deworming while you are taking him for vet visits.

when my frilly had mites it was quite obvious but only behind the frills i didnt see them any where else and it did have red marks (from the mite bites maybee) i would keep a very close eye on it .it may be an early infestation.