? on mites

i found two mites on stoner today. i just got him back from the person who watched him while i was in vegas. is there anything i can do to treat? i did clean the tank out with wipe out 1, but i do that weekly to begin with. i do change the paper daily and he has been getting soaked once daily for 10 minutes at a time. he has undergone his treatment for coccidia and needs one more treatment for pinworms. he has done a great weight gain from when i left him 'til today. he was 50 grams on the 9th and now weighs 74 grams!! he's been eating like a champ and doing great but i don't need the mites. thanks for the info.

Sorry to hear that your dragon came back from the babysitters with a few new friends. There are many products available to get rid of mites. A phone call or even a visit to your vet should get you on the right path for treating him.

Good luck!!!

well he probably had them when i got him, probably never noticed. she has no reptiles at her place, just birds. she actually had him in his own room away from the birds. i am using ivermectin as a spray. it's 10-15 mg diluted in a quart of tap water and i'm to spray him and the tank every 4-5 days for up to 3 weeks. that's what the vet said to use anyway. anyone else heard otherwise on this?

Originally Posted by techgirl

well he probably had them when i got him, probably never noticed. she has no reptiles at her place, just birds. she actually had him in his own room away from the birds. i am using ivermectin as a spray. it's 10-15 mg diluted in a quart of tap water and i'm to spray him and the tank every 4-5 days for up to 3 weeks. that's what the vet said to use anyway. anyone else heard otherwise on this?

Just a few things I looked up:

• Ivermectin is not water soluble, therefore the spray must be shaken vigorously before each use
• All Ivermectin forumulations must be maintained in opaque containers to retard light degradation.
• Mites can recover from paralysis caused by ivermectin--therefore quarantine, proper sanitation, and environment cleanliness is highly recommended.
• Ivermectin sprays to the environment should be applied weekly for 3-4 weeks

I found that in Reptile Medicine and Surgery 2nd Ed. by Mader. I've never used it on a reptile, but I know that certain animals can be extremely sensitive to it. If you have a turtle or tortoise, make sure you keep the Ivermectin FAR away from them--it's lethal to chelonians. Also, the concentration listed is 10mg/ml in 1 quart of water and it says that some lizards are more sensitive to it, so I would make sure you don't mix it any stronger than that.

Good luck with him, Jessica.

Jessica-

We had mites on our Frilled Dragons at one time. We tried the ivermectin spray with no success. The one thing that finally got rid of the mites was using a no-pest strip. At the time, we had the frillies in a rather small room. We bought the appropriately sized no-pest strip (enough to treat the entire room), hung it in the middle of the room...and left it there for 2 weeks. It finally knocked out all those nasty mites, and it wasn't too labor intensive. The only thing is that you have to make sure there is no water in the area for the mites to rehydrate themselves, as the no-pest strips work by dehydrating the mites to kill them. From what I've read and been told, use of the no-pest strip is fairly harmless. It's been over a year since we had the mites, and the frillies are doing just fine.

You also might want to bathe Stoner in a iodine wash to help heal his mite bites. The bath won't kill the mites, it is only to treat his bites. Just make sure you give him a drink of water first, so he's not tempted to drink from the iodine bath. To make the bath, run warm water to his chest and pour enough iodine in to make the water look like light colored tea. Let him soak in the iodine bath for 10 minutes or so.

I would also advise removing everything from his enclosure and treating it. We found with the frillies, that the mites were in a piece of wood we had for them to climb on. If his furniture will fit, you can wash it in the dishwasher making sure that you use the heat dry...and that should take care of things. And you'll need to keep him on paper for the time being, so you can change it daily and dispose of any mites that fall off of him.

Hope this helps a little!