When it comes to reptiles - more often than not, we want to highlight the great things! New arrivals, updated enclosures, room tours, expos, etc. We DON'T often discuss things like biosecurity, diseases, cross contamination, mites, etc. This sends people onto social media groups asking for help and ideas, and then getting obliterated by "experts" and a million ideas that may or may not work for them.
OK... so how can I help? I'd like to discuss a mite treatment that I have tried with 100% success! That's right - 100%!! Now, I will admit, initially I was skeptical, especially with limited information, but took the chance, and want to discuss my findings. The journey of this includes my own mite battle due to neglegence from a fellow keeper that I shared my space with (This is part of the reason I relocated BMR). But I won't go into those details at this time.
So, let's get the full story together. I was contacted by someone inquiring about a carpet python they had with some ocular swelling. As something I've seen before, I knew right away they had a mite issue. While they were hesitant to believe me initially (because no one wants to have a mite issue)... they circled back with me days later to express that they had ended up seeing mites on the snake. They asked how I would treat the parasite, and I had given them the tried and true soak method. I think most of us are familiar with this method. Removing the snake from the enclosure, and cleaning the enclosure, while soaking the snake in warm water, and after a few minutes of soaking, add some dawn dish soap to aggitate the water which efectively drowns the mites. The downside with this method is it can take multiple soaks for extended periods of time. This can certainly stress your reptile out more than normal, and while there are ways to mitigate the stress, it's still frustrating. Of course also having the animal in a more sterile environment (paper or paper towels, with limited decor, etc). This method is effective, especially as a preventative (treating new arrivals before quarantine, etc). Though it can be hard if you have a larger collection, that's for sure!
The person I was speaking to had asked me if I had heard of "Nexgard" (Afoxolaner) (the dog flea preventative) being used to treat mites. I told him I hadn't and wasn't sure of it's safety for reptiles, so I advised against it. He sent me a paper published on the topic which I'll link here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36609309/. It was expressed that it was 100% effective across multiple species.
Fast forward a bit.. I found myself sharing a space with another keeper who had a horrific mite infestation in their collection (worst I've EVER seen), right across the hall from mine (a conversation for a different day). Now, I have always been a firm believer in preventative treatments like using Provent A Mite 1-2x per month during regular maintenance, especially seeing as I do vend reptile shows, and there's always a chance to bring an unwanted hitchhiker home that could then cause chaos. Unfortunately, a couple of these pests had made their way into my room, and I needed to act quickly, and hard to prevent them from spreading. Remembering the previous conversation about Afoxolaner, I decided to explore this option a bit. Now, Afoxolaner is a perscription preventative, so I did need to get a vet to sign off on it. The linked paper above, listed the dosing (2.5mg/kg) for the various snakes, and over the years, I've to medicate various reptiles for different reasons, so I was conformtable doing the math and dosing my own animals myself. The concept would be to weigh each snake, administer an approprate dosage into a feeder rodent (Slightly smaller than normal, for quicker absorption), and then feed the snake the dosed rodent.
Nexgard (Afoxolaner) is also a sold in weight catgegories (0-10lb, 10.1 - 24lb, etc), which means, if the dosage ends up being slightly over, it's not the end of the world. If a 10 and 24 pound dog are getting the same dosage, in theory, a 1 and a 3 pound snake could receive the same dosage. I wanted to see just how effective the Afoxolaner would be, so, I weighed an adult pied ball python in the other space (where the mite infestation was incomprehensible), and dosed it 2x what the weight of the snake was. The next day, I revisted the snake, and noticed an immediate reduction in mites on the animal. The following day, upon revisiting the snake, it was the only snake in that room with no mites on it at all. Taking this into acount, along with seeing no adverse reacions from the snake, I decided to go ahead and start treating all of my snakes both to handle the few that made their way over, and as a preventative (as the medication is normally used in dogs) for all of my other snakes that I did not notice any mites on. I used this treatment for ball pythons, carpet pythons, retics, short tail pythons, corn snakes, king snakes, hognose snakes, milk snakes, pine snakes, gopher snakes, even the Amazon tree boas, (literally every animal) with zero side effects. Now, given the size of my collection, it took a while to execute, but the peace of mind was worth the time spent! I will say, on average, I dosed each one of my animals 1.5x the named dosage in the article because in the US, Nexgard (Afoxolaner) is a chewable and not a disolvable tablet. So, I had to cut the tablet and weighed the peices on a mg scale, but there isn't a way to guarantee the medicine is evenly distributed through the entire tablet, so 2.5mg of chewable doesn't mean 2.5mg of medicine. With this in mind, I did adjust the dosage. I do NOT recommend doing this if you're unfamiliar with treating reptiles. I would recommend discussing this concept with your vet, and show them the published paper. Feel free to show them this blog as well as I disucss my anicdotal evidence.
Now, as published in the paper, even after 28 days post treatment, the medication was still present in the snakes system. As it is a monthly treatment for dogs and cats, it could be assumed the same for snakes and possibly longer as snakes have a slower metabolism in comparison to dogs and cats. With that in mind, it is important to note, the key in treating mites is to be able to disrupt the life cycle of the mites. With this treatment effectively lasting more than that of the mite life cycle, it, in theory handles that entire problem. That also means, gutting a cage and dumping bedding, and plants, etc, is no longer necessary - though I'd still recommend being proactive and cleaning cage furniture to be safe anyway!
All in all, I was very surprised by the effectveness of this treatment, and I highly recommend it now when disucssing this with other keepers. The biggest downside is the cost, however, the effectiveness in my opinion makes it worth it. Especially with that, there is no longer a NEED to clean out enclosures - just wait a couple of days.
I hope that my experience and findings can provide some clarity and help for others who may be fighting a mite issue and want to treat in a less invasive way. Remember, mites are not a sign that you are a bad keeper, letting it get out of control does. It is inevitably art of the journey especially if you vend or attend a reptile show, visit other reptile collections, and purchase new reptiles. So, do your due diligence, and make sure you are quarantining new arrivals. Make this Afoxolaner treatment part of your QT practice if you can!
Until next time everyone!
-Jeremy