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scabies

A

anokas

New member
hy everyone
I recently ran out of ratz to feed my snakes, so I bought some frozen ones...
I've been feeding them to my snakes for the past 2 weeks, but now I noticed something in the ratz ears, it looks like they have scabies...
Do you think this might cause any damage to my snakes?
I've talked to some people who told me that snakes can't have scabies, so it can't hurt them, but I was not 100% confident on that answer.
What do you guys think?
 
If they are frozen I am sure ear mites will not bother the snake. Kinda gross though, isn't it? Then again I might be wrong, I am not really experienced with stuff like this. Hopefully another member with more information will post here.
 
Scabies, or sarcoptes scabiei, is a mite that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Ear mites in general are quite uncommon in rats, and sarcoptes, from what little I've found, seems to prefer to attack the edges of the pinnae rather than the insides of the ear. http://www.rmca.org/Articles/mites.htm

If you're noting crustyness in the ear itself, a much more likely culprit would be an ear infection. Anyways, even if it was sarcoptes, they die when frozen so there is no danger to your snake. Sarcoptes is also a mammalian mite so you have even less to worry about.
 
Thank you both for your answers! I think it really is scabies 'cause it seems there are small crusts on the edges of the ratz ears. I went to my vet and talked to him about it and he did tell me that if it really is scabies, there's nothing to worry about, but he told me not to use those ratz anymore, 'cause although it looks like scabies, it mite be a fungus infection, and in that case he's not really sure it would be safe to keep feeding them to my snakes.
Bottom line, if you're not really sure, don't give them to your snakes.
my best regards.
Ana
 
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