Green Tree Python Parasite Information
Ahhh parasites - the word strikes fear into the heart of reptile keepers everywhere.
The first - and perhaps most important - thing to understand about parasites is that they are completely natural. In the wild parasites have a wonderful and symbiotic relationship with their hosts and they certainly don't kill them, such a strategy would be self defeating. Parasites live out different segments of their life with different hosts, some even move from mammals to reptiles or do other amazing things.
So what is the problem with parasites? Basically - we all keep Green Tree Pythons in cages which is like putting a little box around a patch of nature. Parasites have no where to go, they have no one else to go live on for awhile, and they have little in the way of environmental problems or predators - so they reproduce like mad. Parasites are present at every reptile show and in every pet shop I have ever been in, be aware of this. People bringing their snake over to "visit" you can be a real problem starter.
Your job is to control parasites so you can successfully keep your GTP in a cage, the same way you control other environmental factors. Some folks strive to eliminate every parasite from their world and make grandiose statements about the "cleanliness" of their collections or facility. They freak out if they ever see anything and while we might agree that the goal is worthy there are some problems with this attitude generally - it tends to make people very afraid of and therefore unfamiliar with parasites and it often causes people to administer oodles of medications (usually at the wrong dosage) for no reason. That being said we would also not agree with the other extreme attitude that parasites are "normal" or an unavoidable part of keeping reptiles.
The first part of any good anti-parasite program is a very clean cage where stools are removed immediately.
The parasite is a natural thing - getting to know it and how to work with it is a good thing - work with mother nature, don't fight her. Learn from good reliable sources, there are more "myths" about parasites than almost anything else related to caring for reptiles.
Fundamentally - there is no mastery of the Green Tree Python without a mastery of parasites.
External Parasites
So the creepy crawlies come in two flavors - inside the snake and outside the snake - and of course a problem you can see with the naked eye is much easier to deal with. Snake mites generally enter your world through newly acquired animals, substrates from pet stores which have mites, or things brought in from outside.
Green Tree Pythons are very good at hiding mites, this is because of their unique and amazing coloration and individual variance. A little black spot on a GTP does usually look "right" until it moves. There are a few common areas to check on your snake if you are looking for mites: under the chin (especially in the white fold area), around the eyes, around the vent, and under the belly scales. Generally speaking most people notice mites when they see something moving on their snake.
Step one - relax. While mites can and do kill reptiles if left untreated they are not more serious than when your dog gets fleas. It sucks to deal with it, that's true, but mites can always be successfully eliminated. We do agree that it is ok to freak out about mites is if you have a large collection and you see mites in one cage. They usually spread like mad and the amount of work it takes to deal with them multiplies exponentially.
You need a clean secure plastic container, like a rubbermaid type tub. If you see just a few mites give your snake a quick warm water bath to drown them. If you have lots of mites lightly coat your snake in mineral oil to smother the mites and then give them the same quick water bath and place them in that sterile, clean, nice warm plastic container and put it as far away from your snake cage as practically possible.
There is one - and only one - commercial product that is effective on mites. I know that there are lots of things at your local pet store and lots of things available online that say they kill mites - please trust me , I am 100% certain that they are all a complete, total, and udder load of crap. Some might kill mites but not without being toxic to animals.
The only commercial product that works on reptile mites is Provent-A-Mite by Pro Products. Leaving a reptile show without a can of this stuff is a bad idea, you should always have one in with your reptile supplies.
Using Provent-A-Mite is pretty simple, just follow the instructions on the can. Basically you remove the water bowl from the cage and spray down the enclosure - let it dry fully and air out - and return the reptile. It has residual killing power and you can (but usually don't need to) repeat the treatment in two weeks.
There is another treatment for mites that works - but it is veterinary. Ivermectin - both injected in the snake and sprayed on the enclosure - can kill mites effectively. This is the type of solution a large facility might use as part of a strategy developed with their veterinarian. Administered incorrectly Ivermectin is more toxic than helpful.
Oh - and the other external parasite of course is ticks. I've never actually seen a tick on a GTP but I'm sure you could find one on a wild caught animal if you spent some time looking. Grasp the tick firmly with a pair of tweezers near the head (just like you would if it was on you) and remove it.
Internal Parasites
There are oodles of parasites in every snake there is, there are parasites inside you right now - and the vast majority of them are completely harmless. Some of them - like "gut bacteria" - are even helpful or important to normal functioning.
There are so many types of parasites it boggles the mind - literally millions, maybe billions. There are more unidentified parasites than ones that have been identified. This is why we tend to place them into large loosely formed groups like hookworms and flagellates.
Most of the parasites that are well understood are in the minority - they are the ones that do harm to us.
So the first thing you have to decide about internal parasites is what your strategy is going to be - some folks do nothing if they don't see a problem, some folks test regularly, and some folks treat on a preventative basis the way they give heart worm pills to a dog. There are pros and cons to all of these ideas. Here at Spruce Nubble Farm we use a combination - we test extensively and occasionally treat on a preventative basis.
Most often people begin to suspect internal parasites when their snake starts to lose weight. They might go off feed, they might have really funky looking stools. Parasites are one of the underlying culprits in lots of health problems.
The way to check for parasites is with a stool sample - floats and smears that your vet can do for you.
You should know it doesn't require great skill or lots of equipment to "do your own" parasite work. As the only thing any sample can tell you is whether or not there is evidence of parasites in that particular sample - this is something to seriously consider. The other thing that makes this practical is a wonderful little $9 book by Roger Klingenberg called Understanding Reptile Parasites: A Basic Manual for Herptoculturists & Veterinarians. In plain, simple, no-nonsense language this book describes the equipment and process to check your own fecal samples. The Bean Farm sells the poster that goes with this book which is a big help in identifying organisms.
Here at Spruce Nubble Farm we have a 400X compound microscope with attached digital camera that we use. The thing we really like about the camera part - besides being able to provide customers images of clean fecal's - is that we can share the pictures produced with others if we aren't sure of what we are seeing. This is a great way to partner with your vet , many of them are happy to review images you send them. Owning your own scope also allows you to test samples frequently, an animal can only be said to "free" of parasites when several stool samples (3 or more) show a clean result, many parasites only "shed" (put eggs or parts of themselves into stools) during specific parts of their lifecycle. An inexpensive microscope is around $50, a "good" one with a digital camera is around $750.
So you, your vet, or in the best of all worlds both of you will review images like these:
You'll be looking for evidence of parasites - your quest (thankfully) is not to identify the specific parasite but just what type it is. The Klingenberg book goes into detail but each type of parasite has some distinctive visual features.
There are a limited number of agents to choose from when considering a course of treatment for reptile parasites, and knowing what type of parasites you are dealing with reduces the choices even further.
It is worth repeating here - do not simply start administering drugs to your animals if you don't know what you are doing. Many drugs are only available by prescription. Form a relationship with your vet and talk to them before treating any animal. Wait until the vet tells you there is no need to call them, don't assume it is ok to just do anything "again".
The most commonly used anti parasitic agent in snakes is Flagyl (Metronidazole) - it kills amoebae and most flagellates. It tends to stimulate the appetite and it can cause seizures if overdosed. Flagyl liquid is not available in the US but it can be compounded, the injectable form is generally given by mouth. There is a wide range of recommended doses with this drug and true "reptile safety limits" are not well understood. In the textbooks doses range anywhere from 25 to 250 mg/kg given by mouth and then repeated in 14 days. Here at Spruce Nubble Farm we typically use a dosage of 50-75 mg/kg for our Green Tree Pythons and repeat in two weeks. Some folks use 100 mg/kg and that works well for them. The simplest way to give this to an animal is to use the pills and insert the correct dosage into a prey item - not to be gross but you literally just place it down the mouse throat and give it a little shove. Your vet may have other administration options.
The other "commonly" used anti parasitic agent used with Green Tree Pythons is Panacur. (Fenbendazole). It kills nematodes, pinworms, hookworms, and some other parasites. This drug sees heavy use in the cattle industry and it is in lots of horse wormers. It is available over the counter but administering it without consulting your vet is - as always - a really stupid thing to do. Like Flagyl a one time dose is not effective because it does not kill parasites at every stage of their life cycle. Here at Spruce Nubble Farm we typically use a dosage of 100 mg/kg by mouth, repeated in two weeks.
Droncit (Praziquantel) is another agent folks like to use with GTP's. As always administration in a prey item is preferred. It kills tapeworms by damaging their skin until they disintegrate - so no dead worms get passed. We use a dosage of 8 mg/kg - this drug makes some dogs and cats nauseous, I've no idea how to tell if a snake is nauseous. Another thing to know about this medication is that it isn't cheap like other wormers are.
Flagyl, Panacur, and Droncit have been referred to as the 1,2,3 parasite punch as far as Green Tree Pythons are concerned and it is fair to say that there are very few parasites that could survive these drugs being appropriately administered in sequence. This is a very reasonable thing to do with a newly acquired wild caught animal assuming it seems in good health otherwise. It is also fair to say that this is lots of drugs to give an animal and it is only reasonable to expect some impacts.
Generally speaking folks find what works for them over time - there is no single "correct" answer when dealing with parasites. People administer different doses and at different frequencies based on what has worked for them. Talk to your vet, think about the way you want to manage your animals, and faithfully perform your anti-parasite program - whatever it might be.
GTP's and Parasites
Green Tree Pythons have a bit of a reputation for generally being infested with impossible to kill parasites. As many have learned the hard way the assumption that captive born and bred animals couldn't have parasites can be a fatal error. The assumption that feeding frozen and thawed food solves all problems is an even bigger mistake.
You've got to deal with it when it comes to parasites and GTP's, they are truly different from other snakes in many ways and this is one of them. For lots of snake keepers the object is to never have or deal with any parasites and with some types of animals - especially colubrids - this is possible. You may have never had parasites problems before due to your really good husbandry - Green Tree Pythons are just not the same. Learning about parasites is just part of "stepping up" to an "advanced" animal like a GTP - you can and will develop a sound program that offers good control and minimal problems.
The biggest reason why Green Tree Pythons have such a reputation for parasite problems is - dirty little secret here - the majority offered for sale are wild caught animals. Without making any disparaging remarks about the Indonesian government it isn't difficult to understand that systems of regulation work differently in different parts of the world. All of the 15,000 - 20,000 Green Tree Pythons that are imported into the United States each year have been certified as "captive bred" by Indonesia. That being said the reality is that there is only one Indonesian farm that has a substantial collection of adult animals, the "Bushmaster" farm. This farm produces at most about 1,200 animals per year (average year 800-1,000) and every one of them passes through the wholesale trade first where known customers scoop them up before they can be sold by retailers. So that means that - from a pure numbers perspective - the chances of the "imported but captive bred" animal being the genuine article is less than 5%. In Green Tree Pythons most neonate animals for sale are presented as "farm raised" but they just aren't - and dealing with wild caught Green Tree Pythons is very very difficult.
We have no problem with wild caught animals - they are the founder stock that begins any captive breeding program. We don't believe in the fantasy that private breeders will be able to "repopulate" the wild with captive born and bred animals. We know that many countries collect lots of animals every year and have been doing it for many decades with no harmful impacts and they have as much right to collect and sell that as any other natural resource they have. Reptiles are also used for food and for the leather trade, in many cases those types of exports are 10-100 times as much as live pet animals. We know that the real problem is habitat destruction and agree that economic forces do a great job of controlling excessive collection.
People have been farming in Maine since the 1700's. The stone walls on our property were all completed before 1830. Our land here at Spruce Nubble Farm was once a big old apple orchard that stopped being commercial in the 1960's. So we have a bunch of abandoned ancient apple trees on our property - which are sort of a "natural" product and sort of a human cultivated one. We have some wild strawberries and many of the sappin (maple) trees planted along the roads are at least 100 years old.
The point of all this is that natural products vary wildly - some years the apples are large and wonderful, some years they are small and mostly rotten. Some years the berries do well and some years they do so poorly they aren't worth gathering.
Wild caught animals are a natural product and just like all other natural products they have huge variance. Some years the conditions are just right and the GTP crop is fat and robust. Some years conditions are difficult and survival rates in the wild are very low. This means that trying to make judgments about the "strength" or "reality" with wild caught creatures is like trying to guess whether or not the berries will be good this year - a fun thing to chat about at the farmers union but hardly a scientific conversation. Most folks that have strong opinions about "farmed" animals have in fact never had a real one to judge. All the animals we sell here are captive born and bred, we think wild caught critters are best left to the pros.
The natural survival rate of GTP's is not that good - captive born and bred animals show us some of this with their numbers. It is a rare clutch that sees a 100% hatch rate and a significant percentage of any hatched animals do not get "started" or begin to feed, some that do just aren't strong enough to make it - we all try to push our averages but it is reasonable to say that between a third and half of GTP's hatched in captivity don't live to one year of age. Sometimes this is as low as 5%, sometimes it is 80%, but it is clear nature does plan for many of these little guys to get eaten and fall prey to other problems. Skills and husbandry are important factors but you can't change what mother nature intended.
So while respecting the fact that every animal is an individual - I've seen amazing wild caught creatures and piece of crap captive born and bred animals from "known" breeders - you need to learn about and implement an anti-parasite program for your Green Tree Pythons.
Your best bet is to work with your vet and decide what sort of testing you'd like to do and how often. A microscope is not an expensive piece of gear. Keeping track of your animal's weight is really important. When parasites are understood and respected they are unlikely to be a fatal problem for any Green Tree Python, ignore them at your peril.
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