Snake rescue at Dachigam National Park
Posted by Anjum Andrabi on August 25th, 2008
A rat snake was captured* and found to be suffering from a a bad tick infestation. You can see a tick under one of the scale in the second picture and a removed tick in the third.
Though Snakes do harbor ecto-parasites but its rare to find extensive infestations. Since these ticks suck blood, tick infestations depending on their severity cause weakness, anemia and sometimes even death. Also many disease especially protozoan, are transmitted by the ticks.
Treatment is aimed at removal, which may be done manually or using topically applied tick poisons.
(* One of our readers shot me an email telling us how cruel we were in capturing a snake and how shameless we look posing with it just to take a picture. I therefore thought it prudent to add the conditions in which the snake in picture was captured. The snake was caught in the kitchen of a local CRPF camp which it used to raid on a daily basis and where the cook and other personnel were so irritated with it that had it not been captured and relocated it would have eventually been killed or seriously maimed. As much hurtful and uninformed our distingushed readers views were I wish to inform him with humility that capturing a snake is no childish task especially in Kashmir without any specialised equipment and the snake did at least get relief from the ticks infesting it. Even in absense of this context our aim in publishing these pictures was not to gloat over capturing a snake or rendering treatment to it -it being our job as vets- but to report a case of tick infestation in a wild snake.)
Images: Dr Shabir Ahmad Mir
August 26th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
hello…
i am a student of veterinary science and i have just started a study on tick infestations in a rat snake from our zoo…the snake is highly infested and can you guide me on which books to use and whether the species outside and in India are the same..
April 15th, 2012 at 7:53 pm
salaamunalaikum…
i am an engineer by proffesion but am much interested in nature and its wonders and want to be an explorer.. i have been looking for snakes in kashmir.. i searched internet for the poisonous species like gunas and pothur.. i wanted some of their pictues.. can anyone help me out..? if anyone has them , please contact me at [email protected].. thankx.
June 19th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
sir,
it is very nice to see that you saved a snake. sir i am a student of computer science as well as lecturer, but i like wild life and i have a number of collections of wildlife of kashmir of my own such as snakes, leopard e.t.c