Australian Snake Catcher Captures Tick Infested Python With Over 500 Ticks On It
OutdoorHub Reporters 01.14.19
Working as a snake catcher in Australia, you never know what you could find yourself face-to-face with next. But a tick infested python is pretty shocking, even for the land down under.
Officials working with a snake catching organization rescued a carpet python from a swimming pool in a Queensland resident’s backyard last week, BBC reported.
The snake, which was dubbed Nike, was found coated with over 500 ticks and treated by vets for a “nasty infection.”
“[The infection] may have caused his immobility, allowing the ticks to take advantage of him,” the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital stated online:
“Thank you for all your well wishes regarding Nike the ‘tick python’, who made international news. Nike was saved from a certain death by Tony and Brooke from Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher after being found in a swimming pool covered in ticks.
Our hospital staff removed 511 ticks from Nike, which left him very unwell with anaemia. Nike also has a nasty infection which may have caused his immobility, allowing the ticks to take advantage of him.
Currumbin Wildlife Hospital relies on community donations, help save wildlife like Nike today by visiting our website www.currumbinwildlifehospital.org.au“
In case you didn’t catch that, hospital workers removed a total of 511 ticks from the python!
Nike isn’t quite out of the woods just yet as he deals with anaemia, but the hospital remains optimistic he will make a full recovery and be released back into the wild.
