Flaviemys purvisi
Very Well-Known Member
Isabella Robinson
Yahoo7 News
10 January 2019
An experienced snake catcher has attended a shocking call out which he said made his stomach turn, retrieving a python covered in “hundreds of paralysis ticks”.
The carpet python was soaking in a pool when Tony and Brooke Harrison arrived to the home in the Gold Coast suburb of Coolangatta on Thursday.
“That’s why he’s in the water. He’s trying to drown them. They’re all over his body,” snake catcher Tony Harrison.
The carpet python was found in the water trying to drown the ticks. Source: Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher/ Facebook
Mr Harrison said he had never seen anything like it.
“I’ve done this for 26 years and this is the worst I’ve ever seen,” he says as he’s holding the reptile’s head out of the water.
The snake had successfully drowned some of the parasites with a number of them seen floating in the pool.
“That’s making my stomach turn, that’s so freakin feral,” the snake catcher adds.
The snake, which was retrieved on Thursday from a Coolangatta home, was covered in ticks. Source: Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher/ Facebook
Facebook users were also shocked by the parasites covering the python.
“That breaks my heart,” one person commented.
“That’s horrible. Poor little guy,” said another.
“Holy moly that’s a lot,” a third user wrote.
The snake catcher said he has “never seen anything like it”. Source: Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher/ Facebook
The python has been taken to the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital where it is receiving treatment.
The snake catchers do believe the snake will survive, but responded to a comment on Facebook saying the ticks could have killed the python.
Yahoo7 has reached out to the wildlife hospital for an update on the reptile’s condition.
