The carpet python was iIl and blanketed in more than 500 ticks when it was found trying to drown the parasites in a backyard swimming pool.
The Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher responded this week to a call on the Gold Coast in Queensland from a homeowner worried about the reptile.
When the professional snake catcher arrived, he was shocked to see the state of the snake and the sheer number of ticks.
“That’s why he’s in the water. He’s trying to drown them. They’re all over his body,” Tony Harrison is heard on video telling the homeowner.
Harrison scooped up the snake and whisked it to a wildlife veterinary hospital.
He said he just couldn’t believe an animal could survive in that state.
The poor thing had an infection on top of all the ticks.
“Never in the 26 years of catching has Tony ever seen something this bad,” the company posted later on Facebook.
The snake, named Nike, was taken to the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital Foundation.
“There are still tiny young ones under the scales that will be treated with drugs to kill them,” the Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher said. “But this poor carpet python was living with a whopping 511 ticks.”
But he is so much better now.
Still, it will be a while before Nike is released back to the wild.
“Nike is a bit more sprightly today,” Harrison said in a video posted to the Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher’s Facebook page.
Good luck, Nike.
