Mites? help! - with pictures

I have a young bearded dragon that i believe has mites. It took me a few days to figure it out, because they dont look like typical mites you'd see on a snake or another reptile. They are small and red, and dont move around. Under some of his scales, are red clusters that almost look like a scab. I decided they must be mites though when i saw some fall off in the water during his bath. I also noticed some on a paper towel that i use in his tank. I have some pictures and hopefully some of you will be able to help be confirm that they actually are mites.







here is his bad eye. its a little watery looking in the picture but in a few days time it will be a little more goopy.


this is the paper towel that you can see them on. they are very small!


For treatment, i've been soaking him in a warm water bath for about 15 minutes. Then, i've sprayed him down with Natural Chemistry Reptile Relief, for mites. I cleaned out his entire tank and sprayed it down as well. All he has in there is paper towels and a small food bowl. Is there anything else i can do? I dont want him to suffer!
His appetite has been fine, and hes got plenty of engery, but i want to make sure this doesnt change.
Also, he has been having an eye problem on and off for a little while now. It looks a little infected, but i wipe it out and then its fine for several days, but then he gets a little eye goop back. Is there anything over the counter that i can treat this with? Is terramycin safe for bearded dragons?

Boy, they sure do look like mites. Betadine works very well, you pour enough in water so that it looks like weak tea. The solution helps soothe the bites and also makes the mites move toward the head so you will have to remove them there.

As far as the eye goes, you can rinse it out with Saline Solution like you would use for humans eyes to wash it out or you could pick up Turtle Eye Drops that can also be used on beardies and see if either of those help.

How is your little one doing?

Basti had those same unmoving red mites when I first got him. I covered them all in olive oil then used a tooth pick to remove everyone I could find. It took around 2 hours but since then I've only found one more one him. I was lucky though, I knew they were on him before I got him home so I treated him before they got in the cage, I imagine they will be more difficult for you to totally remove.

He is doing well. I ended up using the natural chemistry mite spray, and then hand picked each one off of him. I realized they werent moving because they were so filled with blood. I put him in a smaller hospital tank while i bleach out his bigger one. I went ahead and thew all his decorations away and im going to start fresh once im sure everything else is mite free. Thanks for the replies!

Let's see what we can do with his eye problem as well.

What kind of lights are you using on him? Please be very specific. The type and brand will be stamped on the bulb itself. Please take a look and let us know. There are many bulbs out there that will cause eye issues in Bearded Dragons that inexperienced pet stores will sell you just to make a few bucks.

Your UVB is the most important bulb we need to know about. Is it a compact or coil or tube bulb? What is the brand?

That is great to hear!

The UVB is a tube bulb. Its a 10.0 Reptiglo. I wanted a Repti Sun 10.0 but it wasnt available in any of the stores around me at the time. When i bought it, he wasnt eating so i needed one as soon as possible and could not wait a week to order the Repti Sun from the store i work at. A day after i bought it, his appetite came back and did much better. As for heat bulbs, at night he has a 250W red bulb. Its not a reptile specific brand, its one you use for chickens. The day heat bulbs are Zoomed, I have a 150W and a 100W. He normally is in a 40 gallon breeder tank.
His eye problem started before i bought the Reptiglo bulb. I had an old Repti sun that was a 5.0 on him at the time, it and not producing anything beneficial.

The red light at night is not needed and your beardie can see the red light and his/her sleep is disturbed by it. I was told that the red bulbs are bad for their eyes. They need a bright white bulb with the UVB for basking. Heat or warmth is only needed at night if the temperture drops below 65 degrees and a ceramic heat emitter should be used. What are your temperatures and how are you taking your temperatures? ie.digital thermometer with a probe or stick on thermometer or dial theremometer or heat gun? What is the temperature in his cool side?

The ReptiGlo has been known to cause eye issues among many other bad things! Please get a ReptiSun 10.0 as soon as possible. For the meantime you can either shut the ReptiGlo off or make sure it is higher than the recommended 6 inches from bulb to beardie until you can get a ReptiSun to replace it. Most times you will see a difference in activity and appetite after removing the ReptiGlo and putting a ReptiSun in.

You say you have a 150W and a 100W bulb - Do you use both at the same time? I would think one is sufficient to get the proper temperatures and would think both would cause your beardie to overheat and become dehydrated in a 40gallon breeder tank. I use 100W MegaRay bulbs and have a 4x2x2 custom enclosure and the temperatures are on the higher side of 110 degrees.

ok well that is good to know about the red light. I wont use it anymore. Do you think a black light would be harmful as well? I live in a basement apartment so it does get cold at night, and he will probably need some heat.
I will go ahead and try to order the ReptiSUN 10.0 this week as well and we will see if it makes a difference.
As for the temperatures, on the basking side of the tank they are 102-106F and on the cool side about 80-85F. I use a digital thermometer with a probe. Like i said, it does get cold in the room that he is in, so that may be why i need two bulbs.

I wouldn't recommend a black light either. A ceramic heat emitter only puts out heat and no light. It screws into your light fixture just the same but they are a bit more money but are best as they won't disturb your beardie's sleep. We keep our house quite warm so we don't need heat at night even when we have 5 feet of snow on the ground, which is coming soon.

Your cool side temperatures are a bit high. The recommended temps are 70-75 degrees for the cool side. Try to lower them if you can. A digital thermometer is great for measuring temperatures. One of the best. The other is a temp gun and all the other thermometers you buy can be off by quite a bit. Glad to see that you do use a digital with a probe.

Hope things work out for your beardie. Those mites look like a pain to get rid of. Good luck and keep us updated.

You have been given some great info. I am surprised that your temps aren't much higher with 250 watts in a 40 gallon breeder. What brand of probe thermometer are you using? Are you laying the probe end so that it is actually resting on (touching) the basking spot then waiting about 45 min for the temp to stop rising before getting the final reading? Your cool side temp is ok, as long as it doesn't go over 85, the best temp to have on that side is 78 to 82 with 80 being ideal.

Its a Zoomed thermometer. When in the 40 gallon tank, i normally have a 150W bulb on one side, and 100W on the other side. Before i did this, i only had 150W on the tank, and i was only getting temperatures around 85-95 on the warm side and he wasnt eating until i put in the extra heat bulb and the new UVB. When i put him back in the big tank i'll remeasure them, but for now he is just in a 10 gallon with a 100W bulb and the temperatures right now are close to perfect. (102 basking, 78 cool)
Im going to try to bring back the ReptiGLO bulb today to the store, and i will order the ReptiSUN. Thanks for all the advice. I love this forum. I always think i know a decent amount about the animals i have but im constantly learning more

That's what we are all here for is to help. If it wasn't for me finding this forum my beardies would not be thriving as well as they are now. If I ever have any doubt or question about the well being of my beardies (i currently have 4 who were all rescued in some way or another from previous unknowledgable owners) the first place I come is here. For instance; I noticed some weird looking bumps on my Lance's inside legs. I did a quick search up top on this site and found out they were femoral pores and I had nothing to worry about. Let me tell you, I was in a panic for all of 10 minutes. The more I read on these forums the better educated I was with mine and was able to help out others who had beardies. The members here only have your beardies and our own beardies best interest at heart. It's a great community with people who actually care. I've spent endless hours, to my boyfriends grunts and groans of me being on this site, reading up on our dragons and learning more about them. I may not "know" the members on here but trust quite a few of them. There's many posts here that have even made me sob because of how heartwarming these people can be. I spread the word about this site every chance I can in hopes of everyone learning what kind of care these dragons actually need and not some advice from an employee from a pet store who only knows what they were told to say and what to sell you to make a few bucks. It's frustrating returning everything you bought for your beardie because the pet store employee says you gotta have it. I've even argued with a few who have tried to sell me something I don't need or that is not good for my pets.