Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

zarozinia · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:23 pm Post subject: First ever snake is poorly.

We have had Roast Beef, our first snake (a classic corn) for around 6 years ( she is around 8 years old) and never had any problems with her. Over the last few weeks she has experienced great difficulty with sloughing, she has never required soaking or even a humid hide to slough in the past. She has not taken food for around 4 or 5 weeks now either, but she does often miss a meal during sloughing. Her temperatures are as per usual and there has been no other change to her care other than what is mentioned below in an attempt to resolve the shewdding problem.
I have tried a humid hide, I have tried changing the substrate to orchid bark to maintain a slight amount of humidity as she has been having so much difficulty. I soaked her for an hour, no better, left it a couple of days and soaked her for a few hours and still no change. This week she was soaked for around 6 hours and still no skin coming off. Today I soaked her for 3 hours but also added a few drops of cooking oil to try to soften the skin too.Each time I have gently rubbed her with a rough towel and nothing came off before today - and now only single scales are coming off after a rub. But she has developed two other problems now, along the edges of her belly scale, just going up the side, for about the width of two scales, these scales look very rough and dry, almost like the start of scale rot - yet she has been kept in immaculate conditions. This is only along a few inches of her body near her vent area and I am concerned she may have some sort of skin infection( ?fungal) now.
She has also started to gape and Im convinced she has the start of a respiratory infection - possibly brought on by all the soaking/ raised humidity.
She remains quite lively, but Im still very concerned for her, she seems to have gone down hill fairly rapidly.

Has anyone else ever experienced this type of problem with a snake having such difficulty in sloughing and developing a skin problem? Ive seen many snakes that have had a minor problem sloughing which was easily sorted out, but never anything quite like this.

Im taking her to the vets either tomorrow or Saturday morning.
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Cheers Angi
Proud to be a Geordie!
My Images - http://anginelson.deviantart.com/

Drymarchon32 · Key Member Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 271

Hi,
just thought I would add my experience to the situation. I have seen a few snakes (maybe 2 or 3) with the same issue. I have always put the shedding problem down to a systemic infection which is backed up by post mortem results. In two of the animals a pseudomonas infection was isolated and the other was an infection of the ovaries due to old age,(imho) but salmonella was isolated. This snake had previously had a very poor shed similar to the one described, but the following one was perfect. This may be backed up in your situation by the susceptability to futher infections in this instance the lack of appetite, possible RI and scale issue.
Having seen your previous posts I do not believe it to be a husbandry issue, but an infection that is possibly exacerbated by the seasonal change. Get a faecal analysed and possibly blood work done, and see how it goes.
I'm not exactly able to give a porper assessment but this is what I have seen in the past and that's what I'm sharing, hope it helps. The species I have seen this in were Casarea dussumieri and a Jamaican Epicrates subflavus, not exactly similar species I'm sure you'll agree.
If an infection is the case a good herp vet will be in order, a course of baytril or ceftazidime might be in order.
Good luck
Al
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Complacency killed the keeper

Stuart · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:12 pm Post subject:

Best of luck angi
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zarozinia · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:31 pm Post subject:

Thankyou very much for your reply Drymarchon, its greatly appreciated.

Thanks Stuart.
_________________
Cheers Angi
Proud to be a Geordie!
My Images - http://anginelson.deviantart.com/

rachel132002 · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:05 pm Post subject:

Hmm odd, i'm not even gonna question your keeping here. Gaping though can be due to a number of things, my corn did it once when she was eggbound due to an infection but unfortunatley she died 10mins after, i've seen those with RI's do it yes.

Is she at home or in the shop? Just wondering cuz if in shop i guess maybe someone else could've messed something up without realising?

Have you changed anything where she is such as carpet cleaners, air fragrencers or even your own perfumes/aftershaves etc.

The two things combined i'd either say there's suddenly been a huge and prolonged bout of incorrect conditions OR these are secondary symptoms to something else going on there which can be the case.

I'd say keep her on kitchen towel, change daily, clean with trigene or virkon as opposed to standard disinfectants, try nebulising F10 if possible and any fecal matter keep to take with you to the vets.

The shedding thing is puzzling though as i would've thought soaking would've at least loosened it.

Rach
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20 Corns
30 Royals
3 BCI
2 BCC
2 JCP
2 Leos
1 Beardy
2 Cresties

zarozinia · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:36 am Post subject:

Thanks rachel
I had also tried F10 as a friend recently opened my eyes to this one, although not with a nebuliser. She is now on newspaper as I was concerned that tiny pieces of substrate may exacerbate her skin condition - which is just so strange to me. If anything I thing the soaks did not help at all, but the oil did help to soften the old skin. Anyway she will be seeing our vet first thing this morning.
We keep her at home, she is kind of our baby, lol, being our first ever reptile.
I do feel that there must be something going on with her and the sloughing problem, then skin problem is secondary. I think the RI starting up may be my fault from raising humidity in an effort to help her slough.
_________________
Cheers Angi
Proud to be a Geordie!
My Images - http://anginelson.deviantart.com/

rachel132002 · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 4:28 am Post subject:

I dunno, i think it depends on the RIs as to whether humidity is the key or not because:

We associate RIs with raised humidity which means the RI must be anaerobic thus thriving in warm damp dark crevaces.

RIs are also triggered by dry conditions too so aerobic???

Also think in human form, when we get congestion problems and we have a shower or put our heads over steaming bowls which are VERY humid conditions, all that mucus loosens and runs freely allowing us to breathe so the same applies for reptiles i guess.

My vet advised me to take a snake of mine with an RI into the shower everytime i went in and i did this and then i actually pointed her head to the floor and raised her body up and the mucus drained out like water which isn't nice but it helped a LOT.

The F10 neb also provides high humidity and the disinfectant getting directly into the lungs allows it to attack spores etc faster and more effectively than some antibiotics as it's not working it's way ROUND the body but is straight to the lungs.

What did vet suggest anyway?

Rachel
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20 Corns
30 Royals
3 BCI
2 BCC
2 JCP
2 Leos
1 Beardy
2 Cresties

zarozinia · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:21 pm Post subject:

Hiya
My regular vet was not there and I ended up getting fortum for her RI and another appointment to see our vet who knows more about reptiles on Tuesday morning.
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Cheers Angi
Proud to be a Geordie!
My Images - http://anginelson.deviantart.com/

rachel132002 · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:06 am Post subject:

Cool stuff, seriously though if you can get a neb to use with F10 and the fortum it works MIRACLES, i wasn't totally convinced until i tried it but i've never had RIs clear up as fast as with F10 involved.
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20 Corns
30 Royals
3 BCI
2 BCC
2 JCP
2 Leos
1 Beardy
2 Cresties