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Mouthrot/Respiratory infection

H

HaggasCheff

New member
OK, I've screwed up I suppose. I have a rat snake with a respiratory infection, AND I believe, mouthrot. Diagnosis based on descriptions from Corn Snake Manual. I know, not a corn, but still Elaphe.

Bottom line, this is a wild caught snake, I don't have money or time to travel 200 miles to herp vet. Snake will either overcome problems or be overcome. It is my own STUPID fault for not paying closer attention to temperature/humidity/feeding. I've been feeding live about every 4th feeding. Sure he has lost some teeth or possibly been bitten inside the mouth. I am attempting to treat respiratory infection via dry cage, heat tape about 95 degrees on one side of cage, and attempting to treat mouthrot with Betadine/Hydrogen Peroxide solution per Corn Snake Manual instructions.

Does anyone have any useful suggestions for home treatment regimen? I feel incredibly stupid having to post this, and I feel terrible having captured a wild animal and allowed it to get sick, so please don't bash me. I appreciate any helpful suggestions... are there any meds I can aquire without seeing a vet?

:mad:
 
hello

Well honestly its hard to give out information in these situations as someitmes doing so can even be illegal. (giving out medical advice for animals without a vet license)

But I understand what you are going through. You made a mistake, and I certainly wouldn't advise doing it again but I am sure you realize that. I think you are doing fine with the mouht rot treatment. Keep that up. And the dry warm cage.....Make sure you ISOLATE this snake from any others you have and seriously disinfect everything that he touches. If you treat him everyday it should clear up in a few weeks. Otherwise, he will need a vet for some injectable anti-biotics. I can't think of anything you could buy that would help this situation any more than you are doing now but maybe someone will have some suggestions.

bmm
 
BMM, Thanks. I appreciate your input. Is a separate cage 3 feet away from the Milksnake in his own cage good for isolation? Or are we talking another room?

I went out and read about Ulcerative Stomatitis (sp?) treatment last night at Kaplans anapsid.org and another site, it looks pretty hairy if the topical stuff doesn't work. And it probably won't, since mouthrot is apparently a symptom/problem of a systemic infection requiring a course of antibiotics.

One thing I read was that peroxide destroys healthy tissue as well as the bad, and it has fallen out of favor with those in the know. They were fond of betadine so I am thinking I may leave the peroxide out of the Corn Snake Manual solution.

Has anyone done a home treatment successfully? What did you do?

(BTW, I would never cause anyone any legal trouble over advice given in this respect. But if anyone feels they need to withhold for that reason, I can't blame them either.)
 
This morning I used only water diluted 1:1 betadine forgoing the peroxide and swabbed it on the snake's "lip" area and just inside the mouth. Plan to continue with only betadine unless suggestions for other meds materialize. The area looks as though it is clearing up a bit when I got him to open up. Snake has been laying mostly on top of the heat tape side of cage, I hope that is helping respiratory infection, but he is still breathing open mouthed a crack. Snake is still very active, crawling all over, a bit more defensive than usual when I go to get him out for a "swabbing". Otherwise, behavior seems normal. Except for eating of course, has refused last two mice since about 20 days ago. I saw him drinking yesterday. So that is good. Posting this mostly as a note to potential future browsers of this forum. Hope no one needs it!
 
Although not mentioned in any of my corn snake books, washing the infected mouthrot area with Listerine or diluted Nolvasan (chlorhexidine) was mentioned in some of my red-tail boa and ball python books. Just some more options.

Hope your snake does well!
 
yeah

I have heard that can help as well Susan.

You might want to try that as well with your snake. I hope things go well.

bmm
 
hi

Yes please post an update!

Are you keeping the water dish away from the heat source? that can help lower humidity. Its good you have a hot area of 95. What you might also want to look into is maybe raising ambient temp slightly...say the entire cage 78 with hot spot of 90? This way the snake can't encounter temps like house temp (75 or lower usually depending on your house) and sit there. But you'd have to be careful not to let the "cool" side get above 80. anyways just a thought.

bmm
 
Yeah I heard about the listerine solution before but thought it was a joke :eek: ! I see how it can work though...do you have to dilute it or anything?
 
Snake is going to vet tomorrow. There IS one in town. I did not think there was, but a new office has opened. Snake looked much worse a couple days ago, a bit better now, but he is blue! Gonna be a rough shed. Guess I am going to try to time it and put him in a "wet box" 3-4 days after he clears.

Will post again after vet visit.
 
HaggasCheff said:
One thing I read was that peroxide destroys healthy tissue as well as the bad, and it has fallen out of favor with those in the know. They were fond of betadine so I am thinking I may leave the peroxide out of the Corn Snake Manual solution.
Click to expand...

That is correct...peroxide can damage healthy tissue and slow down healing time. It's OK to use initially on a fresh wound, but after that it should not be used anymore.

I work for a vet and we use peroxide to initially clean surgery incisions, but never again after that.

I am glad you are taking him to a vet! I hope all goes well! Oh yeah...Nolvasan is GREAT!!! We use it a lot for things like this. If you can't find any, let me know and I may be able to send you a small container of it.
 
Last edited:
Took snake to vet Friday 12/20. I never got to speak to the vet, was not in so I dropped snake off and picked up later. They gave him a Baytril injection, for $10! I thought the price was nice.

Snake was just coming out of blue when I took him, he has since shed pretty nicely sometime Saturday night. I had put damp towels in a shallow dish in the enclosure and partially covered the top to increase humiditiy, which seems to have helped.

By the time I picked him up from vet Friday afternoon, he was already looking much better. Swelling in jaws gone done almost to normal. Mouth half as much gaped open. Not much difference in repiratory sneezes, coughs, rattling.

Sunday morning, snake looks 110% better. No repiratory noises, no swelling, lips open just slightly. Very small trace of "cheezy" substance associated with mouthrot. He is due back to vet tomorrow for another Baytril. Looks like he's gonna pull through fine.
 
thats

Good news! How great!!! :)

Its nice that a lot of treatments the vets do on snakes for common ailments aren't that pricey.

bmm
 
Recovering

Appreciate everyone's helpful suggestions and expressions of pleasure at snake's recovery. When I read my first post now, I seemed very pessimistic! I was under the impression that the nearest herp vet was a two hour drive and that treatment would involve a weeklong series of shots, nebulization, and possible surgery with anasthesia. I could only imagine the bill! I was ready to whack the snake last week to put him out of his misery, even sharpened my knife, but he looked a bit better, so I held off. Decided to call around vets in town the next morning, and lo and behold there was one vet in town who would treat the snake. So thank goodness for that! I really want to see this guy grow up!

I will be much more meticulous from now on in care and maintenence. I am pretty sure this was brought on by too cool cage temps for the respiratory infection, and maybe by attempts to escape, pushing hard into corners and the little groove around the top of the cage where the screened lid fits in for the mouthrot. Think I might have to fill that with foam weatherstripping or something. He would crawl right around the cage in the groove a few months ago, but now it is really tight. I also had been feeding live sometimes, never unsupervised, but there could have been an injury to the mouth I was not aware of. Will be sticking to pre-killed.

Am still interested to know if there are vitamin supplements good to use to perhaps keep immune system stronger.

But good to know there are resources in town for treatment if it ever happens again.

This will likely be my last post into this thread unless he turns for the worse.

BTW, snake ate a hopper tonight, post shed feed. Had not eaten since halloween.

Baytril rocks!
 
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