Posted by:
jfmoore
at Fri Oct 31 13:44:21 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by jfmoore ]
Sorry I don’t have time to reply at length today, but, anyway, we’re rather limited in what we can say without being able to actually see what you are referring to. I sure others will chime in as well with advice.
First, the incision(s) for the surgery to removed retained eggs is not normally made smack down the center of the snake’s belly. It is usually made on the “sides” of the belly where the ventral scutes meet the dorsal scales. If this procedure was done as you say “a few months ago”, there should still be one or more obvious scars. It is possible that that is part or all of what you are seeing. The whole process of producing offspring requires a large investment of resources for a female (I guess of any life form!). Even when they pass the eggs with no complications, snakes are often pretty skinny looking afterwards. So, yes, surgical intervention to remove eggs would definitely contribute to the animal being even more depleted.
But I suspect you may well be seeing “scale rot” or necrotizing dermatitis. This is, indeed, an infection, and not “bruising.” It could be relatively superficial, or it could be seriously systemic. We have no way of knowing from what you say. It is usually caused by the snake lying in wet and/or unhygienic conditions. Although that may sound damning, it can happen quite easily since the condition of these big snakes is not as easy to casually determine as one which you can hold in your hand. Bad things can be going on underneath it, while it looks perfectly okay from above. Another possibility is that it suffered a burn from lying on a too-hot heat source.
The ideal action would be if you could have this animal evaluated by a competent veterinarian with reptile experience.
Good Luck,
Joan
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RE: Bruises on a Sick Burm - jfmoore, Fri Oct 31 13:44:21 2003