Before going to drastic measures and using a strong mouth wash with water, consider the diagnosis.#1 did the animal bet bitten by the rodent? did you just feed the snake? If no then that is not the problem. Did you just give it something to drink for the first time in a while? sometimes they may over drink after being a bit dehydrated and will get like a swollen throat or drooling. Also the bloody gums could be an infection known as mouth rot, Is the animal kept in a CLEAN and STERALIZED cage? If not its own urin and fecal matter could couse the infection also do you leave the dirty water in the cage for it to drink or lay in fecal water?

An easier and less stressful thing to do for your snake is if it is mouth rot use 50-50 water and hydrogen peroxide then flush the mouth out with running warm(not hot) water.

#2 you may have a snake with a resperatory infection caused by too low of temperature, If you don't have a heat source for the snake to keep warm and you have your household a/c on you can give your snake a cold, Hold the snakes head close to your ears and lightly pump the snakes mid section or where the lungs are and while pumping listen for the sound coming from the snakes mouth, if it is clear it will sound like a normal hiss if you have a resperatory infection you will hear fluid like sounds. If that is the case then you may want to give the snake a warm spot in the cage, and try and keep it dry.

#3 if you have poor ventilation in your cage and too much humidity you can get the same thing as a resperatory infection just not as bad. If trying some of these ideas and you still do not get releif for your snakes problem, then I would suggest taking it to the vet you may have to give it shots, for the resperatory infection called amicasin(sp?).

Hope your snake gets better,

Nick

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