Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,

Alright, this rescue is getting downright expensive! I rescued her from a flea market with a really bad RI last year. She was doing OK eating gerbils, but now she has a slight case of mouth rot from an injury (trying to get out?) and a bump on her head. My vet says it's from rubbing on the cage top trying to get out and can only be rectified by surgery. The surgery involves cutting open her head and "draining the pus out".

I was wondering if anyone had seen this condition in wild caught balls before and if it's really from rubbing her head? Do I really need to schedule a surgery for this poor thing? I'm going to build her a custom dark hidebox with a foam top so she doesn't rub anymore if that is the case.

Dang wild caughts, they've always been nothing but trouble for me!

Steve

It's hard to tell anything from a pic, but it looks kind of like an injury my rescued mali uromastyx sustained. Unfortunately, since it was covered with dirt, I didn't notice it was there until yesterday when it fell off, and took with it the scales and skin off of her nose So now I have to treat her for this and keep it from becoming septic, when it probably would have been painless and less stressful for the old girl to have it surgically removed, if I had noticed it earlier. It's a darn shame too, because she has burn scars on her back from her past owner, and she's always been extremely fat...basically her face was the only part of her that was in perfect condition. She's still a beautiful little uromastyx though (in my eyes), and has so much character. She is a bare minimum of 10 years old...more likely to be around 20-30 (since 10 years ago uromastyx were almost exclusively wild caughts, and most were adults of unknown age).

So I would say maybe get a second opinion, but make sure you do something about it before it turns into something worse. Wild-caught reptiles of any species can be a real pain in the butt, but that's why I am so appreciative of the efforts of all captive breeders. It's because of them that we can have healthier, better adjusted pets, right?

Just wondering if anyone had seen it before!
C/b is the only way to go!
Peace,

Steve

Captive born snakes can RUB on the cages also and cause the same injury. I have seen it several times before. So I do not believe it is a result of the snake being a Import. Try to put the snake in a different cage or change something that you are doing up. If you get her to quit rubbing she will heal on her own...Hopefully. I would try everything but the Vet first, Then if it don't get better then do the Vet thing. As far as RI you can raise the temps and get that gone, If not just get some baytril from a VET. But some RI appearing problem could only be stress and if she is rubbing also, That tells me she don't like the cage setup or that something is wrong and she is SEEKING something. I have ball pythons that crawl all the time but they still don't get rubs on the nose. I have had kingsnakes, ratsnakes and other colubrids rub their noses pretty bad. Hope this helps. thanks DAVID

I agree the nose thing is probably not a direct affect of being wild-caught, but I don't agree that the snake shouldn't be taken to the vet right away. It's hard to know what exactly you're dealing with. Like I said with my uromastyx, I didn't realize that the bump on her nose was any more than dirt until it finally fell off and left her with missing scales and skin.

I would say if you know a good vet, it's never a bad idea to take the snake to them when such things come up, and that's just coming from me, since I just experienced a similar problem with a lizard that could have been remedied much easier if dealt with early enough.

I think you are talking about the nose area??

If so, it looks typical of rubbing injury.

Did your vet do a needle biopsy to see what’s in there??

I have a male that had a similar lump before.

Reptiles don't have puss really, the infectious matter is thicker like cottage cheese.

When my vet did a needle biopsy he found there was no infection, just scar tissue.

It eventually went away when he stopped rubbing.

TomChambers

We built a new rack system for our BPs and two of the females wanted out right away...It's a shelf system with sliding plexiglass doors..well they figured out how to slide the doors!

Those two females ended up really tearing up their heads in the process of getting out! One ended up developing a bump like that, but after keeping it clean and keeping neosporin on it, the bump went away. Needless to say we immediately fixed the problem of the sharp edges! They both have nice scarred heads now though...luckily their cages are "padded" enough to where they can't hurt themselves anymore.