Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I recently rescued two Great basin Gopher snakes, a male and female. The male was said to have damage to his hemipenes and the female was a sporatic eater. Initially I could see that the hemipenese were damaged, but not to the extent shown in the photos. Upon bringing the two home I placed them both in the same enclosure until I had another enclosure ready so I can place the female separately. During this time, one of the snakes had bled inside the cage. I had assumed that it was the male. I immediately opened up an emergency space to place the female so that I could keep an eye on her and the male separately. The male had no obvious signs that he had bled, and nor did the female. I felt that I needed to keep an eye on both of them until I found out which one it was.

Today, I opened up the male's enclosure to do his routine checkup and found what you see in the photo. This was not there two days ago which is what definitely confuses me. As a result, the only thing that I can think is that it is a possible abscess. We don't have a reliable herp vet near us. I would like to get an idea about what could possibly be causing this. I have been calling veterinarians but most of them claim to have very little knowledge of reptile treatment. Additionally, I don't trust most typical veterinarians with reptiles.

Can someone be of help?

Thanks,

Chris

-----
My Website
www.herpfanatic.com

Yikes, that looks bad...I hope it looks worse than it really is! Unfortuntely, I don't have any clue how to help the problem, but I do want to make some suggestions that might help in getting help from others! Firstly, where do you live? Someone on here might be from the same area and know a good vet that you haven't found. Also, try posting the question (if you haven't aready) on the other forums like the gopher snake forum, and even the corn snake or boa forum since this type of problem could affect any snake! The boa forum always seems to have plenty of people on it and might be your best bet for help! Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, I hope he's doing better soon.
-----
-David

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 nornal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 albino rat snake (Valkyrie)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
1.0 dog (Luke)

Besides seeing a vet, here is what you can do.

First, soak that poor snake in tepid water about 1/2 inch deep or so, enough to just cover that swelling. Make sure all of that substrate and such falls off.

After the swelling looks cleaner, apply some Neosporin to the area.

Repeat for the next few days if needed.

I'm not a vet, but I do have a snake that had a bad gash. I cleaned the wound and used Neosporin. 6 years later the snake is still thriving. I also have a kingsnake that was rescued with a burn on his head scales, with a few plates falling off. Neosporin on him. Still going 10 years. Suffice to say Neosporin didn't hurt these animals. Whether it actually helped, I can't say. Maybe just keeping the wound clean was the trick? I don't know. I do know that the longer you wait, the worse it may get.
-----
Mark