Reptile & Amphibian Forums

2 weeks ago my retic got a sore or boil and I popped it and thought nuthin of it...
1 week ago he has them all over his body. I popped them and put oitment on them....He seems to be getting aggressive
TOday I tried to feed this animal a rabbit and he wouldnt eat
He seems to be healing up but I am curious why he is not eatting.,....

What do those sores/boils look like?

B.

Are they under the scales or over them? I had a ball python that got them under the scales. They had tons of clear sticky pus inside them. I took her to the vet and was told bath with an antibiotic and it should dissapear after her next shed. Well, after 3 weeks of not eating she shed and besides a little scaring was as god as new. Hope this helps.
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Burm baby burm...

Is your cage humidity, cleanliness, substrate or hot spot heat especially undertank too hot in spots? Are cage conditions propper? Blistering often implies too much humidity if seen dorsally (on the snake's back) and wet or too hot a hot spot causes blisters on ventral scales. Substrate chemical burns can also be involved.

Winslow

This snake is huge and mean now. He use to be docile now he has attude... I popped all the blisters. And put oitment on them. They pop easy and leave a stinky goo also some scales came off. one area is healing up. bad thing is its in a shed which makes it a pain as well cause its coming off in pieces. I figure what happan is one night he dumped the water bowl and soaked in it... Should oitment and perioxide work....????/ What other method might work??

I can usually coax an aggressive snake using my hook out of it's cage into a shallow tub that is just below the level of the cage as long as the snake doesnt have to drop down more than a foot or two nor stretch very far out of the cage to start into the tub. i keep the tub lid slid back just a bit so the snake starts down into the tub but wont easily come right back out. I also have a garden hose fitted retractible spray coil hooked to and primed with hot water in case of a feeding reaction during the transfer. hot water in a consticing snakes mouth or head changes behavior to a flea respnse and doesnt hurt the animal as long as the water is not scaldng hot.

you should have a spotter or 2 depending on animal size as well as a blanket or head tarp to throw over the snake if all hell breaks loose and it hits the ground running. you should also clear a wide area around the cage so if things dont work out, the snake wont have lots of things to grab onto.

try some betadine mixed with luke warm water in the tub to make it dark tea in color and give the snake a good soak. you might also try crumpling up newspaper and sticking it in the tea to assist sheding. after a few hours soak let the animal come back up into it's cleaned cage over a wad of paper towels and as it is in about 1/3 of the way start gently assist shedding as it goes into the cage.
this tub thing works great dry as you clean the cage as well and is a safer way to rebuild trust for you and the snake.

good luck! hopefully the snake wont just come racing out fighting for it's life, though if you take your time, let the snake decide when to start moving and coax gently with your hook as to the direction of travel, this might save the animal.

keep your animal clean and dry in the future.

PS, in college back in the late 1970s when i started trying to breed retics i got 3 adult retics as free rescue animals (i had to go to the owners house and do an angry retic extraction) for similar challenges you are having and they all became handlable and healthy FYI
i produced several clutches of eggs but never got the incubation thing down.

winslow

I need to try that... thanks this guy was totallly a tame animal before this and now I worry I am going to get nailed hes 17ft and 100 pounds.. I do all the work by myself since my wife is terrfied of him... I do it all and take the risk.... But I still think he is far less dangerous then our wildcats//////

Aggression is not the problem; it's a symptom of an underlying health problem. You need to bring this animal to a qualified vet.
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Dennis

The one night of sitting on clean wet substrate from a dumped dish shouldn't do anything. I dump the water dish to add humidity whenever my retic is due for a shed.

I would get the animal to a vet. Something is very wrong.

B.

Okay health is better on this animal... cept I aint tried to feed it yet. where the skin was having problems is healing just still having toruble getting all the dead skin off... For 20 yrs I have cared for animals and very rarely lost one and very rarely needed a vet...None want to see such a huge animal... My cats are also libilitys that are put into squezze cages and darted

>>2 weeks ago my retic got a sore or boil and I popped it and thought nuthin of it...
>>1 week ago he has them all over his body. I popped them and put oitment on them....He seems to be getting aggressive
>> TOday I tried to feed this animal a rabbit and he wouldnt eat
>>He seems to be healing up but I am curious why he is not eatting.,....

Sounds like he has some sort of bacterial infection. I had similar issues with a rescued indigo some years ago. STOP popping them, and get your retic started on a round of antibiotics, under the care of your veterinarian. When you pop them, you are just spreading the bacteria.

He won't eat more than likely because he is in pain. He's also probably being more defensive than aggressive. Leave him be, don't stress him out, get him some antibiotics from your vet. Don't even bother him unless his cage is dirty or he's getting skinny. Stressing him out is only going to make the infection worse and harder to treat.

-Clara @ LGR
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http://www.lowergroundreptiles.net/

Thanks clara the best advice on these boards I aint neglecting a animals just had to do my best untill I located a vet and now I found one and he goes in thursday. People are so rude on here

>>Thanks clara the best advice on these boards I aint neglecting a animals just had to do my best untill I located a vet and now I found one and he goes in thursday. People are so rude on here

You're welcome. Unfortunately there are rude people everywhere. Usually they don't mean to be, just they get tired of the same questions/scenarios over and over again, so they end up lumping everyone with that question up into the "hopeless" category.

Not everyone is an expert, I'm certainly not an expert, but I have owned and bred snakes for over 7 years now and just go by what I have learned from the experience. Even the experts come across something they haven't seen before now and then.

Good luck with your retic, I hope the vet you are taking him to can help you. From the sounds of things, he has either some sort of internal infection (I dealt with an Indigo a few years back which had citrobacter freundii, which caused pustules to form on his skin) or scale rot from being too moist. Scale rot can show up as brown/red jagged scales and even as pustules.

Regardless of the cause, if the condition is left untreated, it will gradually get worse and kill the snake.

Hope that helps.

-Clara
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http://www.lowergroundreptiles.net/

Sooo am I in trouble if they offend me and i dont use kind words back?