Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A few weeks ago, I bought a female yellow rat snake from a local pet store here in town. I usually don't buy from pet stores, but this was one of those spur of the moment decisions. She didn't seem to be in too great of shape, so I took her to the vet immediately.

She was dehydrated, had horrible, dry skin, clogged nostrils, mouth rot, and a lump on her back that bothered her when it was touched. She went on antibiotic treatment and the mouth rot is cleared up, and shes a bit more hyrdated now.

The lump on her back is still there, and today when I handled her I noticed she had a large amount of blood seeping out of her vent- which is a new development.

I'm starting to feel helpless when it comes to keeping my snakes healthy here lately- I just finished treating a sick bullsnake who was misrepresented to me here on kingsnake, but that story is in another post.

I was probably asking for it , buying from this particular pet store, but I took pity on this snake, she'd been there for nearly a year (which gave these issues plenty of time to develop)

So I guess the point of this rant, is to ask about the lump, or ''cyst'' type thing on her back, and the bleeding from the vent.....any experience with this?

Sorry for the ranting!

The only part of this that is your fault is that it seems you have a knack for buying sick animals. Stop doing this and your collection will be much more prestine.

First thing though, is I hope this guy is in good quarantine from the rest of your collection. If not, do so now and pray that nothing has transmitted to your other animals.

The lump, if cyst-like in structure is probably something that can be dealt with later. What did the vet say about it? My main concern right now would be the blood from the stool. The more blood, the more of a concern. Small amounts of blood could be from diarrhea as a symptom to another pathogen (virus to parasite), while large amounts of blood might be more condusive towards a hemmorhage from a tumour or foriegn body.

Your vet should be able to help you out with both problems, all I can do is cross my fingers that it's not something severe. In the mean time, do what you can to keep this guy well hydrated and warm (withen prefered body temperature zone of course).

Good luck,

Ian

Yeah, Most of the animals in my home are rescues and strays, I have a tendency to want to keep every animal I see, so that knack for buying sickly animals comes naturally. The bullsnake issue wasn't my fault, I can say ...but I knew this rat snake would probably be full of health problems.

The blood wasn't actually in with stool...it was by itself...she ran her tail around my arm as I held her and just literally soaked a trail of blood on my arm.

The vet said that the ''lump'' bothered her a lot, while he was trying to examine it, but said the antibiotic treatment should clear it up with the other issues, but it didn't.

I'm going to give my vet a call in the morning and see what he recommends.

Thanks for the reply.

If that lump is an abscess, which seems likely if the vet thought antibiotics would clear it up, then I'll tell you that antibiotics usually don't help because abscesses in reptiles are usually quite encapsulated. Surgical removal is usually the simplest, most effective method if the entire capsule is removable and not embedded in vital tissue. Still, antibiotics are a good idea for the other problems, and to cover the surgical site during healing.

As for the blood, it is still perhaps the most concerning symptom. It still may be gastrointestinal related even though it was present without stool, but it could also be related to the urinary or reproductive system.

Ian