Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Below are photo's of my boa right after her latest shed, her nosed looked red and sore before she shed and now it looks like this. There is nothing in her cage to rub it on and i feed f/t rats, she is acting completely normal and comes out every night and slithers around her cage and doesn't seem to be in pain when i put ointment on her wounds....anybody know if this could be some kind of disease?

A boa I had a while ago got a similar sore on her nose when she had mites. You might want to check her thoroughly and see if that's it.
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Rachel Squier

Currently have:
1.1 '03? BRBs (Blaze and Shimmer)

On the way:
1.0 '07 Albino BCI
0.2 '07 100% Het Albino BCIs
0.1 '07 DH Sunglow BCI

There is plenty of things for her to rub on in that cage. I don't think it is mites like was mentioned in another post. I do think it may be too dry looking at the cage. Under tank heaters are much more effective than the heat lights, I would suggest starting to heat with those to help humidity. Other than that, sometimes they just get that, I would put her into a blanket box setup until the next time she sheds to help her have a good shed.

Chris
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CCS CONSTRICTORS: Specializing in Morph and Island Localities of BCI

just a note, if you go with under tank heaters as mentioned above you will probably want a dimmer to hook them up to. most under tank heaters will burn a snake if hooked up as is out of the box. A dimmer is the cheapest way to cool them down. For some extra money you can get a temperature regulator that senses the temp of the bottom of the tank and turns the undertank heater off if it gets too hot.

What do you mean by blanket box setup?

Chris means put her in a tub instead of a cage. A plastic sterilite type tub, with just a water bowl, less stuff.
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Caden Chapman
slithering.serpents@gmail.com
http://slitheringserpents.com

What exactly are they? Who is the manufacturer of the lights and what are they called?
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Boaphile Home
All Original/Boaphile Plastics
The Boa Network

they are made by zoomed and the left one is a 250watt infrared heat lamp and the right one is a 150Watt..both are hooked up to thermostats and flick on and off throughout the day

First of all I would like to say I’m a fan of large display enclosures. Saying that I have to admit they are the hardest to maintain. We think we are being kind by giving our snakes lots of room but certain things can easily be overlooked. It’s very hard to maintain a minim temperature without having basking spots over the maxim temperature. Humidity is harder to create in a large enclosure but a plastic box with damp moss can be introduced so the snake can go inside; this helps with shedding. Big cages are also more work to keep clean.
By the look of your pictures you snake could defiantly rub its nose or burn it’s self on one of your light guards. I prefer not to use heat lamps of that type. Belly heat and heat radiating panels are much safer. You can sandwich heat tape between two 16x16 floor tiles to give you belly heat if the bottom of the cage is wood, but you MUST regulate it’s heat output. I would also get an inferred temp gun to check how hot your high side is and your cold spots are. I assume you are using vertical height to thermal regulate your snake.
All of this is just my opinion from my experiences; I hope some of it helped. Good luck!

That to me looks very much like a rub. The lesion on the nose looks like it could possibly be a burn too. I would cleanse both areas with an antiseptic (either Betadine @ 1:100 dilution or preferably chlorhexidine gluconate @ 1:40 dilution) twice a day for about 10 days. Betadine can be had at any CVS, chlorhexidine gluconate would need to be ordered from a vet supply company. If you have a syringe, that would be ideal to flush with, if not just use a clean washcloth to "soak" the areas. You could put a THIN coat of Neosporin/Polysporin/triple antibiotic w/o pain killer on once and then leave it be other than the soaks/flushes.

a bacteria that I experienced in my collection. I had a boa who's flesh around the area by her cloaca would start to disintegrate and get worse. It looked real bad. I tooke her to the vet and he told me that it was a flesh-eating bacteria after doing some tests. I was given an antibiotic to kill the bacteria with some ointmetns. It took about a year to heal. You ahve to keep cleaning and dressing the wound. The vet told me that it must be due to my conditions in the enclosure and bad environment conditions, but i'll tell you that doesn't make sense. I've always been clean and sterile with my setup. I had a mite infestation earlier and think that it was a something passed from that...who knows...it remains a mystery...but i would definitely take her to a vet to check it out.

I've posted a picture of the wound below.

It looks bad on her nose, I can kind of see the nasal passages thru the wound. This is way beyond a rub now, although it may have started that way. Because of the location I would get to the vet right away. Please don't delay. On most wounds I use neosporin (not neosporin plus), but I would get to the vet right away for that one. Looks to me like the infection is internal now, I can kind of see the nasal passages. It does not look good.
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Caden Chapman
slithering.serpents@gmail.com
http://slitheringserpents.com