Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A friend had me come and look at her boa this evening because he had something wrong with his mouth. I have dealt with many mouth swellings, injuries, and diseases before, but I have never seen anything like this.

The snake has two big pockets of what looked like fluid under a thin layer of skin inside his mouth on the lower jaw. They are squishy and sort of gelatinous feeling. They are so big that I was unable to see into the rest of his mouth easily, and decided to start by draining them. I couldn't get a syringe through the skin inside of his mouth, so went in from the outside. Nothing drained out, and it seemed more like air than fluid. After several draining attempts, still nothing came out.

I opened his mouth and the rest of it looks fine.

The snake had been taken out earlier today and was fine. He had been fed a little while before the swelling was noticed, but he ate his usual meal of a f/t rat. The rat was bred by the owner. Due to the time frame, it seems like the rat may have had something to do with the problem, but I can't imagine what.

My best guess is some sort of allergic reaction.

I instructed the owner to give the snake a bath and put it on paper towels, and see if there is any improvement in the morning.

Any thoughts?

If there is no improvement, and she doesn't take him to the vet tomorrow, I will try to get pictures.
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Ball Pythons:
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1.2 Pastel
0.1 Black Pastel
2.0 Het Orange Ghost
0.1 Orange Ghost
0.2 50% Het Orange ghost
1.3 Mojave
1.2 Spider
1.1 Albino
0.1 Het Albino
1.0 Piebald
0.1 Double het, Albino Pied

Other:
0.1 Irian Jaya x Jungle Carpet python
1.0 Jungle Carpet Python
1.0 Tiger Retic
1.1 Burmese Pythons
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boas
2.5 Corn Snakes
1.0 American Alligator
1.0 Savannah Monitor
0.0.1 Argus Monitor
1.0 Chinese Water Dragon
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0.1 Ambanja Panther Chameleons
3.4 Crested Gecko
0.1 Sulcata Tortoise
1.1.1 Sugar Gliders
1.1 Puppies

First thought is that maybe a rat tooth might have caused a puncture in it's mouth and it is swolen right now. Don't jump the gun too much but at the same time don't sit and wait for it to get past that point of no return. Give it a day and see how it is, and then wait another day and go from there. After two days if it has not gotten any better I would see if there is a vet worth going to if there is no improvement. Also I would treat it with chlorhexadine. Can't go wrong with that.
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Sounds like an abscess to me. It could happen for a number of reasons...maybe a chipped tooth cut the inside of the jaw as it struck at its food, and as it ate the rat, a portion of the rat's feces smeared the wound...the wound healed but was infected with eboli. That infection grows and there you have it.
That is the exact thing that happened to one of my boas. I treated it but by far it was the most tedious medical treatment i have performed to date. You have to drain the abscess by making an incision and removing all of the infection (which looks like white cheese), and wash it out with a syringe with a diluted nolvasan solution. Then, i applied Baytril cream to the wound and packed it in.
The messed up part about all this, is that you have to be aggressive with it. After treating it for a few weeks every other day, I thought i had done the job. But it came back. That's when i realized i had to stay on it longer. It took over 2 months of treating it every 2 days like that to completely get rid of it. It was a tough time for the boa as you can imagine, as well.
I would take it to a vet first and confirm that it is an abscess. If it is, stay aggressive with the treatment.

my bad. i missed the part where you tried to drain it. Definitely keep us posted on this.

Thanks.

My friend just called and said that the snake's mouth is almost back to normal.
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Ball Pythons:
1.2 Normal
1.2 Pastel
0.1 Black Pastel
2.0 Het Orange Ghost
0.1 Orange Ghost
0.2 50% Het Orange ghost
1.3 Mojave
1.2 Spider
1.1 Albino
0.1 Het Albino
1.0 Piebald
0.1 Double het, Albino Pied

Other:
0.1 Irian Jaya x Jungle Carpet python
1.0 Jungle Carpet Python
1.0 Tiger Retic
1.1 Burmese Pythons
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boas
2.5 Corn Snakes
1.0 American Alligator
1.0 Savannah Monitor
0.0.1 Argus Monitor
1.0 Chinese Water Dragon
0.1 Brown Basilisk
0.1 Ambanja Panther Chameleons
3.4 Crested Gecko
0.1 Sulcata Tortoise
1.1.1 Sugar Gliders
1.1 Puppies

>>My friend just called and said that the snake's mouth is almost back to normal.

hmm interesting. very weird

I had a snake that was rubbing and ended up getting an infected tooth, sounds like what you described. Ended up needing surgery to remove the tooth and the pus since the pus in reptiles is like chunks and not liquid.

Anyways, hope your friend's boa is fine now!

-April
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'There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."' -Rainshadow