Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

Last night I visited the apartment of a friend who has a fifteen foot female Burm with a lower respiratory infection. He had elevated the temperature and was planning on getting medicine later on if the infection didn't go away on its own. Luckily he told me that the snake had recently eaten (though she is still underweight), which was a good sign; however, we did notice several bruises running along her sides, mostly on the lower half of her body. Most of the bruises appeared to be topical (the scales themselves were discolored and purple); however, there was one that was swollen and blue, and the source of the discoloration appeared to be coming from underneath the skin, not the scales.

My question is: is this bruising normal for a sick snake? Or is it indicative of some other problem? The raised bruise appears to me like it could be some sort of subcutaneous infection. Is there anything that could be done to allieviate this (like applying a topical antibiotic)?

My friend got this snake just a few months ago, and she was sick when he got her. I think he should just take her to a vet, but he's worried about moving her because she's so sick and ill. I'm very concerned about the bruises because I've never heard of that before. If anyone can give my friend and me some help and advice that would be great. The snake is absolutely gorgeous and majestic and it would be terrible to lose her.

One more thing: she underwent surgery about a month ago to remove bound eggs from her abdomen. That was part of the reason why she was so underweight. Could the surgery have contributed to the bruising as well?

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read all this,
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A. Fox

I don't have any sage advice for you, just a few thoughts...

I've never seen bruises on a burm before (and mine used to fall 6 feet out of a tree onto a plywood floor every now and then). Are you sure they're not burns? What is he using for heating?
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Larry D. Fishel
Side effects may include paralysis
and death but are generally mild.

Sorry I don’t have time to reply at length today, but, anyway, we’re rather limited in what we can say without being able to actually see what you are referring to. I sure others will chime in as well with advice.

First, the incision(s) for the surgery to removed retained eggs is not normally made smack down the center of the snake’s belly. It is usually made on the “sides” of the belly where the ventral scutes meet the dorsal scales. If this procedure was done as you say “a few months ago”, there should still be one or more obvious scars. It is possible that that is part or all of what you are seeing. The whole process of producing offspring requires a large investment of resources for a female (I guess of any life form!). Even when they pass the eggs with no complications, snakes are often pretty skinny looking afterwards. So, yes, surgical intervention to remove eggs would definitely contribute to the animal being even more depleted.

But I suspect you may well be seeing “scale rot” or necrotizing dermatitis. This is, indeed, an infection, and not “bruising.” It could be relatively superficial, or it could be seriously systemic. We have no way of knowing from what you say. It is usually caused by the snake lying in wet and/or unhygienic conditions. Although that may sound damning, it can happen quite easily since the condition of these big snakes is not as easy to casually determine as one which you can hold in your hand. Bad things can be going on underneath it, while it looks perfectly okay from above. Another possibility is that it suffered a burn from lying on a too-hot heat source.

The ideal action would be if you could have this animal evaluated by a competent veterinarian with reptile experience.

Good Luck,
Joan

Hi,

Thank you for your advice; I'm pretty sure from what you say that she may have scale rot or some other topical infection, though I couldn't be sure without seeing a photograph of an example. I thought of burns when I first saw the discolorations, but I have seen burns before and this didn't look like burns. Also, the lighting he is using is a heat lamp, not a rock or other contact heater.

The cage that the Burm was in seemed clean, so I fear that the infection, like the lower respiratory illness, may have simply come with the snake. I'm going to advise my friend again to take the animal to a vet, but again, his fear is that moving her the distance he would need to get her to the herp. vet would be too traumatic for her in her condition.

I'll tell him what was said about the possibility of a topical infection. He may be able to get her some medicine without going to a vet.

Thank you again for your help,
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A. Fox