there is a large field by my house that i catch a lot of snakes in, i have caught 4 adult chain kings there in about a 2 week peroid, (the chains i give to a breader to bread them) 2 of them have come down with some kind of infection of something, were they get these puss pockets that lift up it's scales and made the belly scales turn yellow. niether of them will eat, and the one 5' male became aggrisive (i assume it hurts). the apparent infection is the worst around the throat, at least with the 5' male. what should i do? and what is it? i have already relised one of the two, a 3' some female, but i still have the big male, in hopes to try to help it. the other two chains caught have not come down with it.
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wild chain kings caught, after a week, puss blisters have developed under scales, belly scales turned yellow
craig_noyes
May 31, 2003 11:46 PM
Replies (5)
Andy_G
May 31, 2003 11:55 PM
Take them to a vet, treat them the way the vet says, and then release all of them.
Dann
Jun 01, 2003 05:38 AM
Have to agree with Andy. It sounds to me like the snakes bellies may have been exposed to high heat? Take to a vet,and/or release.
El Lagarto Farm
Jun 01, 2003 04:03 PM
I bought a couple of W.C chain kings a few months ago, had the same problem. I thought they would do best on moist cypress, i am now convinced of the opposite-water dish available but otherwise very dry and clean containers. I use compressed wood shaving pellets as a substrate that work wonderfully, and I have not seen a skin problem since. Problems that I had were cured with oral antibiotics (vet prescribed)and took several weeks...Kerry
vvvddd
Jun 01, 2003 05:53 PM
You should be keeping kings on dry substrates like aspen or newspaper. That should eliminate blisters from forming (as long as the snakes aren't getting burned. I'd definitely get them treated by a vet. Another way to treat this, if its caught early enough (emphasis on early enough) is to put the snakes in a plastic container with just enough betadine to cover their belly scales. Watch them so they don't drink it though! Treat every other day or so until they shed again and it should go away. But, if there is a lot of pus like you mention, a vet would probably be the best option.
Van
Keith Hillson
Jun 01, 2003 11:41 PM
Ive seen it before some wild Easterns are sensitive and get that raging infection quick. Get them to the Vet and avoid the Kings in your area as they are all gonna do that when you capture them. The problem is they get so stressed from captivity they cant fight off infection or viruses. Some Eastern never have a problem but other populations are real suseptable.
Keith
