Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. My male surinam developed a large blister right next to his vent last week during the time he was in blue getting ready to shed. I just got him 3 weeks ago and had him temporarily housed/quarantined in a Sterilite sweater box until I could get a 4 foot neodesha being stored at my mom's house 250 miles away. Just throwing that in there because the humidity got kind of high in the Sterilite. That is no longer an issue since he's in the Neo now. But I just have no clue what's causing this problem.

The blister is so big it's pulling on his lower vent scale and you can see pink in the corner of his vent. I waited for him to shed to see if maybe this would go away. It didn't. On the advice of a friend and breeder, I popped the blister yesterday with a pin. What came out was disgusting and seems to be urates from the odor, texture, consistency and color. I am now soaking him in the bathtub and so far he has squeezed out 2 major loads of urates and fecal matter. My wife is loving this by the way. As a matter of fact, she left.

The blister did not go down at all after I tried to pop it. And I didn't squeeze to much out since that's not what I was expecting to come out. So I was hoping maybe by putting him in the bathtub it would drain out with the rest. But it hasn't. I will have pictures soon of the bump. In about 2 hours or so. But my question in the meantime is, how would this be being pushed into his tail like that? Has anyone ever seen this before? My friend though this might be a sperm plug issue but it doesn't look that way at all. I'm just completely stumped and have never seen anything like this before. If anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it. I tried to include as much info as possible. If you need to know anything else, please let me know and I will post the pics as soon as I have them back from the developer. Thanks alot. Sorry so long.

I'm not all that up on boas, but if it's a abscess the pus that builds up looks nothing like what you would get from a human. A snake's pus looks kind of like feta cheese (at least that's what I think it looks like), which I guess could look to someone else like urates, so that may be what you are seeing.

I'd take it to a vet if I were you. It probably needs to have the blister/abscess looked at and then given some antibiotics.

Two of my Columbians got something like that. The female must have had it but not showed any signs of it. A week after I seperated her and the male from breeding, they both developed those blisters. I took them to a vet, and they gave me needles. I had to give them shots every 3 days and a bath in novasan every day. After 2 months of this, the male healed but the female didn't. I had to take her back to the vet. They kept her and treated her with a stronger antibiotic for 3 weeks. She nearly died, but she finally pulled through. Now she has scars where the blisters were, and they are still little bumps, but they get better with every shed. I definitely suggest a vet. Also, any snake she has come into contact with within the last 2 weeks has a good chance of getting the same thing. If it is just 1 blister, it might be an abscess, but if you see any more, it is probably what I just described. Hope this helps!

ps: make sure you see a reptile vet. I took my snake to a vet who didn't have any clue about reptiles. I had to make another appointment to see a reptile vet.