Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi everybody,

my green anaconda has developed small grey mushy bumps on her body and i was thinking it was water blisters but have never delt with them before. has anyone here ever delt with water blisters before? does anyone have any advice for me on how to cure them?

thanks,
jake

Uhoh, if this is what im thinking it is, that is just the beginning, but who knows. I dont know ANYTHING about them what so ever. Im sure someone here can guide you thru it though.

I have dealt with water blisters before. It was on a w/c green... What I did was try and keep the cage dry, if you are using a bedding of some sort, I would switch to paper towels or newspaper. I kept a waterbowl that was too small for the snake to soak 5 days out of the week. They slowly went away for me. Some people suggest putting neosporin the spots too (the one I was dealing with had one under her eye, so I didn't use neosporin). That is just a suggestion though! Hopefully someone knows a little bit more than me on this subject.. but good luck!
-Ben

` I agree with Ben's points. For now, totally eliminate soaking water. Further, I use peroxide to wash most wounds. If the skin is broken, or perforated, the peroxide will foam when it contacts blood, body fluid, or exposed ruptured cells. If not, it still helps to cleanse the affected area. I use a spray bottle, a cotton swab will also work. Keep in mind that peroxide is not the best antiseptic around, but it is safe. You can use large amounts of it to wash the affected area. I apply Neosporin after the peroxide dries, don't dry the peroxide yourself, let it air dry. Neosporin will not damage their eyes, just be careful not to force any into their nostrils, or mouth, only because it can temporarily block them, causing more discomfort.
` Contaminated soaking water, too much floor humidity and generally dirty conditions are some of the things I've found to cause those sores. A cage can look fairly clean, and not be. Totally dry newspaper substrate, and humidity in the air, not on the floor, and sanitary soaking water will help to reduce this problem in the future.
` If you use vinegar and a pH test kit to bring your soaking water down to pH 5.0 to 5.5, and change it every 48 hours, or more often, there will be less chance of problems caused by bacteria in the water.

` Good Luck !
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The only conditions under which I have seen this to be a problem is when the substrate is consistantly wet, or the soaking water is contaminated. One or the other by itself, will cause the problem in some cases. If you have both, you can almost be assured that you will be dealing with it. I'm fairly confident of these causes as I have never experienced this myself. My enclosures newspaper substrate is almost always dry, and I don't have soaking containers. Additionally, there are many anacondas that are kept with dry substrate and a clean soaking container, that don't have the problem. I do keep saturated paper towels or aspen shavings in a small container, over the heat source, to boost the cage humidity when needed. Under dry conditions, the blisters will heal and disappear after a couple of sheds if they don't get infected.

Kelly

thanks,

it seems that everyone uses newspaper and i will switch to that to. she just got done shedding today and all that is left is a small redish dot. i will do my best to cure it using your ideas.
out of all the problems ive ever delt with as far as takeing care of a wild caught anaconda (if you know what i mean), this one scared me the most, thank you for helping me out.

thanks again,

jake

I don't use newspaper. I use new blue 34c per sq ft astroturf that I replace instead of clean when the snake goes to the bathroom on it. But I'm rich ; )