Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My newest ball python has a problem. A day or so after he eats he gets really bloated. If you flip him over his skin looks fine, but he's all dark inside. . . looks black. This has happened to him twice now, and it seems to go away after a few days, but I'm worried about him. The guy at the pet store said he probably has a bacterial infection. Does this sound right? Can I treat it myself, or should I go to the vet? Do I need to seperate him from my other ball pythons?

I don't quite understand what you mean by ?dark inside? However, either way, you should seperate it from your other snakes. If it is a bacterial infection your other snakes could get it also. New snakes should always be under observation and kept in "quarentine" until you have had the opportunity to determine if they have anything. Minimum quarentine time is usually a month. Snake metabolisms are so slow it could take that long to identify an infection. Make sure you are following strict cleanliness procedures. It's a pain, but wash your hands and anything that touches the potentially sick snake before handling any other snakes.

A way to tell if there is an infection is by checking at both ends. (the mouth and the fecal matter when it comes out) Anything that looks odd, take it to a vet. Bacteria is treated with antibiotics.

Mine do bloat temporarily just a bit after a meal. You got to remember it is a dead mouse/rat and after it dies it does bloat temporarily inside the snake before the snakes digestive juices start to break the animal down for digestion. This does not last very long however, seems like a couple of hours to me if that. But I don't understand what you mean by blackness or some sort of discoloration of your snake. If this doesn't look normal, my opinion, you should take it to the vet and at least have it looked at by a herp specialist in your area. I do agree also with the last post. QUARANTINE your snake from the others. Never put them directly together when you first purchase the snake. Quarantines should last approx 6 months. You do not want to learn the hard way like some. I once had a friend of mine who got a new boa, put it into his aquarium with the other boa, and it turned out the new one had a respiratory infection, and the original boa caught the illness too! Better safe than sorry, right???