Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi; I just got a small group of mud snakes, and the original setup was a water bowl pond with pothos surrounded by a moist spagnum substrate. Well, the sphagnum caused blisters in 5 days, so I made a more suitable aquatic setup, but now I'm wondering how to get rid of the blisters??? If they are in an aquatic setup with a suitable basking area can they just bask their way out of it? Does using the swamp tea to lower the ph work in the healing process?

Obviously drying them out is a risky endeavor, and the one I kept in the water bowl setup, but switched the sphagnum for paper towels is now in the water bowl all the time. I did add a drop of acriflavine to the water in hopes that it would help.

I'm open to suggestions!!!

Also, I'm interested in what success you've all been having feeding alternative prey items???

Freight

You should search the earlier posts because much information is contained about the care of mud snakes. Spagnum should set the water conditions at the correct ph for the mud snakes, but they will get blisters from too high temps and lack of food. Keep them on paper towels with a small water bowl so they can drink and hope for the best as once blister start, they are difficult to stop as the stress of one causes more blisters. Muds do not seem to heal well from blisters like most other snakes and it usually kills them within weeks so I wish you the best and good luck.

My mud got blisters quite badly about a month ago. I moved it into a tub with about 6" of dry aspen shavings and a small water bowl (too small for soaking). Since then nearly all the blisters have gone, but healing is quite slow. I also applied a generic antibiotic ointment (forget the name) to the snake quite liberally every week for the first three weeks. After three weeks the tube was empty and the snake nearly recovered so did not treat this week.

Have you gotten your snake to feed? Mine has been quite stubborn and I still haven't had him take anything. I've tubed twice now. I am concidering tubing once more to put a touch more weight on him then brumating him for a month or two (obviously after the slurry's passed through him). Do you think brumation would induce feeding? I've never brumated an anorexic snake before and I am concerned he may be too thin but I see little hope in continuing to tube. Has anyone brumated Farancia before? Is 55F-60F an acceptable temp?

Thank You

Cam
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"I'm tired of being a wannabe bowler! I wanna be a bowler!!"
-- Homer Simpson

I had the exact same problem with my muds. To resolve it, I setup the cages as follows: the cage is a shoebox in a typical rack system, one animal pre enclosure. Substrate is paper towel. Temps by day are around 75, 65 at night. I have a delicup in each cage with very slightly damp sphagnum, and I mean VERY slightly (nearly dry to the touch). A simple, short waterbowl on the other end. My babies started a shed cycle not long after I saw the first blisters and once they shed, the blisters were gone. Also, I have been feeding mine pinky mice or pinky parts (see pic below) scented with tadpole water I froze into cubes. They take them readily and it really helps them heal with the nutritional content.

Thanks
Matt and Nicci Turner
www.selectiveorigins.com

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Matt & Nicci Turner
www.selectiveorigins.com

Doesn't it figure I just put them all in the same tank with some acriflavine to hopefully knock down the blistering problem, as I have been informed that an aquarium down south has doen lab work after necropsy of some of these guys and found that the blisters have been the result of a systemic fungal infection. That said I'm still waiting for more info on their treatment.

With the dry setup are any of you taking any particular precautions to prevent dessication? I have a couple of these guys with some pretty bad blisters, and I was worried they would dry out too much in a really dry setup, so that's why I put them in the water setup. But, if it works I'll do it!

Any tricks involved to get them on pinkies?

Freight

That ointment treatment mentioned above sounds great so you should lube your snake a bit with the stuff and keep them away from water only able to drink as moisture of any degree is bad right now and very good ventilation is important. In the wild after many big storms, they are sick of the water amounts and often are found drying themselves out, so water or humidity is bad, but do not use a heat lamp and the higher temps will cause more stress and more blisters. As far as getting them on full pinks, you will have to scent pinks with siren or tadpoles to get them going and they may eventually take defrosted pinks but will eventually need to be scented again. Blisters are a major problem with snakes as their largest organ is their skin and it is an internal problem as much as it is an external problem as all their fluids go to the blister site making them very dehydrated. And just get some sirens and freeze them for scenting and get your snakes feeding as they need the fluids and bulk to get through this problem in the first place. Keep them cool but not cold. And moderate the temps from 70 to 78. Look to complete a detailed search on kingsnake for more info. Good luck.