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Thank you everyone for sending me all those e-mails! I DO appreciate it!
Back home in NC., everything is getting better. What probably happened is, that when I went to gray-band land (West Texas) for a whole week, I left the water dishes in the cages. Well as soon as I left, the temps were a little low in the house and the Kingsnakes started to soak in their water bowls for days on end! This created the perfect opportunity that the bacteria had been waiting for!!! A soaked snake "smorgasboard"! I came back from my one week vacation and disaster!!!
GOOD NEWS:
Havn't made it to the vet yet, and havn't even used drugs yet, but three out of the four kingsnakes are recovering exteremely well! And they have started to eat again!!! Here's what I have done:
1. Isolate all the affected snakes in a seperate room to protect the rest of my collection!
2. Raise temps to about 88 degrees during the day and about 78 at night.
3. Only offer them water once every two days under my close supervisison. If they didn't drink (after showing them their water) I would leave the bowl in there for about 2-3 hours, constantly checking it ensure that no snakes were "soaking".
4. I cleaned their neck/head affected areas with germ killer once a day.

Unfortunately the fourth snake (a four foot female goini) is still fighting and it's a rough time for her. There is not much improvement yet, but the blisters are waning. She will visit the vet (took a while to find one that treats reptiles) on Friday and hopefully get some good medicine! Lesson learned:
If going on a short vacation, removing water bowls for a week is much better than leaving them in there! After all, most snakes can EASILY go without water for longer than a week!
Once again, thanks for all the e-mails and all the great suggestions, guys & gals!

THE MORE INFO WE SHARE THE BETTER FOR EVERYONES REPTILES,
EVEN IF YOU'RE A SEASONED BREEDER, swallow your pride share the BAD news too. Too many of us are only sharing good news on here. Don't be afraid to come out and share the bad stuff too. We can ALL LEARN FROM THIS!!! NO shame - NO gain!!!

I'm an expert on everything, but know so little and have so much to learn! - Carsten Zoldy -

Carsten "Zee" Zoldy

Lesson learned: If going on a short vacation, removing water bowls for a week is much better than leaving them in there! After all, most snakes can EASILY go without water for longer than a week!

Zee,

Glad to see this worked out for you. I have only had a few cases of blisters on a few kingsnakes (it's always the damn kingsnakes!) and they responded very well to the sort of treatments you are using. I have used a betadine wipe with effect as well, but the key is to let the dry out.

However, you haven't addressed the problem. Kingsnakes don't usually soak in their dishes unless they are dehydrated or more commonly, the temperature conditions aren't correct. Otherwise, what would going on vacation have to do with it?

Did it get hot/cold in your snake room when you were gone? That is usually the culprit, in my experience.
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Chris Harrison
Does anyone else here think that these scrolling signature lines are stupid?

Hi Chris!
As I stated above "As soon as I left (for vacation), the temps got a little low in the house". Sorry, didn't clarify: What I meant to say is that my son turned down the AC a little while I was gone to Texas. So, I beleive that it WAS low temps that caused the excessive soaking.
BTW: Are you going to Daytona this year?

Zee

Just my opinion... if a snake seems to be soaking alot. it could be mites. check the water bowl for dead mites.
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Be excellent to each other...and Party on dude!