Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About a week ago I noticed a strange lump about a inch down from my small ribbon snakes head. I first just hoped it would go away and passed it off as some trapped food or something, as he seemed normal and fine.

Today, although he was still acting normal it was starting to concern me that it was still there. After I cleaned out all his viv and put him back in thats when he started to act strange.

He was slithering around with his head tilted to one side and every now and again going into a fit of twirls, zig zagging in and out of its hides.

He's been like that now none stop for about 3 hours. I have no idea why it's only since cleaning the vic but it seems pretty obvious its something to do with the lump?

I've seen him act as similar when hes about to shed but no where near as wild and from what I can see his skin doesn't look like its about to shed.

Pretty much the canned response from people on this, and most other forums, will be "take it to a vet". And that's good advice if you have a competent herp vet in your area. Personally, that was not my experience when my recently acquired carpet python began exhibiting a strange spiraling movement of the neck. The vet actually told me that the prognosis was very poor because the snake's tongue was blue (carpets always have blue tongues). But he diagnosed it as some disorder of the nervous system. Yours could be something similar, it could be an abcess, rodent bite, or a parasite. That's about all I can think of.

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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

First off, wow, stunning snake in that pic!

For the ribbon, how big is this snake? Few people are actually that far from a herp vet, you just have to look. www.arav.com is a good place to start. Always ask for referals from any dead ends you run into. With this said, find a herp vet before you need it.

Taking your ribbon to the vet is probably the only good advice in your case.
Remember that even good herp vets will not know specifically what is normal for every species (over 100 readily available species, tonnes more if your search for them) as in the blue tongue in the python. Now, if the blue tongue was abnormal, then yes, the prognosis would be poor. However, with the python, and this ribbon, the presence of other, degrading signs, adds merit to such a statement.

Ian

Then I suppose we agree on our advice. A *good* herp vet is a must.

Any herp vet is almost certainly better than none at all, but be aware that not all vets have the same level of experience. I guees That was what I was trying to get across. ARAV is a very good resource, at least from what I've been told. Hey why didn't I think of that, lol.

Anyway, best of luck with your ribbon. Let's hope it's not serious.

- Joeysgreen, thanks for the compliment.
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

Thanks alot for the replies

I never replied back straight away because it said I'd get a email when someone replied and the snake looked like he was going back to normal and I also thought the was lump moving further down its body. (not so sure now though)

Although he's stopped the head tilting and crazy zig zags, he's still not feeding and still acting unusual.

As you said I need to get him to a vet but I'm from Liverpool, England and not really sure where to turn. I'm gonna ask around, hopefully get him seen to as soon as and I'll let you all know

Go to www.arav.com for a list of herp vets. I couldn't find any in Liverpool, so you'll have to go look for what's closest. If problems, search the site for Dr. Hernandez-Divers who's now in the U of Georgia, but was in the UK for a long time. He might have a referral for ya

Ian