Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Guys,

After keeping venomous and non venomous snakes for more than 5 years, I dared to buy a 3 feet long young male green a week ago and started having issues immediately

The male looked like it was about to shed when it came (blue eyes) but have not shed yet after a week. The eyes were normal colored yesterday and they are blue again today.

Since he arrived, he never came out of his huge water dish and soaks excessively. I thought it was normal since they are water boas and it is shedding time but yesterday I noticed scales out of place on his body. Some of his scales look raised. And today I noticed a small blister like region on his head, which ofcourse scared the hell out of me. Also slight hissing sounds came out of him like breathing problem when I was handling him, which was never observed before. 5 minutes ago I removed his water dish and planning to leave it out for the day.

Any ideas??? Is it some kind of a blister disease due to excessive soaking? Can it be related to shedding? It feeds perfectly and is extremly tame.

I am really worried and any help is appriciated.

Let me know.

e-mail is perfect but I will also check the board, tooç

m.yasincakmak@gmail.com

Yasin
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We are the best GALATASARAY

Yasin,
Excessive soaking will cause blisters, especially in young greens. You took a good first step by removing the large water source. I would recommend that you keep him on newspaper substrate for now, with a good dark hide, and use a very small water bowl that he in no way is able to get into. It needs to be small enough that he cannot even get a portion of his body into so as to prevent spillage. Most will not, but if he continues to spill even the smaller bowl, you may have to offer water only two days per week. The substrate must remain dry for now. After a few sheds the blisters will disappear as long as you keep him dry to avoid further complications from infection. If he has trouble shedding in these drier cage conditions, it will not hurt to soak him in a container of water with a lid for a few hours to help remove it before returning him to the dry cage.

Make sure the substrate temps stay in the mid 80’s with an upper 80’s warm spot. Be sure to measure temps of the substrate. The problem with large water bowls is that they can very easily become too cool, and water is very good at transferring heat out of an object like a snake. Watch him closely to see that he doesn’t develop a respiratory infection, as you made a comment about his breathing.

Greens are very unusual in that some of them have very strange patterns of eye cloudiness before and after shedding events. Some will go opaque, clear, and then cloud again before a shed. Others will cloud, and then stay opaque during the shed and for several days afterwards. I don’t know the reasons behind this, but I have seen it on a number of occasions. Let us know how it goes with him.

Kelly

Hey,

It was a really wierd exoerience but everything is fine now. The day after I posted here the status of the green was much worse and I thought I was actually losing him. There was a severe respiratory infection present and skin condition looked worse. So as advised above, I changed the substrate to a dry one and added a heat pad to the set up. I placed a small water dish in his cage and soaked him daily. I also treated the snake with antibiotics that I had for the infection. After the treatment, his condition start to get better everyday. Today he shed and the blisters are gone with only a little scarring left behind. The hissing sound is also gone.

Thanks for all the advise.

My question is that I have another snake being kept in a similar humid environment. This snake is a female yellow and she seems to have no problems with her setup. She does not soak herself often and eats well. Should I switch her to dry setup with daily soakings, too? My only problem is that the place I live in is too dry and I am afraid that the snake will suffer.

Thanks again
Yasin
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We are the best GALATASARAY

I would only intentionally soak a snake for a few hours if it had a dried shed adhered to it. The use of a voluntary soaking bowl is strictly a personal preference, all I say is that it does not appear to be a requirement from what Jud and I have experienced. If an anaconda does well with one and does not soak excessively, then as long as the soaking bowl is kept ultra-clean, I don’t see an issue with them. If they are working out well when small, the problem usually starts when the anaconda grows larger, and you have a 20 to 40 gallon pool (or larger) that you need to keep clean on a very frequent basis. That begins to become a chore. But if that is not a problem for the keeper, and there are no health issues, then the pool idea is fine for larger anacondas as well.

Great to hear your male green is doing better. The skin scarring will look better after a few more sheds. Also, just curious as to what antibiotic you were using on him. Thanks,

Kelly