Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm wrting this thread to find out if anyone that has kept a venomoid snake, that had implants put in place of venom sacks, experienced the snakes rejecting the implants?

The reason I ask is because I have an albino western diamondback that seems to be having some odd things going on with it. The history on it as I heard when it was purchased, is that it had venom duct surgery at a young age from a licensed vet that has done thousands of these surgeries, not some garage hack job. Anyways, he got this snake back 3 years later and the implants were too small, so he removed them and replaced them with ones more suitable to the snakes size. I received the snake sometime after surgery, and aside from a little swelling, he looked fine. He shed shortly after receiving him and I noticed a discolored scale on one of his "cheeks". Didn't think anything of this. He's been eating fine and acting normally since. However, I have noticed that over the past couple months, he has been losing weight, Not a dramatic amount of weight but is getting obviously skinnier, while still eating as much as he ever did. And that spot on his "cheek" has become two now, and looks more now like a scab that gets bigger every shed. And, one seems to have recently developed on the other side as well. Unfortunately, I'm unable to provide pictures at this time, but will work on it soon.

Anyways, only thing about the spots I can think of is that the body is rejecting the implants and trying to push them out. As for the weight loss, well...i'm not sure. I plan to take a fecal into the vet soon. Unfortunately, that is as much as any local vet will do for rattlesnakes.

Any thoughts, opinions, and input is apprecated. I won't be around the computer much this week, but will do my best to answer questions and get those pictures posted.

Thanks

Who was the vet that removed the original implant? VENOMOIDINC.COM has been in business for a number of years. I would suggest asking their DMV about your issue.

Another reason not to put your animal through this.......

I don't own a venemoid, but my favorite Nor-Cal herp-doctor told me of a case he'd had. A customer brought in an adult cobra-venemoid that seemed to have caught cold: the distressed snake was sneezing and gaping. Close examination showed a clear goo drooling out its mouth, which proved to be SILICONE! Yes, the surgeon(?) that did the gland-removal used a sort of breast-implant to maintain the animal's head shape after surgery. And the sac had ruptured.... emergency surgery saved the cobra's life, but the snake turned out to be VERY expensive.
So what kind of implants are generally used here? This type obviously didn't work out very well.