Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi folks- you can see my previous post a few posts down the page.

Fletcher is doing well for the most part, but I'm still concerned.
The jaw doesn't seem swollen most of the time, but I still occasionally see obvious puffiness when I come home from work and check on him. It seems to go down if he moves around or if I handle him after noticing his face; does that indicate anything?

I gave him anti-inflammatory medicine recently (after discontinuing its use for the most part) and noticed that he opened and closed his mouth several times afterward, which I've seen many times when giving meds to reptiles, but he only opened his mouth on ONE side. Is this a normal thing, or does it lend credit to the idea that he does have some jaw damage?

Should I continue to avoid feeding until some more time has passed, or should I go ahead and give him a small meal? I can tell he's been looking for food on occasion recently. Weightwise, he can handle waiting, but perhaps a good meal might better allow for the body to heal, and perhaps even give his jaw a chance to get back into the right position if it is out of whack?

I truly don't know what else to do. The vet visits haven't been particularly fruitful. If anyone knows a VERY good reptile vet in the Portland, Oregon region, I can likely find the money for one more visit (especially for blood tests or other cultures if people think they're needed), but they are starting to become a bit of a drain considering I haven't gotten any solid answers.

Ive been to every reptile vet in my area and none of them have ever been any help for anything. The one I go to now is a human society loon who believes keeping reptiles is inhumane or something but, has no problem taking my money and trying to guilt me into every conceivable treatment. That being said it sounds like your boa has a broken jaw. Reptiles do not recover very quickly from injuries like that and I cant imagine any treatment other then an experimental surgery that has probably never been done before. If Im right about the broken jaw it will be a long road to recovery and skipping a meal or two isnt going to do your snake any favors. Try a small prey item first and see how it goes. keep us posted.
Jason

Thanks for the response.
Could my snake have a broken jaw in spite of x-rays not showing any breaks at all? We did a series of x-rays and no breaks could be seen from any angle.

A broken jaw bone in a snake would be a very rare occurrence unless there had been some extremely traumatic event or impact. A damaged ligament or musculature around the jaw is a possibility, but based on your current husbandry practices, it would appear that this would also be unlikely. A tissue inflammation or infection is always a possibility, and probably more likely. See my Jan. 16 response to your original post. Unfortunately, it may take an experienced reptile vet to make an accurate determination. Your other option would be to not feed at this time and observe the condition for a few weeks. Obviously, any negative change of a large degree would require an additional vet visit and the possibility of antibiotic therapy. Please keep us updated.

Kelly

I agree with Kelly.

And considering that bone, ligament and tendon injuries require time, and immobilization to heal, then feeding would be contraindicated unless caloric supplementation is a more immediate concern.
For this same reason I would avoid giving oral medications; unless aiming to treat the region with topicals.

We are all still just guessing without a diagnosis. On that note; this probably isn't going to be an easy case to find an exact cause, thus the futility you are feeling with your vets. Usually it's better to stick with the original vet (provided you are comfortable they are sufficiently experienced with reptiles to begin with) until the first round of diagnostics are done. Ask you vet when a referal to a specialist or another doctor may be a good idea. The reasoning behind this stance is that, especially with cases that have not been worked on a lot, information, data, and ideas are not transferred to the next doctor. The next doctor is essentially starting over on a patient that has "not been worked up yet".

Ian

I want to thank EVERYBODY who has provided input as of thus far.

Fletcher is still doing well. I did offer a small meal, as she (I switch between he and she when writing about her, but she is definitely female) was becoming VERY active searching for food, and I was worried about her overstressing or perhaps causing further injury to herself.

She took the meal (frozen-thawed very large mouse) with no hesitation aside from her usual bit, and hasn't shown any negative effects from that, and has also calmed significantly.

The swelling seems to have gone away, though I believe that each time I've seen it after the original time, she has been stressed for some reason. Perhaps inflammation recurs in her case due to elevated stress hormone levels, blood pressure? I don't know how that works with ectotherms.

In any case, I will keep you all updated. She's being watched very closely.

this case with Fletcher reminds me of an issue I had with a green tree python. She bit the screen of her cage and broke some teeth. I monitored her for a while and they were growing back beautifully then all of a sudden she developed a brown spot on her gums and the teeth fell out again. The vet said it was gingivitis. lol. I treated her with an antibiotic ointment till it was gone. Then it came back. Treated it again. Came back again. Finally her immune system beat it. That might just be whats going on with fletcher.

She's still doing beautifully.
I find it kind of odd that something that extreme can happen, I can do very little to assist, and she returns to her (apparently) perfectly normal, healthy self.

I have seen no evidence of further issues or trauma. The inside of her mouth looks lovely. She's eating regularly again with no hesitation (actually, she's been less picky than ever in the past).

Reptiles are just fascinating. I wish we knew more about their health issues, as it's still going to bother me once in a while that I had this learning experience and was unable to get any solid info out of it, aside from the fact remaining that many reptiles are just insanely good at healing from circumstances beyond their control.

Thanks again to everyone for their input. I value your help immensely!