A friend had me come and look at her boa this evening because he had something wrong with his mouth. I have dealt with many mouth swellings, injuries, and diseases before, but I have never seen anything like this.



The snake has two big pockets of what looked like fluid under a thin layer of skin inside his mouth on the lower jaw. They are squishy and sort of gelatinous feeling. They are so big that I was unable to see into the rest of his mouth easily, and decided to start by draining them. I couldn't get a syringe through the skin inside of his mouth, so went in from the outside. Nothing drained out, and it seemed more like air than fluid. After several draining attempts, still nothing came out.



I opened his mouth and the rest of it looks fine.



The snake had been taken out earlier today and was fine. He had been fed a little while before the swelling was noticed, but he ate his usual meal of a f/t rat. The rat was bred by the owner. Due to the time frame, it seems like the rat may have had something to do with the problem, but I can't imagine what.



My best guess is some sort of allergic reaction.



I instructed the owner to give the snake a bath and put it on paper towels, and see if there is any improvement in the morning.



Any thoughts?



If there is no improvement, and she doesn't take him to the vet tomorrow, I will try to get pictures.
-----
Ball Pythons:

1.2 Normal

1.2 Pastel

0.1 Black Pastel

2.0 Het Orange Ghost

0.1 Orange Ghost

0.2 50% Het Orange ghost

1.3 Mojave

1.2 Spider

1.1 Albino

0.1 Het Albino

1.0 Piebald

0.1 Double het, Albino Pied



Other:

0.1 Irian Jaya x Jungle Carpet python

1.0 Jungle Carpet Python

1.0 Tiger Retic

1.1 Burmese Pythons

1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boas

2.5 Corn Snakes

1.0 American Alligator

1.0 Savannah Monitor

0.0.1 Argus Monitor

1.0 Chinese Water Dragon

0.1 Brown Basilisk

0.1 Ambanja Panther Chameleons

3.4 Crested Gecko

0.1 Sulcata Tortoise

1.1.1 Sugar Gliders

1.1 Puppies

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]