I caught a California Kingsnake in Wenden, AZ a few years back and was very excited. It was my first Cal King but it was VERY thin. I decided to keep it an nurse it back to health. I noticed it had a prominent scar on the underside of its jaw, but otherwise appeared fine.

I took it home and set it up properly and left it alone for a few days. Then I offered it a large fuzzy pinkie mouse (it was an adult Cal King). It showed no interest. I waited a few days and tried again - same result. After about two weeks, I decided to look more closely at my new captive and investigated its healed wound. What I found was that whatever tore its mouth open had removed its tongue. It could no longer smell/taste to eat so it had been starving. I tried to get it to swallow a fuzzy with no luck and decided the most humane thing was to euthanize it. I wonder how many months (years?) it had been crawling around in AZ trying to survive without its tongue?

I hope that isn't what happened in your case. As Doug said, you can generally clear up mouthrot with H202 and betadine if you are fastidious with it. Once the infection is reduced, hopefully it will start using its tongue again and get back to shape.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

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• Snake Tongue Question - fairladyz, Sun May 25 23:06:43 2008
• RE: Snake Tongue Question - DMong, Mon May 26 00:28:00 2008
• RE: Snake Tongue Question - anuraanman, Mon May 26 05:17:03 2008
• RE: Snake Tongue Question - chrish, Mon May 26 10:36:21 2008