Blister Disease

and I thought we were here to talk about snakes, check it out, im in an english class atm. :8:

I just lost my male bp reggie to a burn that looked just like that. I took him to a vet who advertised she was a reptile vet and for two months she had me treat him for everything from parasites to both gram possitive and gram negative inffections. I live in a small town and that was my only choice. Finally after 8 weeks of oral yes oral antibiotics she sent me to a specialist in Las Vegas (3 hours away). I took reggie to them,and they right away recognised a burn. He spent a week in the hospital. When I went to pick him up he looked very good but when I got him home he went down hill very fast and I could not get him back to vegas in time and he died Feb 27. I basically cooked him on the advice of a ignorant and arrogant vet. Im just telling you my story if it may help him avoid the same fate as reggie. Im pulling for the little guy. good luck. RIP REGGIE!

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Originally Posted by sw204me

and I thought we were here to talk about snakes, check it out, im in an english class atm. :8:

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Hey, I'm an English Lit major...being anal about the language is what I do. ;) If all works out as I'd like it to, I'll be editing for a publishing company as a career. If I'm unsuccessful in doing that, I'll be pursuing a PhD through grad school so I can be a professor at a University :)

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Originally Posted by AzureN1ght

Hey, I'm an English Lit major...being anal about the language is what I do. ;) If all works out as I'd like it to, I'll be editing for a publishing company as a career. If I'm unsuccessful in doing that, I'll be pursuing a PhD through grad school so I can be a professor at a University :)

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:rockon:

Snoopy's was systemic pseudomonas infection, but she didn't get the hightlighting/fading on her back, just pockets of liquid in the scales, and what at first appeared to be a burn/belly rot, but after the vet drew and cultured the fluid, we found out it wasn't.

She did start shedding a bit. Be careful. The neosporin ointment, if it gets on the rest of his body will cause the other scales to flake of aaaaaaaaaall over the place, and that could generate more issues.

Keep working on getting the temps up. Snoopy didn't want to eat b/c of her belly, so keep an eye on the condition/weight. You may have to encourage/help the snake to eat.......he probably won't want to coil around anything until it's healed.

The pics posted----how old are they??? Is the damage still fresh (or did I miss a timeline in a posting somewhere? :confused: ):oops:

Good luck!

try soaking him in a very weak betadine and water solution. make it look like weak iced iea. once a day.

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Originally Posted by AzureN1ght

Hey, I'm an English Lit major...being anal about the language is what I do. ;) If all works out as I'd like it to, I'll be editing for a publishing company as a career. If I'm unsuccessful in doing that, I'll be pursuing a PhD through grad school so I can be a professor at a University :)

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Good Luck to ya! :carrot: (I was just joking with ya btw)

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Originally Posted by sweety314

The pics posted----how old are they??? Is the damage still fresh (or did I miss a timeline in a posting somewhere? :confused: ):oops:

Good luck!

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just remember the second set of pics is a different snake.

~mike

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Originally Posted by sweety314

Snoopy's was systemic pseudomonas infection, but she didn't get the hightlighting/fading on her back, just pockets of liquid in the scales, and what at first appeared to be a burn/belly rot, but after the vet drew and cultured the fluid, we found out it wasn't.

She did start shedding a bit. Be careful. The neosporin ointment, if it gets on the rest of his body will cause the other scales to flake of aaaaaaaaaall over the place, and that could generate more issues.

Keep working on getting the temps up. Snoopy didn't want to eat b/c of her belly, so keep an eye on the condition/weight. You may have to encourage/help the snake to eat.......he probably won't want to coil around anything until it's healed.

The pics posted----how old are they??? Is the damage still fresh (or did I miss a timeline in a posting somewhere? :confused: ):oops:

Good luck!

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Thanks for the advice everyone, this is more along the lines of what I was hoping to see. Yes, the belly does look a little burned (now), and I was concerned about it. I've suggested that the H202 might be preventing healing, so a weak Betadene solution is now going to be used.

I think the polysporin is causing scales to flake off the rest of the body... is that a problem? What can be done to avoid this? The snake has been doing his regular fast this winter... normally he'd start eating in a month or so, but this will have to be healed up first. He has gone through one shed since the infection... hoping for another one soon.

I'm not sure if the first BP brought to a zoo was 1945 (not 1954), but certainly the longest recorded lifespan of a BP was this particular snake.

And I was personally offended by any "scolding". I truly believe in a perfect world that we would all have an experienced herp vet accessible to us and our collections, and that anyone who is to get into the hobby puts away a full year's worth of possible vet bills in a savings accounts just in case. The reality is much different, and I tried to make it clear to anyone reading that in everything you do you must make decisions based on an imperfect world and then take responsibility for these decisions no matter the outcome.

Just some specifics on the poor situation of veterinary care in my area... I am a microbiologist and I have several herping friends with experience as well. I've known keepers to do fecal examinations and their own diagnoses, go to the vet requesting specific medication for their problems, and be turned away or consoled because there is "nothing we can do". The more experienced herpers who can contribute real world advice the less of a problem this will be now and in the future.

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Originally Posted by AzureN1ght

I don't think it's too unreasonable that he thought you were being kinda snippy with him, even if you didn't mean to be. It's the wording. As an English major, I see it all the time.

Using the pronoun "you" to make a statement about people in general can be misinterpreted. One could recognize that the "you" pronoun was meant as a general reference to people, or one could interpret it properly and interpret the "you" as meaning the person (or people) that you are directly talking to. It seems that Dread took your "you" to mean him personally (that's how I read it, also).

If you had said: "People should try and find a vet that does snakes before they EVER buy a snake.", it would have at least been in the context that you meant.

Although, even if you hadn't been using confusing pronouns, the comment seemed a little off-base. Seeing as how Dread is helping someone else out with his snake problems, and he has already stated that it's not really possible to see a vet, he didn't really need to be told again that he should be seeing one.

I know you were trying to help, but Dread's reaction to your post wasn't entirely off-base, J.

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Thank you Mrs. Kim! :bow: :rockon: Yes I think it was a simple misunderstanding, and I screwed up.