Poor Baby. :-/ (Abscesses and early RI + Pictures)

Poor Marcie had a bad, bad day. I had been keeping an eye on these two little scabs under her chin, (no clue how they got there. I've gone over and over in my head what could have happened, but she's fed F/T, and kept on paper towels in a rack setup. Her water dish is the only furniture!) and yesterday one of them swelled up, and I noticed her saliva was waaay too sticky...so off to the vet we went. Had a great vet visit, stayed an hour and a half, actually! Her abscesses are all cleaned out now, and she's getting a course of antibiotic and wound-flushing. Opted out of getting a culture done because, well, money is tight and the vet was not extremely concerned. She's still eating, and is in good shape, all things considered. These very well could have healed on their own, although there's a good chance they wouldn't have, either. And her immune system was weakened, so we caught the very very earliest stage of an RI. So glad I took her in. Now I'll be giving shots for the next few weeks, and daily flushing out the little chin wounds (that are opened and clean now.)


She was so upset when we got home, that she balled up! This is a 1400 gram female...lol...poor dear.

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/v...27740249_n.jpg
My receipt:
http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/v...523_192441.jpg


These are all 'before' pictures. Now she has little holes in her chin...
http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/v...523_152824.jpg
http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/v...523_152808.jpg
http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/v...523_152757.jpg

Ohh poor Marcie, that is one cranky girl! Hope she feels better soon, sounds like a quick job so hopefully healing up will be just as speedy!

Sooper cranky. But she's such an angel...never so much as hissed through all of this. <3 She's a strong girl, I have no doubt she'll recover quickly. ^_^ Ty!

Poor girl, I hope she feels better soon. Does she normally strike at her F/T prey? My guess would be that she could have broken teeth somehow, and they ended up accessing. But of course that's just a guess.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FireStorm

Poor girl, I hope she feels better soon. Does she normally strike at her F/T prey? My guess would be that she could have broken teeth somehow, and they ended up accessing. But of course that's just a guess.

---

Yup, she strikes, but the vet did a thorough inspection of her mouth...nada. He said she probably struck something with her face really hard, and the cells in those spots just died. Who knows. Silly snake. :confuzd:

I've got a female who gets the exact same marks on her chin. Vet had no clue what the real cause was. I later put 2 and 2 together and figured out, she is doing it to herself. They way she uses her head to try to pry out from the bin, she uses her head like a prying wedge, gets it into a little groove and tries to twist her head. She goes through stages in the year where she is more motivated to try to escape and relentlessly tries.

She has been doing it recently again and they have swollen up. Shes currently about to lay mid june so I understand the angst, she probably wants to find a spot more to her choosing then mine. :colbert:

She always has marks now under her chin, sometimes they are black(mid process of healing) or if they've healed and had a few sheds it goes almost back to normal but with slight scar/discoloration.Even since changing tubs to something with less of a lip to wedge, she still manages to get them to flare up now and again.

Shes done this for several years now, with no ill effects.

Just my .02. Will post pictures for reference if you'd like

YES! Finished the antibiotics today. LAST SHOT. I think we're both relieved. They aren't quite as healed as I'd like them to be, but she's also yet to shed, so we'll see what it looks like in another couple months. And any RI symptoms are completely cleared up. :)

And seang89, I would actually like to see those pics! Sorry I missed your offer.

Update:

God. I feel awful about this, but here it goes...

Last week her chin started swelling up again. I was worried, but I put off doing anything about it...and well, this morning I checked on her and she has no neck. Her face is so swollen she's just sausage- like... Made a vet appointment for tomorrow. I'm so tired of dealing with this...I just want her to be better. Hopefully the vet will take a payment plan, because I can pay for the visit, and maybe some meds, but if she has to have anything else done it'll have to wait until I get my big check (which was supposed to be saved towards a vehicle...oh well.) Such is the path we choose when we decide to keep animals, huh? :oops:

Poor Marcie. :(

Sorry to hear; I hope all goes well

Hang in there Marice...

First of all, im sorry to hear that. Now im worrying about my own and all....But it's really good thing that you caught it early :o I couldve been worse you know? I really hope it turns out nicely for you..:(

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk 2

Ohhh no, poor baby! She must be super-sensitive to infections; do you know if there's a history of susceptibility in her lineage?

Oh that poor girl!!! She's in good hands though so will bounce back.

Deep breaths Miss Anya, it'll pass and all will be better.

Oh No! Poor Marcie. I hope she gets better soon. I'm sure this is very stressful for you and her.

Sending best wishes

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 4

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Archimedes

Ohhh no, poor baby! She must be super-sensitive to infections; do you know if there's a history of susceptibility in her lineage?

---

I don't, no. I bought her second hand (lol) from a family who bought her from a very good locally owned pet store that breeds their own in a nice facility. I think highly of them, so I'm doubting this is something that could have been prevented with better breeding...I think it's more likely that the infection was resistant to the particular antibiotic, and remained hidden only to pounce again.

We'll see what the doc says tomorrow.

Thanks everyone. I'll try and post some pix tomorrow.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by seang89

I've got a female who gets the exact same marks on her chin. Vet had no clue what the real cause was. I later put 2 and 2 together and figured out, she is doing it to herself. They way she uses her head to try to pry out from the bin, she uses her head like a prying wedge, gets it into a little groove and tries to twist her head. She goes through stages in the year where she is more motivated to try to escape and relentlessly tries.

She has been doing it recently again and they have swollen up. Shes currently about to lay mid june so I understand the angst, she probably wants to find a spot more to her choosing then mine. :colbert:

She always has marks now under her chin, sometimes they are black(mid process of healing) or if they've healed and had a few sheds it goes almost back to normal but with slight scar/discoloration.Even since changing tubs to something with less of a lip to wedge, she still manages to get them to flare up now and again.

Shes done this for several years now, with no ill effects.

Just my .02. Will post pictures for reference if you'd like

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Anya

I don't, no. I bought her second hand (lol) from a family who bought her from a very good locally owned pet store that breeds their own in a nice facility. I think highly of them, so I'm doubting this is something that could have been prevented with better breeding...I think it's more likely that the infection was resistant to the particular antibiotic, and remained hidden only to pounce again.

We'll see what the doc says tomorrow.

Thanks everyone. I'll try and post some pix tomorrow.

---

Anya, I hope she feels better for you soon.

I know the first quote is a few months old but my questions to this overall is if the snake is in need of more space? Perhaps some snakes/BPs are in need of more space or different "furniture" in their enclosure. Granted you may have the "typical" BP setup, but perhaps some snakes/BPs/individuals need/want more than they are given? I'm saying what you are giving that particular individual might not be enough for them. Just a thought and something to experiment with.

Of course, your snakes might be like my dog and "allergic" to "everything" so you want to find the least common denominator in terms of causing injury/general "itchiness"/agitation for the snake.