Swollen Head, Vets have no clue what's going on.

This is Midori, she's a little over 2 years old. We've had her for almost 2 years now. Last Thursday I noticed some small amount of swelling on the left side of her head. We opened up her mouth and didn't see anything that looked damaged or out of place. By Friday afternoon, both sides of her head were swelling up, up to her nostrils. When you touched it, it felt like air. So we got her a vet appointment for Monday. Took her to the vet and she took some X-rays and said she had no clue what was going on with her. The X-rays showed what appeared to be just pockets of air from the side view, but from a top view, it looked like air and some liquid. So, she sent them off to a colleague of her who is a reptile specialist.

She had me bring her back this morning so she could drain the swelling and see what was going on. She said that she looked in her mouth also while she was anesthetized and said it looked normal. She drained the swelling and said it was mostly air, however a little bit of fluid came out. She was sending that off for a cultural. However, she thinks that until they find out what is causing the swelling, that it may continue. She seems to think that some sort of unseen trauma happened to her and they can't find it. Her specialist colleague apparently said he's never seen anything like this also.

Does anyone have any input on what might be going on with her?

Here's some info on her
-She's in a 28qt tub on paper towels and has a ceramic water bowl.
-She does like to push on the corner of her tub, a lot! Her nose is rubbed because of it.
-Her last few meals have been f/t rats, we do feed live when we have an abundance however.

She's been acting normal and alert through the situation. Just very touchy with her head, obviously.

I only have one pic that I took of her with her head swollen. I took it yesterday before the vet appointment.
http://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3210a80d.jpg

Thanks in advance.

Wow. I don't have any idea what it could be but I hope the test results can give you some answers. Will keep my fingers crossed that she ends up ok.

How strange. I have noticed before that sometimes my snakes head looks "poofy". But not like that, and its always right before a shed. What area are you located in? Maybe someone can recommend a vet for another opinion.

I would guess that it is probably just trauma from pushing on her tub walls. maybe moving her into a bigger tub, if that is an option. you can also crumple up news paper and put it in the tub. this will give her more places to hide and explore. I used to have retics do the same thing during breeding seasons and when they did not get out enough. I found by putting them in bigger cages and giving them more out time...they stopped. they just needed more stimuli maybe, I don't know. I do know that once they were moved into bigger cages, and got more excersize, they stopped pushing. I have had some pretty bad looking faces on my males at breeding time...but once they were put in with the ladies, they were fine. being a female...I would guess that she just needs a bigger tub and maybe some paper to help her 'hide' and feel more relaxed. I don't know for sure that this is the case with your girl, but it would be my guess.

Did the vet look at her heart at all?

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Originally Posted by Badgemash

Did the vet look at her heart at all?

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I was thinking about this too. Reminded me a bit of Tiffany's Leo. Take a look at this thread. http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?p=2066754

Yeah made me think of Leo too. :/ Best of luck for your baby! Definitely read through Tiff's thread.

Sound exactly like it give it a read through and make sure your get it checked out. There are so many different possibilities keep positive never give up.

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Originally Posted by DooLittle

I was thinking about this too. Reminded me a bit of Tiffany's Leo. Take a look at this thread. http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?p=2066754

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That's exactly what I was thinking, thanks for pulling up the thread.

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Originally Posted by Badgemash

That's exactly what I was thinking, thanks for pulling up the thread.

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No problem. I thought about it when I first posted this morning, but didn't have time to dig it up then. :)

So here's an update. I did read the forum about Leo and it doesn't sound like what Midori is going through.

She hasn't been bleeding, just the top of her head has been swelling, and she still acts normal. She ate this last weekend like normal after we "popped" her head.

The vet has yet to hear back from the lab about the culture taken.

We've had to pop her head with a needle twice since taking her because she's swollen up so bad. It's just air inside.

Since this has happened. We've been thinking that maybe she's damaged her nasal cavity some how, causing air to get stuck inside of her. After talking to a friend on FB, he asked a breeder friend of his who thinks she's going through the same thing 2 of his snakes went through. It sounds like she basically broke her nose. He suggested I try and find any stuck shed in her nostrils and see if that helped. So, I tried fishing in her nostril (which she was very good about) for anything, and pulled out a small blockage, but it doesn't seem to have really helped.

So, now it's still just a waiting game. I moved her from our melamine rack to our AP rack so she won't do anymore damage to her nose, plus I've sprayed it slightly to help with some humidity. I gave her a hide also to see if she'll just hang out in there while recovering.

Fingers crossed we hear back from the vet soon!

Thanks everyone!

Very interesting, thanks for the update, and please keep them coming.

Thank you for the update! Sorry you're going through this but its very informative. This one is going into my memory banks :)

Interesting! Definitely keep us updated. Have you guys gotten an x-ray of her head? That could answer the major question here.

Hope she continues to be her normal Midori self through recovery!

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Originally Posted by Archimedes

Interesting! Definitely keep us updated. Have you guys gotten an x-ray of her head? That could answer the major question here.

Hope she continues to be her normal Midori self through recovery!

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The vet did X-rays the first time we took her. She said from the side view, it looked like just air. But from the top view, it looked like air and some fluid. So when she did the initial "pop", a tiny amount of fluid came out. So, she took that fluid and sent it off for the culture. That's what we're waiting on to hear back from.

Wonder if it's like a snake sinus infection? Im interested to hear how this turns out, and hope it is nothing serious.

Ok...another and hopefully final update.
The vet called yesterday. The lab results showed....nothing! The vet said that it must be due to some sort of head trauma, but she still isn't 100% sure since she's never seen anything like this before.

On a good note. Midori is looking much, MUCH better. Hardly any swelling. So, me fishing in her nose (like I don't do that enough already with a toddler :D) must have helped out because it hasn't swelled up since. She'll be residing in the AP rack now, no more broken snake noses, please!

Hopefully, this will help someone else out when/if it happens to anyone else. This was definitely a first for me!

Thank you everyone for your concerns and thoughts. Here are some phone pics I took of her last night when I got her out to check up on her. Curious, and on the move Midori is back! Which is great because she has a date with my Mojave Sable this winter :D

http://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/...ps74d25cde.jpg
http://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/...psf203fe74.jpg
http://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7d463ab6.jpg

Wow, the swelling looks great! Thanks for the updates, and best of wishes for your girl and her blind date! :D

Awesome news!! So happy for you that it turned out Ok :)

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 4

Wow, she looks so much better! Glad she's ok!

So glad that everything turned out okay. :)

a few of my bp's heads have gotten swollen like this and after being incorrectly diagnosed as rat bites and mouth rot, i figured out that 28qt and bigger Sterilite tubs with locking lids are the problem. the lids are too flexible and provide just enough room for the snake to do some serious damage trying to "test" for a weak spot and escape. glad your snake is better!

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Originally Posted by hypersomniacjoo

a few of my bp's heads have gotten swollen like this and after being incorrectly diagnosed as rat bites and mouth rot, i figured out that 28qt and bigger Sterilite tubs with locking lids are the problem. the lids are too flexible and provide just enough room for the snake to do some serious damage trying to "test" for a weak spot and escape. glad your snake is better!

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That sounds a lot like what I think happened with her. She was in the first rack that hubby made and it's 28qt tubs. He made it so we didn't have to use the lids, however, there's gaps like 1/4" from the melamine to the tub in certain levels, hers being one of them. Every time I noticed her pushing, it was in the same exact corner every time. She didn't do it daily, but towards the end of the week when feeding day was approaching. She's the only one who I've noticed who went absolutely hard core on the pushing. The AP rack she's in now is 32qt, slightly taller tubs, and no gaps for her to push on. She's been enjoying her cardboard box I cut up to use as a temporary hide for her, so I figured, I'll just leave it in there with her till she's destroys it.

And she will destroy it, no doubt about that! Man, I am so happy she's ok.


Sent from my cool hide

that so weird but yeah from the sound of it she may of fractured the nose area and this allowed some air to leak into the skin around the back of head. With the removal of the blockage you took out has allowed the skin t o close up and heal resulting in less build up. You can just never know lol Snakes are like kids they can do the weirdest things when you least expect it.

Could it have been an allergic reaction? I noticed from what you said the swelling also went down after you moved her. Very interesting case, I am glad she is doing better.

Am thinking of hydrocephalus due to head trauma? Or just growth? Abcess? Antonio

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Originally Posted by Monty the BP

Could it have been an allergic reaction? I noticed from what you said the swelling also went down after you moved her. Very interesting case, I am glad she is doing better.

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I'm pretty sure it wasn't a allergic reaction. She's been in that rack since the day we got her, back in Nov 2011.

And it can't be a growth, or abscess since the swelling was pretty much just an air pocket.