Problem with my three year old Bci Leroy

Dear forum members,

I have a problem, and I hope you can help me. My BCI Big Bad Leroy Brown suffered a feeding injury on Thursday. He struck at a large mouse and missed. He hit the side of the container. He immediately struck again and ate the mouse. He seemed fine at the time. He went blue Saturday. He had a bowel movement on Monday. I took my beloved snake out of his cage so I could clean the his cage. I was shocked to see a pea sized lump just posterior to his nostrils. We took him to a nearby Vet Tuesday afternoon. The vet inspected his mouth and teeth, there do not appear to be any missing teeth or abrasions, his mouth tissue looks normal. He does not have any broken bones. The vet concluded this is a soft tissue injury. She says there are no treatments options. What does everyone here think? Has anyone had a similar problem? Any possible treatments.
Thanks David

This is a photo of the injuryhttps://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...eroyinjury.jpg

Looks like he's swollen up? I think if you just give it some time it should heal fine. If there's no broken skin and the vet said to wait I'd say you're good. Nothing to get infected.


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My big girl Rosey, developed a lump on her nose like that. It turned out to be a sinus infection. I would wait a few days and see if the swelling goes down. If it doesnt, then try and gently feel it and see if it feels squishy like a blister. If so, you need to go to the vet and have them take a sample of the liquid with a needle. Thats whats my vet did and then had it cultured or whatever they do. Other than that, my boa seemed fine too. She ended up getting a shot every other day of Fortaz for a month and now she is fine but she still has a slight lump that the vet said might or might not go away with time. Good luck.

He is three years old and eating mice!! No wonder that his feeding response is like crazy. Such a feeding schedule is good for a corn snake not a boa constrictor. I hope he recovers soon

He never seemed to like rats, Sometimes he eats one, sometimes he leaves them. Takes mice like lightning though. He gets two large mice a week. He is growing like a weed. Sheds at every four to six weeks. Last time we tried to measure him with some string, the string came out to 4'11" He is a male, so he so he is probably within 20 percent of max length or so. I don't think he is being deprived.

His nose has not gotten better.

I have an appointment with another vet on Monday at 10:20 am eastern.

Going ask the vet about the injections mentioned above.

Thanks all for the responses

David

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nightrainfalls

He never seemed to like rats, Sometimes he eats one, sometimes he leaves them. Takes mice like lightning though. He gets two large mice a week. He is growing like a weed. Sheds at every four to six weeks. Last time we tried to measure him with some string, the string came out to 4'11" He is a male, so he so he is probably within 20 percent of max length or so. I don't think he is being deprived.

His nose has not gotten better.

I have an appointment with another vet on Monday at 10:20 am eastern.

Going ask the vet about the injections mentioned above.

Thanks all for the responses

David

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Very strange for BCI to be preferring mice over rats. Very unusual. Despite that, i would continue trying to feed him rats. Make sure that the new vet is specialized in treating reptiles, specially snakes. Very important. Good luck

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nightrainfalls

He never seemed to like rats, Sometimes he eats one, sometimes he leaves them. Takes mice like lightning though. He gets two large mice a week. He is growing like a weed. Sheds at every four to six weeks. Last time we tried to measure him with some string, the string came out to 4'11" He is a male, so he so he is probably within 20 percent of max length or so. I don't think he is being deprived.

His nose has not gotten better.

I have an appointment with another vet on Monday at 10:20 am eastern.

Going ask the vet about the injections mentioned above.

Thanks all for the responses

David

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Try rubbing the mice on the rats and thawing them out together in a ziplock bag to try and scent it. Kind of weird to find a picky boa lol. Mine eat anything offered. I give them rats, mice, chicks, quails, and rabbits. They never refused anything.

As for the vet, depending on whether the nose lump is hard or soft, he might take a sample of the liquid and culture it. You dont want to just throw antibiotics blindly at reptiles. Most of it is pretty harsh and they dont take well to it. Also realize, it takes reptiles a long time to show signs of being sick so the flip side is it also takes a long time for them to heal as well. And make the vet is an exotic vet, not just some 'general' vet. Most exotic vets dont treat cats, dogs and the like.

My dumerils is kind of the same way. She attacks FT rats and is scared of them but mice get her feeding response going. I have tried scenting and it kind of works. What i usually do is leave 1 small FT adult mouse next to a scented FT weaned rat on a sheet of printer paper or cardboard. Then just leave her alone. The mouse gets her over the fear of the rat and kicks in her feeding response, then after that she comes over and investigates the rat and eats it too. Hopefully, she will learn to just eat it instead of being scared of it lol. She is my only problem food switcher. Switched my BP on first try and took 2 tries to get me JCP from live mice to FT mice to FT rats.

If your boa won't take rats you could try rabbit kits instead. If your snake takes to them you'd only need to offer a 4-6 oz rabbit every 3-4 weeks instead of weekly feedings.

As for the face, I would get it to the vet to be checked.

So we had our appointment with the second vet. I drove over an hour to see this Vet, because he has 30 years experience with birds and snakes. He is a specialist in Exotics. I drove past six other vets to get to him. The diagnosis was the same. No injury to the mouth. or bones. The lump is hard and does not move, so no infection. No treatment options available.

Injury most likely cosmetic only. My snake should not be in any pain, and will likely be unaffected by the lump. The lump may or may not heal, but if it does heal it will take a long time.

I should watch the injury to make sure there is no change. Otherwise he says Leroy is perfect.

Thanks for the help.

David

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nightrainfalls

So we had our appointment with the second vet. I drove over an hour to see this Vet, because he has 30 years experience with birds and snakes. He is a specialist in Exotics. I drove past six other vets to get to him. The diagnosis was the same. No injury to the mouth. or bones. The lump is hard and does not move, so no infection. No treatment options available.

Injury most likely cosmetic only. My snake should not be in any pain, and will likely be unaffected by the lump. The lump may or may not heal, but if it does heal it will take a long time.

I should watch the injury to make sure there is no change. Otherwise he says Leroy is perfect.

Thanks for the help.

David

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That,s good news. You know now that he is ok. Try to feed him rats instead of mice. Maybe he will refuse at first but he will eat at the end. Mice are too small for 3 year old BCI. Feed bigger size meal and less frequent. My 18 months old male BCI ate last time a live jumbo rat (411 grams). I,m telling you this so you can have an idea what BCI,s are capable of. I,m sure that your BCI can take medium rats.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dutti

That,s good news. You know now that he is ok. Try to feed him rats instead of mice. Maybe he will refuse at first but he will eat at the end. Mice are too small for 3 year old BCI. Feed bigger size meal and less frequent. My 18 months old male BCI ate last time a live jumbo rat (411 grams). I,m telling you this so you can have an idea what BCI,s are capable of. I,m sure that your BCI can take medium rats.

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You dont want to feed a boa what it is 'capable' of. That is your problem lol. My 7'+ retic doesnt even eat jumbo rats that big. My 5 year old 6.5' female boa eats large rats which are like 200 grams every 3-4 weeks.

Your advice is bad advice and is a sure way to a short lived boa.

While i agree, mice are probably a bit small for a 3 year old BCI, i would personally try small rats. You want the food as thick as the snake. Problem though is if you have an already overweight snake, then the whole scale will be skewed and off since an overweight snake will be extra thick to begin with so you will thick it needs food that thick.

To give you an idea, my almost 6' sunglow girl is on medium rats every 3-4 weeks and she is almost 4 years old. My 5 year old 6,5' normal is on a large rat every 3-4 weeks like i said. My 15 month old suriname is on adult mice every 14 days. My 20 month old salmon male is on adult mice every 14 days too. My 16 month old Peruvian Longtail BCL male is on adumt mice every 14 days as well. Could they eat bigger? Of course. Everyone except the BCC would probably be fine with it. The BCC, it would be a toss up if she puked it up or not.

Again, dont listen to Dutti on his advice of feed what youe snake is capable of. And here are a few pics of my boas to give you an idea of how they look.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...9ac746ad_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...158cae7d_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...28343d6a_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...53d83459_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...e13caea1_h.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...b297de84_h.jpg

A boa should have good muscle tone on its sides. If you look at my sunglow, you can see her side muscles in the line on her side. My normal boa still seems a little chunky to me. Like i said, a boa should have muscular sides and be a nice squared bread loaf shape. Generally, they should be taller than they are thick. Actually here is a perfect example from a pic of my suriname.
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...d6447fd3_h.jpg