Sick Ball

I have a sick ball and I have no clue what might be wrong with her and I just found out that there are no licensed reptile vets in my area :(
Here´s the thing, I´ve had my ball for about two years, she´s always been very healthy, then a few weeks ago I fed her (I´ve never had any problems feeding her) and she regurgitated it almost instantly, I checked her out to see if there was something wrong with her but I couldn´t find anything. I tried feeding her again two days later and then everything went fine.
Usually when I feed her I leave her alone for a couple of days. The next time I picked her up her almost entire belly was just one big wound :( I cleaned out her cage, switched to newspapers, steralized everything) still it seems to be getting worse.
I´ve been looking at pictures on the internet of scale rot and they don´t seem to match, there are no liqued filled blisters on her, there is no puss, but she seems to be getting more more small sores everywhere not just on her belly:( I´ve been wondering if whatever is wrong with her might be in her blood or if she ate a bad mouse (I feed her frozen mice) If anyone here has any idea of what might be wrong with her or if this is scale rot and she needs antibiotics maybe if I knew what antbiotics to give her I could get them from the vet? Please help me save my snake!

What are your temps?

What is your setup like?

What have you been feeding her, and how large compared to her own body?

A friend of mine lost his entire collection to something very similar to what that sounds like. His snakes were seriously being eating alive by a flesh eating like virus. Even the vets out here (that were licensed) had no idea what it was. He said that it happens so fast too, how long of a duration is there between new discoveries?

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Originally Posted by Kitkat

I have a sick ball and I have no clue what might be wrong with her and I just found out that there are no licensed reptile vets in my area :(
Here´s the thing, I´ve had my ball for about two years, she´s always been very healthy, then a few weeks ago I fed her (I´ve never had any problems feeding her) and she regurgitated it almost instantly, I checked her out to see if there was something wrong with her but I couldn´t find anything. I tried feeding her again two days later and then everything went fine.
Usually when I feed her I leave her alone for a couple of days. The next time I picked her up her almost entire belly was just one big wound :( I cleaned out her cage, switched to newspapers, steralized everything) still it seems to be getting worse.
I´ve been looking at pictures on the internet of scale rot and they don´t seem to match, there are no liqued filled blisters on her, there is no puss, but she seems to be getting more more small sores everywhere not just on her belly:( I´ve been wondering if whatever is wrong with her might be in her blood or if she ate a bad mouse (I feed her frozen mice) If anyone here has any idea of what might be wrong with her or if this is scale rot and she needs antibiotics maybe if I knew what antbiotics to give her I could get them from the vet? Please help me save my snake!

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If she is that bad then no one here can give you any idea of how to treat it safely.How do you know there are no licensed vets in your area?

I lowered the humidity - was around 60, I lowered it to be between 40 - 50, I also raised the heat.
She has a waterdisch to soak in but I took it out and put in a smaller one (read somewhere that if she has any wounds soking is probably not a good idea)
I´ve only been feeding her frozen mice that are little bigger than her head
There is not long duration between new discoveries, maybe couple of days between new wounds
I have vets in my area, just none that will take snakes, I checked :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kitkat

I lowered the humidity - was around 60, I lowered it to be between 40 - 50, I also raised the heat.
She has a waterdisch to soak in but I took it out and put in a smaller one (read somewhere that if she has any wounds soking is probably not a good idea)
I´ve only been feeding her frozen mice that are little bigger than her head
There is not long duration between new discoveries, maybe couple of days between new wounds
I have vets in my area, just none that will take snakes, I checked :(

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Where are you located?

Have you looked for a vet in your area on either of these lists?

http://www.arav.org/Directory.htm

http://www.anapsid.org/vets/index.html#vetlist

I've heard that if a regurge isn't discovered right away, and the snake has time to get through the stomach acids, it can cause what you're seeing. I don't know the validity of this, as I've never seen it first hand, but I remember something similar being posted here before.

See if you can find a vet on either of those two links and then make an appointment sooner rather than later to get him seen.

Thank you for your reply´s and trying to help me find a vet. I live in Norway and it´s not on either of these lists :(
I´m going to try to talk to the pet store, since they are open today, they have snakes and stuff so they must know something. Also a friend of mine had a sick turtle a few years ago and took her to a vet that could help, I´m trying to find out if he´s still in business.

Great news I found a vet who is willing to see her :)

Good job - please do report back what he thinks is happening - as it may help someone else in the future! Our thoughts will be with you!

The wounds may be burns from the stomach acids. Is it possible the FT mouse was bad? I never feed frozen, I like to know the health and condition of a rodent before I feed it to my snake. Unfortunately with FT you have no idea of the health and freshness of the rodent:(

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Originally Posted by patthesnakeman

A friend of mine lost his entire collection to something very similar to what that sounds like. His snakes were seriously being eating alive by a flesh eating like virus. Even the vets out here (that were licensed) had no idea what it was. He said that it happens so fast too, how long of a duration is there between new discoveries?

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That's pretty scary. As if worry about IBD wasn't enough!

Just got her back from the vet, it looks like the under tank heater malfunctioned and overheated (then cooled back down) so she got burned and as a result she got some sort of bacterial skin infection.
The vet gave her some ointment that has some antibacterial which should be applied once a day. If she is not better in a couple of days i´m supposed to bring her back and she will give her some antibacterial injection.

Do you have a thermostat?

If you dont you may cook the poor guy:(

I both have a thermostat and a humidity meter.

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Originally Posted by Kitkat

I both have a thermostat and a humidity meter.

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A thermostat controls the heat output, a thermometer simply measures it. Under Tank heaters reach 120 degrees uncontrolled, so it is VERY important that it is plugged into something to reduce the power output.

If you currently have nothing controlling it, Unplug it! The least you should have is a lamp dimmer from the hardware store to tune it down, but those do fluctuate. The rheostats that you can buy from zoomed DONT WORK, don't bother with them, the low setting keeps the UTH (undet tank heater) at 100 degrees (ive tried them:() Let us know what your situation is.

Thanks, Will do.
The under tank heater I used was from Exo terra and it has worked very well for the past two years, here is the link

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kitkat

I both have a thermostat and a humidity meter.

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What kind? I used to have several $30 petstore thermostats(ESU,made in china crap) and they were all over the place. They would go from 78-98 without moving the settings. Pure garbage. I always tell people a good t-stat(Ranco) for $80 is much less than Vet visits and meds. Same goes for under tank heaters.