Emergency Help!!!!!!!

OK so i just fed my boa Old Greg and he ate fine got the mouse done fine and he is very active but as i got closer i noticed something and me and my friend who also owns snakes has no idea what this is...its about 4 inches from his head and its on the underside of him and it looks like a pebble is pokeing out and if you get real close you can see what looks like maybe blood through his skin...im trying to get pictures but its hard through enclosure and he just ate so i dont want to handle him...could it be a peice of poop that he squeezed out of the mouse on the way down his body or what.. he seems fine as far as his actions they are normal and this was not there before i fed him..PLease let me know of anything you can think of, and i will try to get some pictures up when i can

sounds like a tick
a pic would help a bunch, but look up snake ticks on google and see if that's it

ok these arent the best but its about as good as i can do for right now
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...5/100_1908.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...5/100_1907.jpg
http://www.ball-pythons.net/gallery/...5/100_1909.jpg

Hm, that's not a tick looks like some kind of abscess, call and ask a vet, Did this appear all of a sudden?

I did feed live , and its inside of him not on the outside

yes it was not there before the feeding, cause i took him out of his cage and took old substrate out and weighed him, and was not there and then after he ate i noticed on him, he did fall from the top of the cage and landed on the side of the water bowl...could it be like an injury?

well then the fall explains everything, It sounds and looks like a hematoma from the fall(probably a large blood vessel got ruptured when it hit the edge). It should go by itself after some time . Keep an eye on it and if gets bigger call the vet. If it doesnt it will take care of itself. I really can't think of anything else if you are saying it just happened.

ok so i just called my vet and they said most likely it was when he fell and landed on the dish. im supposed to take all his vines and plants out so he has to stay on the ground tonight. and if it gets bigger by 2maro morning they said i need to bring him in but if it doesnt get bigger then he should be fine

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Originally Posted by drugaria

well then the fall explains everything, It sounds and looks like a hematoma from the fall(probably a large blood vessel got ruptured when it hit the edge). It should go by itself after some time . Keep an eye on it and if gets bigger call the vet. If it doesnt it will take care of itself. I really can't think of anything else if you are saying it just happened.

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Thank you very much for your help

Sending you good thoughts for a positive outcome!

Best of luck! My bp did something similar and climbed his vine before striking at dinner, then inevitably fell quite hard. I was glad he did not hurt himself, but I switched him to a smaller tank shortly after. Of course boas are not as vertically clumbsy, but anyway good thoughts for you and Old Greg!

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Originally Posted by eddyhead

ok so i just called my vet and they said most likely it was when he fell and landed on the dish. im supposed to take all his vines and plants out so he has to stay on the ground tonight. and if it gets bigger by 2maro morning they said i need to bring him in but if it doesnt get bigger then he should be fine

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I'm really glad you phoned your vet. In any emergency or health related situation, in the end it's best to rely on a good herp vet who can diagnose, start treatment if need be and have a good hands on check of the snake if required.

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Originally Posted by eddyhead

Thank you very much for your help

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My pleasure,
Joe

wow, that's scary lookin!
not what I had imagined at all from your description.

SO glad you called the vet....hope your snake heals up quick and complete :gj:

yeah i think everything should be good i just had to get rid of everything he could climb on...of course he did not like that.. be he is now looking like hes starting to digest hes calmed down

Hey I just saw your snake's bump in person... I'm Old Greg!

By the way, Zach you might want to spell Columbus correctly... unless thats some sort of joke.

It was probably the fallthat did it, but I just wanted to add that that bump looks alot like a rat bite. One time when one of my BPs coiled around a live rat it didnt have a good grip on the head and coiled around the whole rat so I couldn't do anything about it. After the rat was dead, it had an almost identical bump on it's lower neck with a very tiny red dot in the middle. It went down after a few hours and was completely gone the next day. I just figured its a possibility since you were feeding live and noticed it right after feeding. I'm not trying to say that anyone else is wrong though because I dont know what it definately is, nor do I know what a bump from falling on a water dish would look like as a comparison to a rat bite. It just looked alot like the rat bite on one of my BPs.

Hey corrupter Eddyhead is asleep but i was there for the feeding and i saw the bump in person. There were defiantly a few red dots right in the middle of the bump. The thing that puzzles me is, he grabbed that mouse so fast I cant imagine the mouse having a chance to bite the snake. But the way you describe your snake's injury I put my money on thats what it is.

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Originally Posted by giaach

Hey I just saw your snake's bump in person... I'm Old Greg!

By the way, Zach you might want to spell Columbus correctly... unless thats some sort of joke.

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haha thanks billy, i didnt realize i spelled it wrong....well its been one night everyone im going to wake him up and check it out and will post the results

well the swelling went down and looking at it a little more, it seems to be a bite. He didnt get a good attack on the mouse and had it in a bad position...i will now try everything i can to not feed live from now on. I just got to find a place that sells F/T i dont have any place to put a bulk order from the internet

You can also try stunning/pre-killing the mouse. If feeding live is your only option, be ready with a Q-Tip to stick in the mouse's mouth if you notice the snake doesnt get a good grab. It helps to prevent a bite, but doesnt always work (especially if you cant even see the head). I hope that helps!

what about buying the mice and then putting them with some dry ice in water, so that they suffocate..then freezing my own..would that be an ok method, or after the mouse is dead then warm it up and feed it to the snake?

them in a container with the dry-ice and water separate so that the CO2 fills the container that the mice is in with CO2 suffocating the mouse

If you go to the feeders section of the forum, there are stickies about how to make your own CO2 chamber.