Hognose with mass/lump

Last week my Hognose refused food, then seemed to be struggling to pass something later in the week, there was liquid and solid urine passed but nothing else. She refused again this week and I took her out to check what was up, her vent looked a mess with urate buildup, I soaked her a little and cleaned it off.

Sunday night she passed some bloody fluid like a clot and Monday there was a mass up her body, before there was only a lump near her vent, now there’s two. She went to the vet today, xrays, needle aspirate the mass. I thought maybe retained egg? She laid a bunch this summer and we had an issue of her not being able to pass them when she was younger. Vet says no, that’s not it.

It’s not in her digestive tract but near her colon so they don’t think it’s food. Vet thought maybe abscess but didn’t drain when they poked a needle in. They didn’t want to do an enema because of her already bleeding from the vent. They got layers of tissue, blood and pus in the aspirate . Suggested treatment so far is antibiotics (baytril) soak several times daily and return in a week.

I wasn’t at the appt, can’t get off work at all right now so this is all second hand from my husband and it was a new vet, not the guy I have seen before and am confident in. Any ideas or thoughts? I’m pretty concerned.

X-ray I was sent attached

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An MRI would show more about what's going on with a soft tissue infection than an x-ray. Not many vets have them though. Perhaps call around and see if there's anyone.

IMO if it was eggs that she did not passed she would probably be dead already, when animals remain egg bound for two long they basically go septic, that's why egg binding is something serious and that need to be addressed ASAP if it happened, so I would likely ruled that out too. Than again sometimes weird things happen.

I agree that getting a picture of the soft tissue which cannot show on X-Ray would help, you could be looking as a cyst (+ abscess if caseous pus is present), or tumor.

Ok if I can’t find a vet to do an MRI? Good to know trapped egg is pretty much out as an idea. They did an ultrasound too judging by the pic he sent
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Thoughts on the treatment plan? It’s .1ml of baytril daily for ten days plus soaks and returning to vet in approx a week.


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Originally Posted by GoingPostal

Thoughts on the treatment plan? It’s .1ml of baytril daily for ten days plus soaks and returning to vet in approx a week.


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Well any time you have an infection you want a broad spectrum anti-biotic but that's in the short term, because the goal is to figure out what is going on, what the mass is causing the infection and whether or not it can be removed.

As far as dosage it depends on the concentration the most common is 2.7% which is prescribed between 5 to 10 mg per KG (1000 grams)

So 5 mg/kg dose = 0.22 ml or cc
or 10 mg/kg dose = 0.44 ml or cc

Now will whatever is in there pass? Well it depends on what it is and that I do not have the answer but it will be interesting to see what it is.

Did they do a fecal or blood work? I'm not an expert on reptiles but just from looking at the xray I'd suspect some kind of impaction or parasites. There could be a cyst, do snakes have hormonal issues? Or maybe it is a foreign body that has tissue built up around it?

Antibiotics won't hurt, there's infection somewhere. I normally lurk but thought I'd throw out more suggestions since your vet is stumped. A MRI is a good suggestion, I'm sorry your snake is sick. I hope they figure out what's going on.

No fecal or bloodwork was done. Or suggested afaik but I can definitely bring up next week. If she makes it that long, I'm not happy with the amount of blood she is loosing at all. How much blood can a tiny snake have? She's only eaten f/t mice for years so parasite should be out right?

Following the treatment plan, last night was the first night she didn't leave a bloody mess in the case, still a small amount of blood but also some urine so maybe encouraging? Have an appt set up for next Thursday for her recheck.

Poor little snake...I hope she gets well...:please: I'd have been just as concerned with the "bloody mess" in the cage, btw, and you're right, they cannot afford to lose
much...that's how mites are able to kill snakes, the snakes body goes into shock.