Ball Python Belly-Rot and the fight against it. With Pics

[Jvmun]

Hello Everyone,

I recently had to deal with belly-rot in one of my baby ball pythons and I wanted to share my experience with other ball python owners. Especially those owner just getting into the hobby or care taking, and anyone who is curious about how someone else handled it.

I'll set the stage, I was keeping my ball python, Udon- male pastel yellow belly born in November 2015, in a tub with a UTH. Some shady stuff happened in my apartment and we decided to move the heck out. So during this ordeal as you may imagine I neglectedt my pythons for a few days. During the moving process I did not have time to set up my pythons appropriately. Udon's tub was over it uth with a thermostat and from what I concluded the heat of it may have burned him enough to irritate the belly. Now, when a burn happens, even in humans, the tissues tend to blister up, typically this would be something manageable. However, in addition the heat made his enclosure very humid, I would periodically open his tub and wipe the moisture off the lid and sides of the tub, not realizing that the substrate was very moist as well. Again, similar to humans, prolonged moisture promotes tissue breakdown. ..And finally, he had pooped/peed and began to shed during the moving process.

After the move, I began to set up my pythons and when I got around to Udon I noticed only about 2/3 of his body had shed so I put him in some warm water to assist the shedding. While he was in there I noticed his belly. The affected area was in the 3/4 portion of his body. It looked like a combination of pruning fingers and a burn, the scales looked wrinkled along the length of his body. Naturally, I felt incredibly guilty over it and took to the internet and forums immediately. The most helpful (easily accessible)information I found was this website in this link.

http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Rept...t-in-Reptiles/

Other helpful things I found by searching through herpetology journals and publications. (limited to the abstracts).
This happened on a Saturday. My first actions to correct this was to clean out his enclosure, reduce the humidity, and use blank paper as substrate. By Sunday, the affected area looked worse, it now looked more like a sore and my suspicions of infection were confirmed by smell, inflammation, redness, and discharge. There was even some darker coloration along his belly that could be seen through his normal looking scales. Which could mean enteral sepsis. This meant that most DIY remedies would not work since most of the baths recommended are more for bacterial prevention rather than cure. So I decided not to screw around on the internet and seek professional care.

I googled "exotic vet in (insert town name/state here)". The nearest vet was very near. Monday rolls around and I call the vets office and they set me with an appointment for that same afternoon. Udon, seemed to be 'ok' despite his belly rot, which was losing scales and had the large sores along the belly scales. I even fed him that morning. But the vet had experience with squamata care and had seen extreme cases of belly rot. Due to some tragic experiences she decided to go after the infection aggressively. She took culture samples of Udon's sores and order a sensitivity culture then prescribed Udon (antibiotic) Flagyl 500mg/100ml empirically in order to get a head start. She also prescribed Acemannan Wound gel. Total price was $274.37- Office visit= 56.50, Culture= 159.50, Flagyl = 34.62, and Gel 23.75. This was pretty painful to pay, but I didn't hesitate. A sensitivity culture is a technique to identify the type of bacteria that is causing the infection along with exposing it to antibiotic(which kill or stop spread of infection) in order to prescribe the most effective one to treat the infected animal. Our hopes were that Flagyl would end up getting rid of the infection.

Now, I waited and nursed. I had to administer .25mg of Flagyl by mouth to Udon for 7 days. This involve intubating him with a catheter and pushing down the flagyl and flushing it with water. Had my fiance help me every day. Also apply the gel daily. I kept him in a smaller enclosure with a tiny hide and small water dish on white paper to keep track of soiling. I made sure to keep his enclosure very clean, and i would completely wash the tub out when he pooped. Udon was a champ through out his treatment, even the vet said to prepare for the worse. Meanwhile in the lab, the culture took almost 2 weeks to come back and the bacterias where identified. There was good news and bad news. The good news was that Udon's flagyl treatment worked fine... on only one of the two bugs he was infected with. The bad news was that the one that was resistant to flagyl is a bad ass bug that is resistant to all the antibiotics in the vet's arsenal.

Bacteria found: Acinetobecter Species (poss. killed by flagyl), and Pseudomonas Aeruginosa (resistant to 7 of the 12 meds tested)

The drug chosen was the one that had the best therapeutic window, in other words the one chosen was the one that was going to have the least bad side effects and actually heal, along with being affective against the other bug just in case it did hang around.

Pseudomonas is everywhere by the way. It lives on your body and it is an opportunistic bug, it typically attacks when your defenses are down.

So she had to special order Udon's new med which was Injectable Ceftazidime, which is a gen 3 cephalosporin (for you nurses out there ). While we waited Undon's belly looked to be free of discharge, but the sores were not healing and the redness began to move upwards. The scales above the affected area seemed to be following that same process as the scale below it. However, Udon continue to act relatively normal, when he moved around his affected area was slightly lifted. But, he ate a couple of times between the initial and last visit.

Ok, so I finally got the med in, I took Udon in and the vet taught me how to administer it. The medicine is administered the intramuscular route (like the shots on your shoulder) between the scales using insulin needles. (for you out there who say that BPs don't feel pain think again) New price was $149.52 for the med. The vet didn't charge me for another visit fee .

Now after four weeks of administering Ceftazidime with the help of my fiance and nursing student friend Udon is do a hell of a lot better. A two weeks into treatment he shed and displayed clear new scales and his wounds where dry and healed over. I continued to apply the gel. Now he's back in his normal enclosure and I am continuing to watch him. He's got his herpstat back now, so no more burns.

I hope you guys find this at least somewhat useful.

Summary:
Neglect + Burn + Moisture + Poop = Belly Rot (infected)
Took the Vet = Antibiotic treatment + Culture + Wound Gel = $274.37
Nursed with med and gel, kept him clean and fed.
Culture Result= Pseudomonas Aeruginosa and Acinetobecter infection.
New Med 2nd Visit to Vet = 6 doses of .02 units of Ceftazidime injections = $149.52
Conclusion, Udon wounds are heeled and recovering.

Here are some pictures.
I wish I would have taken some pictures initially.


This is the first vet bill invoice.



This is the affected area about a week and a half after the first visit after the Flagyl treatment.




Lab Results. Sorry for the poor quality. The Rs next to the medicine names mean that the bug is resistant to that med. Meaning that it will not kill it. There are two columns one for each of the bugs.



This is Udon's belly after he shed while of ceftazidine.


This Udon Prime on his way to recovery


Thanks for looking!

[Sauzo]

Ouch they stuck with office visit 2x for only 1 visit? And dang $169 for a culture!!?? That's one expensive vet lol. Good thing to hear that Udon is having a speedy recovery though and bottom line regardless of the cost, that is what really counts, the animal getting back to feeling good. And I know how that goes, I had to take my beardie in for a mild RI and it ran me around $270 for everything but I did get the culture and also had full blood work done as she has never been into the vet so I wanted to make sure everything was good. She came back in top form except for a little high protein but the doc figured that was because Harley loves her bugs over her veggies. Anyways, happy this story had a happy ending

[distaff]

Glad he is better.
Good thread.

As for the vet charges - a good vet, and esp. a good herp vet...they earn their money.

[cristacake]

Thanks for this thorough account! I'm sure this will help people, and I'm glad Udon is feeling better


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[slithering_BP]

Ouch!! That's one mean looking tummy and vet bill. Glad to hear your guy is okay though.

[Albert Clark]

Wow! What a "emergency vets" type of story. Really keeps you glued to the history and guessing what happens next. Very well reported. I feel like I know Udon. Lol. Thanks and kudos to you for recognizing the need for professional intervention. That reptile is lucky to have you as his keeper.

[Lady mkrj58]

Ouch how awful Im glad you are in tune with your snake and thank you for sharing this Im sure down the road it will help someone....

Sent from my SGH-T999

[Snoopyslim]

How is Udon doing?

[Jvmun]

Udon is doing wonderful, gaining weight and hiding all day! Thanks for asking!