Assistance please

[tom112089]

Hello all. Hopefully someone can help me with this. So one of my balls recently out of nowhere developed a swollen throat and a little bit of puffiness in the face. It showed up pretty much within 48 hours and I noticed he was putting his throat in the water bowl so I made sure to clean everything and checked his mouth. It didn't seem like anything was discolored or out of place. No runny nose or wheezing so I thought he may have gotten bit by something or had a tick. I found a vet but they couldn't see me for a few days but then a day or two later the swelling in the throat went down and he seemed fine. Now yesterday I went to go check on him and his entire face is swollen but mostly his gums and lips. Both the gum lines are swollen but I noticed on his right side that there looked like a very small scab on his gums where the upper teeth are and only the top gums are swollen, not anything on the bottom of his mouth. Could that be mouth rot? I don't have a picture at the moment but I can take one when I get home from work. So far I tried to clean his mouth out with saline and see if any of the scab had puss. there was Still no runny nose. I know hes going to have to see a vet, I'm just asking if there is anything I can do to help the situation. I have F10 and Betadine solution. I read that if it is mouth rot it could be due to something stuck in his teeth and it would have to be removed and rinsed with a diluted 1% Betadine solution. If Anyone had experience with a similar situation or information it would be greatly appreciated. I should mention I have 5 other ball pythons. They are all kept in a rack system I built with flexwatt and a herpstat 1. Temps are currently kept at 88 Fahrenheit day and 82 at night with a 2 hour temp ramp between night and day. Also I have only ever had one ball with an RI before and it was years ago. That one had the runny nose and wheezing so I took him to a vet. I gave him Baytril shots for 10 days but it didn't help him so I made another appointment to have a culture done but he died before the appointment.

[Bogertophis]

You really need the vet....even if you posted pics, it's hard to say what's going on here. Seems like some sort of infection but not your typical "mouth rot".
I hope your vet is up for the challenge... Do you feed live??? I got an accidental mouse-bite years ago when I broke up a fight (accidentally got in the way)
and the infection was "impressive" to say the least. When was he fed last?

As far as something stuck in his teeth (or in his gums?), what are you using for substrate? Anything with potential wood splinters?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Because what you see and describe might be different than what someone else would see and describe, you could be dealing with anything from swollen mouth due to broken tooth, injury, RI, mouth rot.....

[tom112089]

I'm just using reptile carpet for them. I did have a mouse bite my butter when I first got that one like 5 years ago. Bit him right on his neck and left a nasty cut. Ever since then I always stun them first and watch for any bites. If it bit him in the mouth somehow then I may have missed it. Yes this didn't seem like typical mouth rot or typical RI. That's why i wanted to know if anyone has seen something like this before. Like the little spot on the gums COULD maybe be rot but then why would the whole face be puffy? Wouldn't only the spot where the puss is be inflamed? I have worked at a pet store for almost 8 years and have been into snakes for even longer than that and I have never seen this before. And he ate like 3 or 4 days before I noticed the neck.