Help, minor jaw swelling

[Nephil]

I deeply apologise again for all my threads again, but i just want keep myself calm and give my BP the best life quality i can with the help of more experienced snake owners. Yesterday was feeding day, and today i saw him with his head out of the hide slightly facing upwards (he always does that when he's hungry), but when i looked at his jaw one side looked a bit swelled.. It's barely visible especially front facing him, but i noticed the problem by looking at him sideways and noticed that his chin is a bit bigger than usual. The other side of his jaw looks normal, and even if the swelling is small i still worry.. What could it be? Should i actually be concerned?

[Bogertophis]

It would help if you can post a pic or pics of this. He just ate, so it might be that his mouth didn't close correctly- sometimes they catch one or more teeth on their own mouth, & part of their 'lip' gets folded under (inward). That's why you always see snakes yawning & stretching their jaws- to straighten their rows of teeth. You might need to help him with this, if that's what it is & it continues (if he's unable to fix it himself).

Do you feed live? If so, could be a rodent bite or other injury during striking at prey. A persistent swelling that results from a bite or other infection can indicate an abscess in a snake, & because snakes tend to have solid pus, will NOT drain without surgical help from a vet.

[Nephil]

It would help if you can post a pic or pics of this. He just ate, so it might be that his mouth didn't close correctly- sometimes they catch one or more teeth on their own mouth, & part of their 'lip' gets folded under (inward). That's why you always see snakes yawning & stretching their jaws- to straighten their rows of teeth. You might need to help him with this, if that's what it is & it continues (if he's unable to fix it himself).

Do you feed live? If so, could be a rodent bite or other injury during striking at prey. A persistent swelling that results from a bite or other infection can indicate an abscess in a snake, & because snakes tend to have solid pus, will NOT drain without surgical help from a vet.

Never fed him live, only frozen thawed. It was really hard to get good pics of the problem, but those are the best i have. The first 2 show the side that has swelling, while the third pic is the side that seems normal. It's really hard to see from the photos and i can't get any better quality ones, because i don't want to stress him out too much with handling and trying to keep his head still while he is still at the start of his digestion. See that tiny bit of skin sticking out right next to the the center of the mouth where the tongue flicking comes from? That's what i mean.

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[nikkubus]

I can see it. My first guess would be that somehow during eating he broke a tooth or something. I'd gently peek in his mouth to see if you notice anything off and just generally keep an eye on it. Probably will heal on its own, but get him to an experienced reptile vet if you are seeing cottage-cheese looking stuff in his mouth or if the swelling gets much worse rather than better. Almost always this kind of thing has healed on its own for my snakes, but on occasion I've had to intervene by 2x a day diluted iodine rinse, gently scraping of necrotic tissue, and a course of antibiotic injections.

[Bogertophis]

I agree with nikkubus' post ^ ^ ^.

[Nephil]

I can see it. My first guess would be that somehow during eating he broke a tooth or something. I'd gently peek in his mouth to see if you notice anything off and just generally keep an eye on it. Probably will heal on its own, but get him to an experienced reptile vet if you are seeing cottage-cheese looking stuff in his mouth or if the swelling gets much worse rather than better. Almost always this kind of thing has healed on its own for my snakes, but on occasion I've had to intervene by 2x a day diluted iodine rinse, gently scraping of necrotic tissue, and a course of antibiotic injections.

He yawned when i tried to get the pics, from the quick peek i didn't see anything noticeably off. He actually once had about the same problem a few months ago, though his lip was sticking out a bit more and it seemed like it got stuck onto his teeth, but the next day everything seemed normal again. This time it's less obvious, but i really hope it's nothing serious. I'll keep an eye on it, thanks!

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[Bogertophis]

Sounds to me like he's a "serial lip-biter" lol. If I had that many needle-sharp teeth & big flexible jaws, I'm not sure I'd do any better though.

[Nephil]

Sounds to me like he's a "serial lip-biter" lol. If I had that many needle-sharp teeth & big flexible jaws, I'm not sure I'd do any better though.

Agreed, big jaws with many needles doesn't sound comfortable haha