Worried about Ma-tsu

[frankykeno]

While I'm certainly glad for you that this isn't a cancerous disease, you must be just shocked at this parasitic deal. Please let us know what they are and what the deal is to clear her of them. Hoping that Neptune doesn't have them but I know they were housed together for ages by their previous owner so that's not great odds really.

[MedusasOwl]

Yeah, I'm sure he has them too, whatever they are. :/ Poor things. We'd had them checked for anything fecal before, but this stealth skin parasite thing has completely floored me. I knew they weren't in the best of conditions before, but this... geez, wtf. I thought we'd totally brought these two up to code. Ugh.

It feels like it's always something, these days. This is definitely bad news, but after losing Cleo so recently there's part of me that just wants to sob in relief that it's nothing fatal. I couldn't deal with losing Ma-tsu right now, I really couldn't. I'm glad to do whatever it takes to put her and Neptune at 100% healthy and clean.

[MedusasOwl]

Karen put it best; we're basically gawking in horrified relief.

[MelissaFlipski]

Wow. I am so sorry to hear about that, but also so relieved that they figured out what the lumps were. How big were they?

It's funny that I ran across this thread while I am trying to rehab a black rat snake w/ a lump. I still don't know what it is....

Wishing you and Ma-tsu all the best.

[kc261]

Karen put it best; we're basically gawking in horrified relief.

I know exactly what you mean. I think that is an exact description of me reading your update!

I am SO glad to hear that it isn't anything cancerous or otherwise life-threatening. I have heard of worm-things that can live under the skin, but I don't think I've heard of it in snakes before. Interesting, in a really yucky sort of way.

Good for you for being an observant enough snake keeper to find these things!

[Shelby]

Yuck.. wonder what kind of worms do that. Nasty. I'm interested to hear what they find out about it.

Glad it's not something worse though.

[MelissaFlipski]

I have been in touch with a timber rattlesnake rehabber in NY and she was wondering if the lump in the black rat snake's neck that I am attempting to rehab is a bott fly maggot. But it does not look that way.

Did they say what it could be (any guess before results form the University)?

Bott flies lay their eggs inside the skin. It hatches into a maggot that eats some of the surrounding flesh and skin. The skin around dies away, the maggot comes out and goes from pupa to fly. The animal recovers, losing some skin, etc. around the area.

I am glad you caught it early, whatever it is. And good luck!!

[MedusasOwl]

The current theory is that Ma-tsu and Neptune were wild caught (or kept with wild caught) and have always had them (or just Ma-tsu, but I'd be surprised if Neptune doesn't need treatment too), it just wasn't obvious. Poor things! Once we get this taken care of, they'll be better than they've ever been!

They said that the worms *look* kinda like small dead tape worms They showed them to me, and they do. I thought tape worms were a gut parasite, but apparently not necessarily all the time. They're not sure though, hence the testing. *shudder* Poor baby... She said normally tape worms are "lively" but these didn't move at all. It's possible all the parasites they have are dead ones, which... I don't even know what that means. Guess we'll find out.

But they're definitely worm-things of some kind.

Watch them discover some new species of parasite from Myanmar or something. Our pets never get sick in normal ways, it's always something bizarre like giant bladder stones or random off and on diabetes. But from what I saw and was told, sounds like dead tapeworms... which is still pretty freaking weird. And gross.

I'll keep you posted! It may be the same thing with the black ratsnake, Melissa. As I always obsessively read up on things that are or might be affecting my animals (even if it squicks me, ugh) this DOES sound a lot like what Ma-tsu has:

Symptoms of tapeworm infection differ according to the location of cysts formed in the body. And symptoms may not occur for months, or even years after infection. In some cases, there are no symptoms. Cysticerci in muscles may cause no symptoms but can form lumps under the skin.

[MelissaFlipski]

Sheree,
Wow. That is GROSS - but I am so glad you are getting it taken care of. I was hoping I could glean some information from your experience b/c I just don't know what that lump is on the black rat snake.

How big were the lumps - or how big were the two of them together? The lump on the BRS is about dime-sized and 3/16" in the middle, tapering off to the sides.

How is Ma-tsu doing now? She is back home, right?

[MedusasOwl]

Yes, it is very very gross. She is home now with little blue stitches. I thought it was cute of the vet to use blue stitches on her. I may take a pic when I check to make sure it's doing ok, but I don't want to bother her right now, poor sweetie.

That sounds pretty close, Ma-tsu's little lump was a little bit smaller than that but the worm things seem to vary in size, so it could still be that. The two they removed, one was bigger than the other. Our vet could tell there was two nodules by feeling it, but they felt like one to me.

The "up" side if it IS tapeworms is that it's very hard to transfer. So unless they got fed rats with the nasty things it may be possible Neptune doesn't have any. If they were wild caught, then it's a coin toss. I need to give him a good feeling up, which he hates, but I can't think of any obvious lumps he has off the top of my head. I shouldn't be overthinking this till I hear back on what these things are for sure, but I can't seem to help it.