Tip of tail turning black

[Annarose15]

Hi, thanks for your comments. I am in touch with vet for past three months. Actually, as soon as I got her I took her to vet to do make a complete health check. There is one thing I would like to ask you. English is not my first language but please, read my fist post with understanding, don't just fasfforward trough it. I have taken time to write it so that those of you that have experence in this situation can have clear view on matter.

Fist picture is two months old, it's when she got heat pad burns. That has been taken cared by now. Here belly normal and there is no discoloration. But the belly burn caused bad shed. That lead to tail tip problem. We had a problem with removing skin from the tip of tail, cos we didn't want to harm her further.

Main problem is that her vet is currently away from country but we are in constant touch over email. So she contacted another vet to see us. Reptile vet are extremely scares where I live. And today is holiday in my country. So we are going to vet tomorrow morning.

Vet is suspecting necroses caused by bad tail shed that happen month and half ago. And suspects antibiotic tretment and maybe surgical removal of tail. But on the other hand she is puzzled by the fact that animal is very active, eats every week two rats. She is visible getting bigger and stronger. Her behavior so not in correlation of animal that has necroses. Other thing that is puzzling black tail happened literally over night. When her shedding process started black tail appeared.

Bottom line is I don't want her tail to be removed surgically unless that is must of course. So I am seeking to know is someone had this or similar situation with there ball python. And is able to shed some light on this matter.

I found your first post very clear. It is actually very refreshing to see someone post with full disclosure, pictures, and timeline when asking for help, rather than others having to drag the information out of them, piece by piece.

I actually can't see the pictures (computer firewall), but based on everyone's reactions I agree that a vet visit is necessary. If the area is necrotic, surgical removal will likely be the best, safest, and most guaranteed way of saving your BP. I commend you for not just throwing your hands up because your regular vet is unavailable. The stuck shed is unquestionably what caused this, and her continued eating is a good sign that she will recover with proper treatment.

[Royal Hijinx]

There is a difference between local necrosis and systemic sepsis. That black area will eventually get bad enough that the infection gets into the blood stream and sets off a inflammatory chain reaction that will kill the animal. That is when you see lethargy, and other end-stage signs of systemic infection. I anticipate the only way to save the animal is to amputate the tail, similar to gangrene in a human. It will be hard for antibiotics to do their job with so much internal damage. No way to deliver since the blood supply is compromised. If we can see see a large black spot through the scales, the damage underneath is likely massive. Once this gets to the GI tract, it will likely progress very rapidly.

This needs to be a lesson learned to everyone the seriousness of stuck shed on the tail. People freak out about a retained eye-cap unnecessarily, but the necrosis caused by stuck tail shed can actually kill if left untreated.

Please keep us posted as to what happens, but I will be honest and say it will be a VERY uphill battle.

[zuzubp]

Thank you. Unfortunately you have confirmed my worst suspicions. I don't doubt my vet, she is a very helpful and kind person even though she is away she promptly responds to our emails. I was just hopping that this time she is wrong, and this might be just some type of discoloration that can occur during shedding process.

Jinx667 I am not afraid of uphill battle, it has been that way ever since heat pad burns happened. From that point on, it was one problem causes another and so on. I feel that this is a very sensitive time in life for my ball python so I must make every move right.

I will keep you posted, and yes, I do feel this is can be a lesson for everyone new to BPs. Things can go very very wrong very fast. Her last shed went great, she started eating again, color of scales returned 100% to normal. Tip of tail was back to normal and yesterday this. I went from normal to possibly having her tail removed in 24 hours. And who can tell what complications may be ahead cos of this. That is what I learned in last three months. You think you are out of harms way, and some wrong move you made some time ago that didn't seam so big at the time, just pops out and smacks you on head.

[Vasiliki]

I am glad that you have sought your vets help and keep in contact. Unfortunately, black tissue typically means Dead tissue. Dead tissue will rot. Rot causes infection. Infection gets into the blood. And the snake can die. And this can happen in a VERY short period of time. Even if it doesn't smell now, it is still dead tissue. If it were to break open, it would smell.

With this type of thing, yes, the tail amputation is almost guarenteed. And it will likely have to be amputated above the infection. I'm sorry, but your snake will lose a good portion of it's tail if amputation is the course.

Since I see you say this happened in 24 hours... Please, do not hesitate with your choice. The longer you wait, the further the necrosis will travel and the higher the chance that it will start a septic infection in your snake that is going to be very hard to cure.

It will be an uphill battle. A friend of mine recently had her bearded dragon lose it's tail in a very similar way to this. It is painful for them. It's hard on us. But he recovered after several weeks of very focused care.

I wish you and your snake the best of luck. Do not hesitate with your choice. Unfortunately with these, time really matters.

[zuzubp]

Yes in less than 8 hours I am taking her to vet. Wish I could go righ now. I understand the medical basics behind this problem. I was hoping that it wasn't necroses.

When I got her, two day later I realized that she was making noise while breathing. So I went to internet and read that it's common for BPs to have respiratory infections, and that can be fatal if not treated in timely manner. I was in panic, I didn't know how long she had those symptoms and at what stage disease was. Next day it turned out that she was perfectly healthy, she was just scared and hissing.

A year and something later, she shed and here belly scales were complete mess, all red, dark brown. Again I went to Internet and read that it's scale rot. I was in panic, what have I done wrong, how did this happen, what did I do to this snake, what stage is this, will she live. Went to vet, it turned out it wasn't scale rot, but belly burns from new heat pad. A problem but not as closely serious as scale rot.

Now black tail happens. I read on Internet that it could be necroses, she might louse her tail. I start to panic. But this time I was thinking, stop, dont panic, you are not a vet. So I came here to here your opinions, before I start panic, this time it's time for real panic.

[zuzubp]

Update. This morning we went to vet. She told us that it looks much worse on pictures, at the moment this is definitively not for amputation. She told us that it's necroses but in fairly early stage. With vet we had a better look at the affected tissue, actually there is no black tissue, only light gray. Picture with flash shows correct condition, other one without flash is too dark. Vet also told us that this is far from terminal stage and that we got plenty of time to observe her condition before we proceed with amputation. Also area affected with necroses didn't form yet so it's unclear how much of tissue would be needed to remove.

Today she started treatment with antibiotics and will continue to do so for next ten days. In that time situation should be much clearer. Our vet feels that antibiotic treatment at this stage should give very good results. If it does not it will help to show how much tissue cannot be saved. And snake will be much better prepared for operation.

Once again thank you for all your advice's and support.

[Annarose15]

Thank you for the update. Our best wishes and healing thoughts are with you.

[apple2]

Good luck! Glad you don't have to amputate. Hope your snake gets better! If you have any questions on how to care for your pet, feel free to post here! We're all willing to help. If you want some general knowledge, I'd suggest taking a look at the site's caresheet. It provides useful tips even if you already know what you're doing!

[Robyn@SYR]

We had a burm in the 90's that developed a necrotic tail, we had to go with amputation two separate times to get it down to the point it would heal well.

Best of luck to you.

[zuzubp]

Hi I just wanted to give you guys update. Today my BP received 10. antibiotic treatment. About 3 days ago she had a shed, that went great, no leftovers.

About 5 or 6 days ago her vet suggested that this might not be necroses after all, vet suspected hematoma of tissue. So she gave us gel to treat her tail. We started using it 3 days ago. And it looks like it's working, gray area on tip of tail is getting smaller. So all we have to do now is way for a week to see how things will go.

She told us that she suspected hematoma from the beginning, but since she is out of country and could not make checkup first hand, she wanted to play safe, just in case she was wrong. But right now she is 95% sure it's not necroses cause by now affected tissue should dry off and that didn't happen.

We are still unsure what could have caused hematoma, some times she tries to climb the lamp so maybe something went wrong for her. That would explain how sudden gray tissue appeared.

So much for now, as things progress I will update you. Have a great day.