RI/Mouth Rot cured w/o Vet!

[Animals As Leaders]

Alright everyone, I would really like to hear your input on this. Let me start from the very beginning.

As some of you may know, I recently took in a Colombian Red Tail Boa adult male. My buddy had to move, and couldn't bring the snake with him. I had an extra spot on my rack, so I decided to help him, and the snake out. When I picked him up from his house, he seemed ok. I didn't see any kind of issues, so I took him home. I was aware of the crappy conditions that he used to live in though. He had him in a 55gal with another male, just aspen, and no heat....water dish was empty as well. So I kinda knew he was in crap conditions but he seemed ok so I went along with it. I put him in the rack, and let him acclimate for a week. After the week went by I took him out for a handling session, and after about 5 min of handling he blew a HUGE snot bubble! He was also clicking every time he breathed...Lots of saliva discharge too. I was really pissed to say the least...

Now, I was and still am in a tight $$ situation due to car troubles. I had NO money for a vet at all...I had to think fast so I started making changes. I bumped his temps up to 95+ on the basking side, and was super diligent about keeping his humidity high. I kept reading that I need to take him to a vet to get some kind of antibiotic to kill the virus, and knew the heat/humidity wouldn't be enough to cure him. It was then a light bulb went off! My girlfriend had some Colloidal Silver lying around, and I figured it wouldn't hurt the snake any(it's just water with minute particles of silver which has been proven to kill bacteria and certain types of fungus). I began giving him 5 drops every few days.

At first I didn't notice any improvement, and was starting to worry...But after a week I did notice his tongue was less wet, and wasn't clicking anywhere near what he was. I kept on with the CS but only doing it twice a week for the next 3 weeks. And before I knew it all symptoms of RI we're gone! And I mean gone! Only thing I did notice was that his mouth was cocked open a bit. I disregarded it as him still in the process of beating the RI, and maybe its just a little excess saliva. I was wrong....

A week later his mouth was gaping open a lot more. I knew something was up, and thought maybe the RI came back. I opened up his mouth, and took some pics, posted them on here, and got some good feedback. Mouthrot....I freaked out! I was under the impression that Mouthrot is a very hard thing to fix. Then, someone told me about making a dilute betadine solution. Before I applied it I broke a tip off a qtip and used it to dislodge the pus pocket on his lower jaw. I hit it with the betadine, and put him back. Repeated the following day, and he's already looking almost 100% normal again!

I wanted to share this with everyone because I was absolutely astonished at the results. The CS really through me for a loop. I was under the impression that stuff was some kind of modern day snake oil, but there actually is some science behind it. I wouldn't recommend drinking it all the time, but for situations like this it's a beautiful thing! It also seems like this is a much less toxic choice in terms of medicine. I'm all about doing things the natural way, and to me it seemed to work BETTER then ordinary antibiotics from a vet. I've heard of people with their snake having RI for months! This guy has been just about cured of everything within about 2 months tops! And it was a steady recovery, not a long drawn out one. I'm just really happy he's just about better now! I wish I had made a video of his recovery as proof! All I know, is I'm a happy camper!