Leonardo is sick, swelling/bleeding...

[RoseyReps]

So, about 2 weeks ago I noticed Leo's head swelling. His mouth seemed alright, though a little extra mucus/saliva, but coloration was good and he didn't have bubbles/wheezing/coughing etc. It went away within an hour to an hour and a half. He ate without question, so I thought perhaps he had just smacked his nose/got a little too rough with the ladies. Well, the day after taking him out from my biggest girls tub (First visual lock I might add), he was swelling BIG TIME. This time, I was super worried because inside his mouth looked black/blue, and there was some blood at the back of his throat/mouth. Not good. I had my husband (I had to leave for work) Call and make an appointment with our local herp doc. She was able to see him that day and diagnosed as a possible mouth abrasion / injury. 7 days of oral baytril later, and swelling going up and down randomly over the week, today it was pretty damn bad. Swollen up huge and a lot more blood. Enough that it dripped out of his mouth and got on my hands and my husbands. Again, work day...so I had him call and schedule another appointment (monday). Tonight while giving him meds he was still pretty swollen, so I took some pictures and a video that way the vet (we're going to a different vet, as I wasn't there the first time to tell her I would have preferred injections, silly me thought she would insist on injections) so I'm going to take him in to a well known herp vet about an hour away. The only thing I can find as far as "online diagnosis" is mouth rot, but he has had zero puss/cheese, tounge flicks are very much regular, and he's eating like a champ. Not to mention, He gets his paper changed/tub disinfected every time he dirties it/spills his water/looks at it funny. I've noticed when his head is swollen, there is a red uhh..blob? looking thing in the lower left side of his bottom jaw. Not sure if it's a gland, abscess, blister or what. You can see it in the video.

I'm not expecting anyone to diagnose him via the internet with limited pictures/information etc, just mostly looking for insight as to if this has been seen before. Speculation is welcomed, and hopefully if this ever comes up with someone else, this thread will be here to let them know it's happened before.

SO!
Here's the stats
Leo is about 650ish grams and about 7months old
He eats f/t
Bedding is unprinted newspaper
Hot side 89-90 (infrared temp gun checked, controlled by a herpstat 4)
cool 76-78
32qt tub
Fresh water 2-3x a week or more if he decides to dump it.
If any other info is needed/wanted just let me know

Pics and Video







Inside of mouth video

[Marissa@MKmorphs]

Poor Leo I hope someone has some insight to what is going on with him!

[h00blah]

My first thought was maybe he lost a tooth during feeding and it got infected ... That's my best guess... I hope this passes fairly quickly, Tiff ..

[BlueMoonExotics]

I don't have a ton of experience yet with snakes but could it be that he's got something stuck in there and it's getting infected? Kind of like a thorn or splinter does to a human. Possibly a piece of bedding off of a rat or maybe even a piece of rat? I know it sounds yuck but it's worth looking into. Otherwise I would guess just some growth or infection that just happened to pop up in his mouth. I hope the vet figures it out quickly though, it looks really uncomfortable!

[brobertson]

If memory serves me right, supercoiled constrictors had a BP with a condition similar to this. They had it on their adoptions page, and has been adopted I believe. They are going out of business, but I would still shoot an email their way. Here is a link
: http://www.supercoilconstrictors.com/adoptions.html

Hope this helps, and I wish Leo a speedy recovery!

[RondaH]

I'm very interested in seeing how this turns out. Please keep us posted and good luck!

[MisterKyte]

Yeesh. I can't offer any input on this but I'm certain everyone is hoping that it turns out to be nothing severe! Best wishes!

[DooLittle]

Poor guy. I hope he's ok.

[angllady2]

Poor little buddy.

I am thinking he got something caught in his mouth and it got infected. Kind of like an abscess in a human mouth. The good thing is, it doesn't seem to be serious enough to panic since the vet can't see him until Monday. I'd just treat him like you usually do, keep an eye on him, and let us know what the vet says Monday.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Gale

[RoseyReps]

Thank you all for the well wishes. Much appreciated. I will definitely contact supercoil constrictors about their little "Puf".

Again, thanks everyone, I will update with any information/changes/etc.