Looking for a qualified vet....

[BlueMoonExotics]

I can't help with a specific vet recommendation, but you could try calling a local zoo or other similar facility and find out who they use? To specialize that much, you may need to be willing to travel outside your immediate area.

Reading your description of events, the first thing that popped into my head was "abscess". A tooth breaks or tears away and gets infected, or a mouse claw digs a small wound into the side of the mouth or throat and that gets infected. An abscess in a snake is usually a solid or semi-solid mass...not a liquid filled bubble like it would be in a mammal. To the inexperienced eye, it can look like a tumor. NOT that I'm a vet or anything close to that....just that I've read an awful lot of these sorts of stories. The more obvious conclusion would be the place I'd start investigating, rather than jumping to "tumor" right away.

I also agree with your decision to not tube feed. That is only warranted if a great deal of time has passed without food. For a ball python, that could be months, even for a baby. Unless it was already skinny and undernourished to begin with...but even then, one usually treats the disease/injury first....then gets the snake back onto food. Forcing food and medical treatment at the same time is not usually a recipe for success in ball pythons.

Good luck!

A zoo might be a good idea, I'm sure any vet they would use would have to have experience with snakes. I agree that I THINK this is a tooth injury of some kind or maybe a scratch from a rat claw catching in the throat that got infected. I'm not a vet but I do read quite a bit on ball pythons and that was what I figured before I went in to the vet's office. I even suggested it to him but when he saw the mass, he seemed to think that wasn't the case. Hopefully they can find something so small and that clear on a radiograph? I'm not sure what will show on there since the puss hardens, it may very well look like a tumor on there as well. He better figure out something after the $500 vet bill we got today. I honestly wouldn't mind that bill if I felt he was going to fix the problem but right now, I almost feel like I'm wasting precious time and I'll most likely have to get another opinion to get her back to normal.

[BlueMoonExotics]

Just to update, I did find a different vet that specializes in exotics exclusively so she has an appointment for Friday afternoon with him. I would have gotten her in today but the vet's office that she is currently at has her sedated for the xrays (which the new vet seemed pretty surprised about) and they want to keep her overnight for observation after sedation.