My retic has a swollen mouth...

[zina10]

Actually I don't believe that this is an infection. There is no drainage or puss and she still has an aggressive appetite, in fact she popped up and was in feeding mode tonight when I opened up the tub, not something you would expect from a sick snake. I'm guessing it's just swollen from being bruised, we'll see what the vet says about it. Now that I know she isn't gravid I feel like it's safer to move her without risk of injury, at least injury to the snake, not too sure about injury to the vet LOL.

Like its been said, snakes don't have liquid pus. They have some liquid around the pus sometimes, but the pus is usually a solid mass, much like cottage cheese. It has to be surgically removed. Any injury and swelling around the mouth is particularly painful as well and very prone to a nasty infection.

I lost one of the coolest snake's I've ever had to precisely an infection such as that. And I did take him to the Vet, many times actually, since that was one snake I couldn't give shots to unassisted, he was just to powerful. (BIG Borneo Blood Python) Never ever aggressive, simply tried to get away. Even between the vet and I we had to struggle to hold him still. He too developed the issue after a feeding. He too hit the rat super hard. He had the pus excised twice. But the infection kept spreading despite all we did, despite all the shots. His was on the side of the mouth and it eventually swelled so bad it started to push his eye out. I tried so hard, so did the Vet, but when the poor guy started to cruise his cage back and forth it was time to let him go.

I don't play around with stuff like that.

It means nothing that she still has a feeding response. Its an instinct and she is a retic. If you wait until she won't or can't eat anymore, most likely you will have a septic snake. In your original post you said that "her mouth looked like this for 2 weeks" A simple and uncomplicated swelling would have went down by now. Enlarging the picture you can see a tiny puncture in the middle of the swelling, some reddish but also some whitish discoloration. It looks very painful.

[Sauzo]

Oh and kind of off topic but i would wait at least 5 years to breed a female of any snake. Give her more time to mature and everything to fully develop and settle in. Last thing you want is a complication and losing her. That's kind of the reason I've been leary about breeding. I thought about breeding Gina when she got about 5 years old which is why i kind of wanted to pick up a male pure Rio Bravo Pokigron from Chris Wolf as well so i could keep the blood line pure but if i lost Gina, i would be crushed. She is far more important to me than any cash or babies she could produce.

Also what no one has mentioned is it looks like one of her forks on the tongue is hanging out. I bet her mouth is so swollen she cant even put the tongue into the jacobsens organ anymore. Hopefully it doesnt impaire her breathing too.

Anyways, good luck man and get that poor snake to a vet asap.

[cchardwick]

Boy I sure hope her jaw isn't fractured, I didn't even think about that. She is so big she sure has some power to her. If the vet has an X-ray machine that would tell you for sure. If she died I would cry my eyes out, she is my favorite snake, truly a gentle giant. I'm off to the vet ASAP, wish her luck!

[C.Marie]

Wishing this beautiful young lady a speedy recovery, poor thing looks like it must be terribly painful ~healing hugs from across the miles ~ hope all goes well at the vet .

[PiperPython]

Wish you all the best, hope that girl is okay.

[AbsoluteApril]

That's most likely just some bad pushing. Yes I've seen the gum swollen and protrude like that from pushing. It's amazing how fast a retic will mess up their own face. Although it could be an injury from striking so hard at the rat. Neosporin, try to figure out why she was pushing and see if you can stop her. Not a bad idea to see the vet at this point since it is rather swollen. Good luck with her!

[zina10]

Boy I sure hope her jaw isn't fractured, I didn't even think about that. She is so big she sure has some power to her. If the vet has an X-ray machine that would tell you for sure. If she died I would cry my eyes out, she is my favorite snake, truly a gentle giant. I'm off to the vet ASAP, wish her luck!

It may not be as bad as all that, but it certainly is time for some veterinarian intervention, esp. with how long this has been going on with no sign of improvement.

I will cross my fingers and toes that she will recover quickly.

Please keep up up to date. Pictures of the vet wrestling with the snake will get bonus points

[AbsoluteApril]

re-reading your (OP) response, if you are sure she's not pushing, then it probably was an injury from striking. Which means there is probably a cut somewhere on the jaw where it's swollen which should be addressed by a vet. (It just really looks like what I've seen before in a bad pusher.)

[cchardwick]

Well the vet looked at my retic Lucy, he said that it's either from trauma or could be a tumor, possibly cancer. He said if it popped up suddenly it's probably trauma and we should watch it closely. If it gets bigger he will try to drain it. But if it's a tumor there's not much we can do about it. I'm also going to use a Reptifogger and use some diluted F10 vapor for 20 minutes per day for a couple weeks to give her a fighting chance while she recovers, I figure it can't hurt. Wish me luck!

[C.Marie]

Oh my I hate the idea of this gorgeous girl having cancer that must have made your heart stop for a second, so did he give her antibiotics to see if it is just an infection? Will say prayers for the both of you breaks my heart ~healing hugs from across the miles ~