Internal issue, some stinky stuff oozing from vent?

[RedRabbit]

I thought I would ask here, in case anyone with knowledge about this is still active... I noticed just now that one of my ball pythons (Drizzle) has what I'm guessing is some kind of bacterial infection inside the vent/cloaca. The vent easily opens a little when I pull her tail back, and inside the vent is brown colored instead of clean like my other ball pythons. Some brown stuff oozes out every once in awhile. It stinks and smells like a bacterial infection. (The consistency of the stuff and the smell is like when my dog gets an ear infection)

Does anyone have experience with this and know what it is called? Would antibiotics be able to treat it? My local exotic vets don't seem to really know what they are doing, the last time I went, so I thought I would ask first. Especially since this seems to be something uncommon... Ugh I'm not looking forward to paying someone $200 for something that doesn't work.

I can't say I recall reading about any recent cases of this here on this forum, so I'm only speculating on this from the perspective of a "human" MD, not a vet or reptile specialist - but if I had to guess, I think this may be a case of infectious cloacitis. A cursory search seems to indicate that dietary deficiencies or internal parasites are potential cause for this, but I know you take pretty thorough care of your snakes. Hypothetically, any scenario that involves an injury to the tissue of the cloacal area (like the minor tears when a shed pulls off, or from excessive straining from a large urate or bowel movement), that then gets exposed to a bacteria source (outgoing feces, or something in the environment) could potentially turn into an infection. The oozing you mentioned points to an inflammatory/infectious process as well, though unlikely to be pus since reptile pus is typically caseous, i.e. solid, and prone to abscess formation.

As far as treatment goes, it will likely depend on how big the area of infection is. If it is localized to just the vent area, then cleaning it thoroughly and applying a topical antibiotic for a set course of time may be sufficient to resolve it. If there is concern that the infection is spreading upwards into other tissues or organ systems, then oral or injected antibiotics may be a safer bet. Also, since you mentioned the membranes inside the vent appear brown, it's possible that some of that may be dead tissue, and that dead tissue would need to be surgically debrided in order to optimize healing, and make sure the tissue integrity is not weakened to the point where your snake is at higher risk of prolapse (which then would bump up the risk of re-infection all over again).

I am not sure if it is standard practice for vets to start by just recommending a broad-spectrum antibiotic that covers the most likely bacteria, or if they prefer to first obtain blood and/or fecal samples to determine the specific bacteria, and then choose the antibiotic that targets it. A fecal sample would, at the very least, have the added benefit of ruling out internal parasites, which would require a different treatment compared to a bacterial infection.

I'll continue to report back if I find more info that may be helpful.