stomatitis, a.k.a mouth rot

[mlededee]

i just got back from a trip to the vet with my bp norah. i needed to have her sexed and also wanted to have her checked for an RI. she had started whistling occassionally when she breathed which i thought was because of an impending shed, but when she shed the whistling didn't stop. i couldn't see any signs of an RI but thought something must be up. it turns out that she has the early stages of stomatitis. while there was no visible mucus or any other secretion that i could see, when the vet held her mouth open he pointed out some redness and slight swelling on the roof of her mouth.

the treatment will be fairly easy--a series of shots for 30 days and then a trip back to the vet to make sure it is all cleared up.

so anyhoo, the moral of the story is, if your snake doesn't stop whistling after it sheds, go to the vet! OR if it is whistling and isn't nearing time for a shed, go to the vet! better to catch these things early on before they turn into a major infection where you are seeing mucus and whatnot.


p.s. i need to get one of those hold-the-snake's-mouth-open-while-you-look in-it tools. muuuuch easier than trying to use your fingers.

[tigerlily]

Wow, good thing you got that checked out early! How often do you have to medicate her? Just curious how you go about that. Especially the shot part. It's so easy to give shots to dogs and cats, but I was trying to figure out how you would do that with a snake.

[mlededee]

i give her .5 cc's of baytril every 3 days for 30 days. the vet showed me how to give her the shot--in the lower third of the body place the needle between the scales to the side of the spine and inject at a slight angle. you want the needle to enter in almost horizontally, not straight in so that you are hitting muscle and organs and whatnot. it looked easy when he did it, but we shall see. she's pretty laid back about things though so hopefully i won't have too much of a problem.

[tigerlily]

It sounds like you'll definitely need some help with those shots. Every 3 days isnt' bad, and it doesn't sound like the shots would be that difficult either. Good luck with her and keep us updated on her progress.

[mlededee]

yeah i plan on having the hubby hold her still while i administer the shots. i anticipate that it will clear up pretty quickly since it hasn't progressed very far yet.

[tigerlily]

Sounds like a good plan. Hopefully she takes her medicine well! (I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!)

[aibhaeog]

Warning---Newbie Question!

Will she feel pain when you give her the shot?
I know it sounds silly, but I do know that snakes will lay on hot surfaces and get burns.
Do snakes have a "pain response" ?

[tigerlily]

Here's my take on the burn issue. People obviously have a pain response and can still get burned without noticing until it's too late, and I would think it's somewhat similiar to snakes. Anyway that's my take on it.

[mlededee]

they do feel pain--norah definitely flinched when she got her shot at the vet. as far as the burn issue here is what i think. snakes do not feel heat the same as we do because they are cold blooded and therefore it also takes much lower temperatures to burn them than it does for humans. they can't tell when something is so hot that it will burn them and even when they do feel pain from a burn they won't neccessarily move off of the heat source or whatever is causing it because they don't know that it is the reason for the pain. they may know that something hurts but they also know that they need heat to digest and to keep their bodies warm enough but they don't realize that it is the heat that is causing the pain.

[frankykeno]

So glad you caught Norah's problem in time! Please let us know how's she's doing.


~~Jo~~