Worried about Ma-tsu

[MelissaFlipski]

Sheree,
Wow. That is GROSS - but I am so glad you are getting it taken care of. I was hoping I could glean some information from your experience b/c I just don't know what that lump is on the black rat snake.

How big were the lumps - or how big were the two of them together? The lump on the BRS is about dime-sized and 3/16" in the middle, tapering off to the sides.

How is Ma-tsu doing now? She is back home, right?

[MedusasOwl]

Yes, it is very very gross. She is home now with little blue stitches. I thought it was cute of the vet to use blue stitches on her. I may take a pic when I check to make sure it's doing ok, but I don't want to bother her right now, poor sweetie.

That sounds pretty close, Ma-tsu's little lump was a little bit smaller than that but the worm things seem to vary in size, so it could still be that. The two they removed, one was bigger than the other. Our vet could tell there was two nodules by feeling it, but they felt like one to me.

The "up" side if it IS tapeworms is that it's very hard to transfer. So unless they got fed rats with the nasty things it may be possible Neptune doesn't have any. If they were wild caught, then it's a coin toss. I need to give him a good feeling up, which he hates, but I can't think of any obvious lumps he has off the top of my head. I shouldn't be overthinking this till I hear back on what these things are for sure, but I can't seem to help it.

[Perry]

Glad to hear Ma-tsu's surgery was a success. Hopefully she recover's great and that you find out exactly what those little buggers are. Also I hope Neptune doesn't have them either. Good luck with both of them!

[MedusasOwl]

Ma-tsu is recovering nicely, btw. Still waiting to hear back on the bugs... I haven't noticed any bumps on Neptune but I'm gonna have the vet help me check him over after we know what it is Ma-tsu's got.

I took a real quick snapshot of her stitches while I was checking for swelling or anything else I should be panicking about. Kinda fuzzy, but she was very "Noooo, I doooon't waaaaannaaaa... " squirmy and sulky and just wanted to be left alone. Looks good, healing nice, and one quick pic then she went back to her nap. Poor sweetie.

[MelissaFlipski]

Awww. Poor girl. It's always sad to see stitches. But I am glad the buggers are out. I hope she is back to her normal self as soon as can be. Good catch on that one, btw. You care for your snakes well!

[kc261]

Good to hear Ma-tsu is recovering.

I'm not sure I'd ever seen such a close-up pic of a VBB before. Those very pointy scales are nifty looking! So different from a BPs. I also don't remember noticing it when I held a Taiwan Beauty at a pet store or a Trinket at a show. Is it unique to the VBBs or am I just not observant? Or maybe it was because both of the ones I held were youngsters.

Thanks again for sharing these beauties with all of us.

[MedusasOwl]

Thank you, still waiting to hear back on the bugs! I asked today while making an appointment for one of my rabbits because it's always something.

Yes, I'm pretty sure Taiwans have similarly shaped scales, but I don't tend to notice how pointy they are when I'm handling my snakes either. Photos are cool like that, make us notice things we didn't before. I notice the texture more during handling. Every reptile show I go to I'm amazing at how soft the Retics are! And yes, I cuddle a baby retic at virtually every show.

Here's a couple of older nice close-ups of Ma-tsu scales while she's in the blue. A friend got permission to use of the first one as a dragon scale icon for an RPG she's doing. snake scale close-ups fascinate me, I wish I had the patience to do them justice art wise.

http://www.bluegorgon.com/matsuwallpaper3.bmp
http://www.bluegorgon.com/matsuwallpaper2.bmp