She arrived underweight with only a couple red spots that i attributed to being fed live ASFs as a poor eater. She was cold in shipping which may have exacerbated things by weakening her immune system. She did not look nearly this bad a week ago, and i can understand how the seller missed it. The seller says they didnt know anything was wrong besides her weight due to being a shy feeder, but had gotten her to start reliably taking food in a tub. Since she didnt know anything was wrong, no tests were done. And since on arrival it looked like a couple of minor bites, i did not bring her to a vet.
I discovered the how much worse it became yesterday while checking to see if the “bites” were healing, to discover it spread all over. I havent had a moment to get her to the vet because mon, tues, weds i work 0600-1800, then have school from 1830-2130. The earliest i would be able to get her in would be this upcpmong weekend, which it makes sense to me to monitor treatment, and if it continues to be effective, play it by ear. The fact it came on fast, and is reacting to treatment fast makes me believe its entirely possible that its not scale rot, as that should take weeks to resolve. Either way, if by this weekend i dont see continued improvement, i will certainly bring her in, but until then my hands are tied. I may bring her in anyway even if she does continue to respond well to treatment, because i would like to be able to correctly ID what this is for the community. That way if anyone else sees it, they will know what they are dealing with.
I also have a detailed post here to see if i cant get an opinion from an exotic vet. Obviously only so much can be determined without cultures, but they will have far more experience than i do and may have encountered this before.
The only reason I bring up the vet and urge you to go sooner rather than later is the pattern of the redness and inflammation almost looks like it’s following blood vessels. Not only that but you said the condition significantly worsened overnight. Any infection in an already stressed, immunosuppressed, and underweight animal can lead to septicemia, which is a life-threatening emergency. It’s possible you just have a snake with a bacterial skin infection, but it’s also possible that’s only one issue of many, and the improvement you’re seeing could only be temporary.
It got better overnight after the first treatment, it got significantly worse after 1 week ( i checked her again after giving her a week to settle in). But that being said, i didnt check for a week, so its possible the spread was more rapid than 1 week and i just didnt know, so i certainly cant rule that out!
I have feelers out for a fast response in the exotic vet group, ill see if i cant schedule an appointment at the exotic vet apt at work tomorrow when they are open ill have to look up sepsemia to see what it is.
I hope the exotic vet group are helpful for you. Septicemia is basically just an infection that has gotten out of hand to the point that it moves into the animal’s bloodstream, and thus throughout the body.
Ohhhh! Septicemia is Sepsus! I didnt know they were the same thing haha. In fact it could be that i was right with scale rot and it has gone out of control, because looking it up, it can cause Sepsus, which if it got to the blood stream would explain how it got everywhere!
She looks significantly better today, still extremlt emaciated now that the swelling is down, but alot of the red has turned brown, and the skin redenning has gone WAY down. There are still some blisters, but many have shrunk in size. So whatever it is, it responded very good to initial treatment at least. Going to see if i can get her to take a F/T ASF after treatment today as her weight for the length of her is SUPER low. The swelling hid it a bit, but now that she is deflating, its very obvious.
Fingers crossed. I will check in the morning. But if any of the blistering is internal, i doubt she will feed, and her weight tells me she has been off food for a good amount of time. Its going to be cutting it close.
Really hoping for a good outcome for you both. I’d also start her with a much smaller meal than she’d normally take, just to get her gut moving again since she’s been off feed for some time. You don’t want to start back up too quickly or you could end up with refeeding syndrome.
I gave her a large ASF, which is the equivalent to a small adult rat. Enough to be a caloric positive, but should not be enough to bulge her out, or overtax her underworked systems. If she takes it, ill try to get her another in a couple days of letting the first digest and seeing if she keeps it dow .
Those are little scabs where some of the blisters are drying up, i have her on reptizorb right now, and there are no mites wandering around on the white mats. Mites was the first thing i looked for with raised scales, but every raised scale was a blood blister.
Hey all, she has a vet appointment for today, going to try to ask them to do a bacterial culture so i can be sure. If it has moved to sepsus i definitely want a vet opinion as thats beyond exterior treatment, even if it is responding well to it externally. I will let you guys know what i find out! @saleengrinch i have to imagine if there are mites, they will spot them even if I cant, so we should have a solid answer there as well!
I’m wishing you all the best, the vet can tell you for sure what you’re dealing with and if there’s anything else that needs to be done for her. Hopefully it’s not sepsis and she’s on her way to a full recovery!
Packed up and off to the vet. She looks even better today skin wise, and alot of her blisters are draining (on my hands, yuck!) I checked her hospital tub again and still no mites wandering. With the blisters leaking hopefully they can get a good culture!
Have you contacted the breeder to inform them? Perhaps(doubtful) they weren’t aware and should check their own animals. Or at least to have it documented and request some sort of discount/refund since you are now incurring additional vet and other costs. A reputable breeder should have no issue working something out with you. Hope for best
ill have to look up sepsemia to see what it is.
sure you don’t have mites? In this picture it looks like you may.
