View Full Version : Lump On Tail
Lump On Tail
Atwood1184
03-29-2012, 03:55 PM
I just got a corn snake two days ago and she has a mass on her tail i am trying to get advice from experienced people with corn snakes. I did take her to the vet and they told me it was just a fat deposit. An i would be ok with that minus in the matter of hours it seemed like it grew and i wouldn't think a fat deposit would grow that quick. if you could give me some ideas. The vet did at first tell me they thought is was just fluid build up but said once they had her open it just looked like fat. What should i do. take there advise or take her to another vet
http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s407/Atwood1184/126a5d43.jpg
SquamishSerpents
03-29-2012, 04:18 PM
Once they...had her...open????????
SquamishSerpents
03-29-2012, 04:20 PM
Okay. It's just taking me a second to process that. The vet didn't seriously cut your snake open, did they?? To tell you the lump was a fat deposit? If they did, go running, as fast as humanly possible, and do not ever in your life go back to that vet.
Yes, to me, they look like fat deposits. I would imagine it needs to be on a very strict diet and exercise regime.
Atwood1184
03-29-2012, 04:51 PM
ok thank you and yes they did they made a small cut to drain what fluid they thought was in there. An thank you there are not many reptile vets around here and it was the first time i had to take one of our snakes to the vet so. Now i know not to go back to them.
Dakota314
03-29-2012, 05:03 PM
Do you have a picture of the whole snake? It would be easier for us to guess if they're fat deposits or something else.
Atwood1184
03-29-2012, 08:52 PM
http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s407/Atwood1184/0160188e.jpg
Lennycorn
03-29-2012, 10:36 PM
Me thinks something else!!!
How long has the lump been there!!
Outcast
03-29-2012, 11:27 PM
Yeah, your snake looks fit all the way down to that lump. And you said that it showed up in a matter of hours, or did I not understand that part?... Sounds like you should take the snake to see a reptile vet, if there is one in the area. This could be serious, or it could not be serious. I have never seen anything like it before...
beautifullywild77
03-29-2012, 11:32 PM
Well if they cut it open to drain it... could it of swelled from the incesion?
dave partington
03-30-2012, 04:02 AM
maybe she's am older gal who has laid hundreds of eggs during her time. My older females have "Jello Butt". It's not unusual. Some of the gal pets get a bit wider down there during Spring, when their scales push apart (ovulation).
still, may be best to let a vet take a look to make sure.
bitsy
03-30-2012, 04:47 AM
If the mass is soft and squishy and looked to the vet like fat (even a really daft vet ought to recognise fat from a tumour), then it's probably a fat lump. It looks to be in about the right place for an uneven fat deposit. You could try reduced feeding and increased exercise (once she's settled in and is eating reliably on her familiar regime), but sometimes there's not much you can do about fat lumps - once they appear, sometimes they're here for keeps.
However, I likewise can't believe that they tried to drain it with an incision. Seriously, a needle aspiration would have told them that there was little or no fluid involved. My guess is that the swelling you saw afterwards was post-operative inflammation. Have you been given any instructions on keeping the wound clean? I presume it must (I hope) be very small, but you still need to make sure that she's on newspaper, to avoid getting dust from the substrate embedded in it.
If you can find a half-decent reptile vet, then it might be worth getting her checked again just for your own peace of mind.
Sorry you've had such a rocky start with her, but at least she's clearly with folks who care deeply about her welfare. Props to you for taking her on.
Wendy
03-30-2012, 05:45 AM
One of my snakes had a small lump that really worried me, but as it was so small I just 'kept an eye on it' and it eventually went away, but I think you should keep a close eye on it for infection, keep it clean and try and find a new vet.
Atwood1184
03-30-2012, 08:26 AM
I'm not sure how long the lump has been there i just got her 3 days ago. Its not swelling from them cutting her she was like that before they cut her. and the lump goes 3 maybe 4 inches up from her rear vent. An its not the matter that it showed up its just the matter that it seemed to get bigger in just the matter of hours. And according to the previous owner she is only around 4 or 5 yrs old they didn't know her exact age.
bitsy
03-30-2012, 08:32 AM
So just to clarify, whenabouts did it get bigger - before or after the incision?
And has it gone back down to its previous size now?
Atwood1184
03-30-2012, 09:21 AM
It got bigger before the incision.
dave partington
03-30-2012, 11:13 AM
Here's Mystery2, hatched around 1996. She usually lays 30+ eggs per clutch, sometimes double clutches. She's got the Jello Butt. This is normal for some older females. She's also gravid right now, so it is not as pronounced as when she's "empty".
VickyChaiTea
03-30-2012, 11:45 AM
Good advice has so far been given, but I'd just like to comment on the vet as well. personally I really wouldn't ever go back to that vet!
bitsy
03-30-2012, 12:37 PM
It got bigger before the incision.
That's really strange. I'd expect fat lumps or constipation to build up slowly - over several feeds for constipation that noticable, and months/years for fat lumps. Certainly neither in a matter of hours, unless she was due a really big poop (which would have happened by now).
Some kind of fluid build-up could have happened that fast, but the attempt to drain the lump (however hamfisted) would have found it.
If Dave's right and she's about to lay eggs, you really need to know. Females near laying need peace & quiet and TLC like a laying box (a plastic tub with some damp substrate like vermiculite or sphagnum moss). With the amount of disturbance she's had, there would be a possibility of eggbinding. Her shape looks a lot more extreme than any of my breeding ladies have ever shown, but ya never know.
Apart from that, I'm out of ideas. I can only think that an experienced reptile vet would be able to tell you more.
Does it look like the lump has now gone back down to its previous size or is it still bigger than when you first got her?
Atwood1184
03-30-2012, 01:03 PM
If anything i would say it got bigger this pic was just taken todayhttp://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s407/Atwood1184/5439681a.jpg
Atwood1184
03-30-2012, 01:04 PM
and if you look close you can see the stich at the base of the lump
dave partington
03-30-2012, 01:13 PM
Is there any chance, slight chance///
that when the snake was first acquired
and removed from it's coiled up position in it's first-seen-by-the-buyer container,
that the snake was coiled up the way snakes coil up
so the tail was under the snake
or pressed up against the side of the snake?
Usually people pay more attention to the head end then the butt end when picking up a new pet snake. I've brought home a couple in my early days that "suddenly had their tail tips die" within a week.
Although they were more likely like that in the first place.
How many other corn snakes has your vet cut on? I'm guessing this will be a pet and never safely bred again now.
Atwood1184
03-30-2012, 01:38 PM
i took her out when i got her and seen it right away the guy told me it was a birth defect. it just really seemed to get bigger as the night went on, and that made me think is it really a birth defect. Thats when i decided that she needed to go get checked. if you look at the last pic you can see where is starts and ends and i don't remember it being even close to that big it was just an inch or two up from her vent and now it goes about 4 inches give or take. I don't know what it is if it is fat i am def cool with it i just wanna make sure there is nothing wrong with her she is a very calm and friendly snake.
Atwood1184
03-30-2012, 01:40 PM
An no i'm not planning on breeding her the first intent was to until i seen her tail then i just wanted her. i have another female that i would like to breed but that isn't going to be for a few years.
bitsy
03-30-2012, 02:19 PM
If it's still getting bigger, I really would try to find another vet pretty promptly.
Whatever the cause, if it's growing that fast and continuing to grow, it'll be putting strain on her heart and potentially other internal organs.
SquamishSerpents
03-30-2012, 03:43 PM
Is the lump hard, or really squishy? It looks like it could be egg-binding already, especially if it's getting bigger. I'll get you a pic of my girl when she was egg-bound
SquamishSerpents
03-30-2012, 03:46 PM
http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/ae214/squamishserpents/april22-2520100062.jpg
http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/ae214/squamishserpents/april22-252010033.jpg
http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/ae214/squamishserpents/april22-252010023.jpg
SquamishSerpents
03-30-2012, 03:47 PM
http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/ae214/squamishserpents/IMG_0152.jpg
Atwood1184
03-30-2012, 03:47 PM
Well I just talked to my girl at home and she said it looks like the one side has gone down a little is there any chance it could be something from stress because of change.
bitsy
03-30-2012, 03:58 PM
If it's stress related, then it's not something I've ever come across in 20+ years of Corn ownership or 10 years of internet use. They sometimes puff their necks out when scared or shedding, but they can't inflate other bits of their body. There's always room to learn something new, but in your place I'd be seeking a professional opinion.
However if it *is* deflating, that can only be a good thing.
hypnoctopus
03-30-2012, 06:36 PM
If it was egg-binding, wouldn't the vet have noticed that?
Christen
03-30-2012, 08:23 PM
You would think! But I guess we are talking about a vet that lanced open a lump instead of sticking it with a needle and aspirating some of the fluid to get an idea of what it was. If they would have done that they would have known with out cutting the snake open if it was fat or not.
To the OP It might still just be a fatty deposit but with the incision it did get some swelling and that is why you are seeing it get a little smaller now.
SquamishSerpents
03-30-2012, 08:31 PM
Yeah, that was my worry, why not just aspirate? Why cut the snake open and risk infection?
I just feel if the vet cut open the snake they probably don't know that much at all about reptiles and might not even know what egg-binding is!
Though, on second look the OPs snake definitely doesn't look egg-bound, as the lump sort of spills sideways instead of being rounded out like my snake when she was bound.
For the record, my snake had 3 slugs (one of which looked like 2 slugs fused together) and a partial slug stuck inside her, which is why her lump was so long.
OP has your snake seen a different vet, or are you just keeping an eye out for any new developments?
Atwood1184
03-30-2012, 09:07 PM
i am planning on giving it the weekend and if it doesn't get any better i was really thinking about taking her to an experienced vet with snakes. and they did get her with a needle first and no fluid was coming out until he started putting pressure on it and a little bit of clear fluid mixed with blood came out. that is when he decided that they were going to try and drain it. so we sat in the waiting room for about a half hr just to have them come out and tell us there was no fluid and they thought it was just fat. i called an experienced vet today that said they could get her in on monday so all i can say is i hope it gets better over the weekend. the really weird thing is though she has alot of energy and is very alert. What are slugs i seen that before where can i go to learn some more about them.
Christen
03-30-2012, 09:09 PM
Slugs are unfertilized eggs. If you just look through the breeding section you can see people's clutches and most will have at least 1 slug so you can see what they look like compared to an egg. What she bred before that you know of? Was she housed with another snake?
Atwood1184
03-30-2012, 09:34 PM
we were told she has successfully laid eggs in the past. she had her own cage, so we were told.
bitsy
03-31-2012, 05:05 AM
If it was egg-binding, wouldn't the vet have noticed that?
Gosh you'd hope so, but not necessarily in my experience.
The very first time I needed a vet for a Corn (to check what turned out to be fat lumps, strangely), he was insistent that she wasn't gravid. I told him I could count at least 20 eggs in her but he curtly told me that nothing had showed up in the x-rays, so she absolutely wasn't - he acted like I was a complete idiot.
The next day, she laid a clutch of 23 eggs.
I'd gone to that surgery because they said they'd been looking after snakes for years - this was in the mid-90s when pet snakes were much less common here. I obviously should have asked for their survival rates.
we were told she has successfully laid eggs in the past. she had her own cage, so we were told.
It's unusual, but they can store sperm in their bodies from one breeding season to the next. From what I've seen in mine, once they lay eggs, some tend to continue - even when not mated. It does sound like she could be eggbound, although the fact that the lump appears to be going down wouldn't be characteristic of that.
Good luck with the vet visit on Monday. Let us know how you get on. Fingers crossed for both of you.
Atwood1184
03-31-2012, 11:04 PM
well so far it does seem to be going down may have been cause of them cutting into her on why it was getting bigger she just shed today and she is very active. so far so good hope it keeps getting smaller
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