Help! Lump under throat!!

I just took out my 8-year-old male Sam to feed him, and was alarmed to find that he had a marble-sized lump on his throat, just behind his head! I felt it and it was very soft, like fluid if anything. Strangely, it seemed to mostly disappear while I had him out. I plan on taking him out tomorrow to see if it is still there, and if I need to take him to the vet. I suppose in the past he has had a somewhat 'puffier' throat at times when he is about to shed, but never anything like this (and honestly I don't know if he's about to shed, I've been away at school). I changed his bed to sani chips a few weeks ago, and though I told my mom to feed him out of the cage, I guess she fed him a F/T inside the cage (on top of a rock). I'm doubting it's impaction because of the way it felt, but who knows! I was wanting to get him to open his mouth so I could look in there, but I was afraid to hold his head too firmly because of the location of the mystery lump (and Sam is too gentle of a snake to bite/open his mouth even if I try to 'pry' his mouth open). Didn't notice any strange breathing while I had him out. Thoughts?

I'm still new to corn snakes so I don't have any direct advice, but maybe a picture of this will help the other members. Unless advised otherwise by more experienced than I, if I were you I would take it to the vet.

Do you know if he's due a shed? If he's prone to becoming a bit puffy in that region, it could just be a localised effect. I'm not sure we've ever got to the bottom of why this happens around shedding time. If it's a build-up of the lubricating fluid which forms between the old and new skins, then I guess it would be possible to have it concentrate in a little "pocket" to give the effect you've seen.

The fact that it goes down is probably a good sign. A tumour would be more likely to be harder and fixed in place. It could also be a fluid-filled cyst, but only a vet could tell you that.

Without seeing him, that would be my first guess, too. Some snakes get swelling around the throat right before a shed.

Like bitsy said you're better off on the fact that it's soft and fluid filled so it rules out a tumor or most likely any lasting damage. He may of caused an irritation in his spinal column/musculature there which could of caused a cyst to form as well, if that's the case I don't know if there's a vet procedure to remove it so it won't return or not. I know human cysts of that nature are a pain to get rid of forever. If the swelling went down when he was out and about it's a good sign and it probably means it is just a pocket of displaced fluid in his body and when he was out it was able to move away from where the pocket formed. If you could take some pictures it would greatly help. Also if he didn't have strange breathing then I wouldn't be worried about an URI. Give it a few days and see what happens with the firmness and size of the swelling and go from there. Also just to be safe if he has a feeding coming up I'd hold off on it until you know it couldn't increase the symptoms or cause further symptoms as well. If it starts to become firmer or continues to grow though I would immediately seek vet assistance.

Just to be safe, I would take him to the vet for a visit anyways. I took one of my snakes and spent $75 to later find out it was a really bad shed.

Good luck!
-Skully-

He is probably due for a shed. Here are some pictures I took of him just now. They're from my phone, so not the best quality, but you can see that the lump has returned. Poor fella. Does this look like the pre-shed swelling that you guys have seen before?

Just took Sam out again...and the lump is gone!! Hoping that it is indeed a shed-related issue and that it will resolve for good shortly.

Probably not really relevant, but my boy gets a similar bulge there if he chugs a bunch of water, guess it takes a little time to go down.

Wasn't there also a thread somewhere about someones corn that would puff up its throat as a defense mechanism as well which looks very similar to this?

I think there's a thread on here as well where someones corn was actually inflating its neck as a defense mechanism and it looked very similair to this.

I have seen that on one of my corns before. It freaked me out so much! But it went away without an issue. I think it was water.

My charcoal does that every time she sheds. It freaked me out the first time, but she shed within days and it was gone.

Thanks everyone. I don't think it's a self defense thing with Sam, because he is such a laid back snake. Even when I had to give him injections a few years back, he never once tried to bite or 'bluff' at me. So weird that shedding could cause it, though...I wonder why?

Well, I think when they are getting ready to shed, the skin in the nostrils comes loose before anything else, it being moist and all. Kind of stopping up the nose a bit, so it can look similar to a respiratory infection, they blow so hard to breathe and can't get the air out as fast as normal so it inflates a bit. This happens with my boa, never really noticed it in my corns but they are less visible when in blue, they stay hidden the whole time. Jus' my two cents.

I have a male ghost corn whose throat looks like that on occasion. It doesn't seem to bother him. He eats an sheds so I don't worry about it.