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Health Issues/Feeding Problems Anything related to general or specific health problems. Issues having to do with feeding problems or tips.

Snow worse for the wear (continuation of eggbound standard in breeding forum)
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Old 06-12-2012, 03:40 AM   #1
sidesaddlegal
Snow worse for the wear (continuation of eggbound standard in breeding forum)

I initially posted this in breeding forum, now it's become more of a general care issue. No pun intended.....I got a female snow--four years old; I was cautioned not to breed her due to prior eggbinding...well, OK, I fell in love with her anyway so took as a pet to "rehab" as she seems to have a few issues. Needs to acclimate due to stress and possible overhandling by prior family--typical orange blisters, ribby but doesn't look too awfully skinny. Owner did say she refused to eat for the first time; I'm not too surprised. Sweet little thing, tho, which is why I fell in love with her. I'm going to get her in to vet as soon as I get some poop for a fecal (most I have taken in *were* rescues, so I am no stranger to parasites & treatment). Anyway, here is mystery, and I will post pic when family member can help me hold her in good position. She has a scab lateral to, and infiltrating into her vent, It does not seem highly enflamed, but prior owner's daughter said it was there when they acquired her 9 months ago. I was told she was culled from binding *once* and that single egg was aspirated & other followed naturally. Understanding was that *no surgical* intervention took place. I am convinced that, even a year later, that the binding incident had something to do with this trauma. Perhaps it started as a small fissure but tears itself back open with each defecation? I don't know. Like I say, it does not seem accutely irritated or enflamed, but she--although not grieviously out of sorts--does not seem to be thriving per se. If it were healing, it seems like it would be shedding out. I've always had pretty good luck bringing my hard knock critters back to vitality, so I am sort of scratching my head here trying to decide where to start with this one. Letting her chill for a week or so un-harrassed before I try feeding her and plan on just watching her in the meantime. I am stablizing temps & humidity since I believe they were not being too careful monitoring her. Could she have ripped when she passed eggs? How should I go about assessing & dealing with the scabbing? It's about 5-6mm in each direction I determined upon closer look, does seem go beneath anal scale a bit; not just *beside* vent. Like I said, trip to vet is imminent but I want to try to figure this out in the meantime. Any ideas, anybody seen anything like this before? Does *not* appear to be fungus/rot/mold like from dirty, wet substrate; cage was clean & dry. Like I said, looks like trauma/injury of some sort??? Should I try to soften it up with sanitary soak or some sort of triple antibiotic ointment or just leave alone for now? Can't be comfortable but I don't want to get it irritated since it seems "stable." I'm guessing she's also probably retaining bits of shed in that region as well. Has a few upturned scales & maybe *tiny* bit of tail-tip constriction, but facial scales & eyecaps look good & no other signs of shedding issues. Anyone care to venture a guess?
 
Old 06-12-2012, 04:03 AM   #2
diamondlil
Good descriptions, but obviously photos will help more. What do you mean by 'typical orange blisters'?
 
Old 06-12-2012, 07:05 AM   #3
BloodyBaroness
Wow. I think you have taken on quite a project.

Skin blisters (which are not typical or normal) , open fissure, scabbing, those are really best tended by a vet. She sounds like she could greatly benefit from antibiotics.

Keep her on newspaper or paper towel for substrate until the skin looks better.

But honestly, I would not wait for poop for a fecal, get her on to the vet. Parasites are probably the very least of the issues.
 
Old 06-15-2012, 08:48 PM   #4
sidesaddlegal
Got her in to vet this am (my exotics vet is 40 miles away & booked out several days usually so just not a drop-in kind of thing). I am just cutting & pasting what I'd put on our local herp list--needless to say, I am quite relieved: Good news--I took her to the vet this am and she confirmed what I'd been thinking....likely a tear from passing the eggs or someone's attempt at manual assist. Probably stimulated somewhat from exam, we saw her pass a little urine/urate solids and sure enough, she tore open a bit when she strained (can't even imagine when she poops--ouch) but vet confirmed that it doesn't seem too invasive or chronically enflamed so she just recommended I bathe her for 20 min daily in a diluted Novasan solution & apply Silvadene (1%), gently massaging it over the area. She seems to think it'll knit well and confirmed also--luckily--that the little abrasions throughout the rest of her body were scuffs & upturned scales as opposed to scale rot or bacterial infection. I've never had to deal with scale rot, but have had other animals with various fungal/yeast infections (blechhh), so we dodged a bullet on that one! She said I should rub the creme into those as well, and thinks a good shed ought to slough off most of that. The poor little thing was very tolerant of the "human maulers" and is curled up back in her hide safe & snug for now & with a good prognosis. I call her "Zin" for White Zinfandel.....(and I don't even drink)! Luckily vet saw everything as localized & saw no need for broad spectrum antibiotic, but I still plan on getting her a stool sample as soon as she'll poop for us....thanks to everyone for their feedback.

LT
 
Old 06-16-2012, 05:19 PM   #5
SnakeAround
Good to hear that she will most probably be as good as new soon and have a happy life!
 
Old 06-16-2012, 05:41 PM   #6
HermesMom
Sounds a lot like, if not exactly, what I went through with our little amel which was definitely an injury. We kept his food prey size on the smaller side, he was tiny at the time so it really goofed up his growth I believe but he had to be able to pass it without doing further damage. We always made sure he pooped before his next feeding {sometimes that required a swim for him}, with him we'd give him a little bath/soak every few days. I took him to two vets, we were to put Silvadene creme on his vent twice a day and to put peroxide on a Qtip to wipe/clean the area once a day {feed/digestion days exclude of course}. There was a period of a month or two that I gave him one day to digest then started up the creme again twice a day 'cuz when I wasn't it was extremely noticeable in how it looked/felt. The big thing was keeping that thing moist, keep him hydrated and the creme on, humidity correct and making it as easy for him to poo without having to strain trying to poop through the scab. Just when it'd start looking great, it'd look awful again. It took months to heal, but heal it did. It always looked most horrible when he was in blue.

It's sort of hard because like our vet told us, you need to keep it moist with the Silvadene twice a day but at the same time an injury needs to scab over to heal. Once the healing process really started for him, he shed a lot. Oh, and we kept him on paper towels as a it's a softer substrate and removed anything in his viv that was even remotely abrasive.
 

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