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old snake has a bump on underside

S

seymours_mom

New member
Hi there, I am new here but am hoping someone has come across this. My male cornsnake has a soft bulge on his underbelly about half way down his body. He's about 6 feet long and other than that, is in perfect health. I rubbed it to see if he'd react like it was bothering him but he didn't seem to notice.

I just took out another mouse and will try feeding him again tonight to see if maybe it will pass.

Just wanted to know if anyone's come across this before as I haven't. Also he's 21 years old so I'm not sure if that's just an old age thing happening.:confused:
 
How large is the lump? I've never seen anything like it personally but I'm guessing it very likely could be due to the age, he's obviously been very well cared for to make it this long with no major problems :)
 
I doubt it's directly age-related (I have a 23 year old), but of course, the longer they live, the greater the odds of health problems. Could be a fat lump (they're not necessarily associated with overfeeding, so don't worry!). The fact that it's squishy rather than firm points in that direction, although they more often occur on the sides of the body rather than the underneath.

It could also be a fluid-filled cyst which may have arisen spontaneously or from a slight injury to the skin.

It's encouraging that it doesn't feel hard, as that would be more characteristic of a tumour.

If you can find a vet who knows about reptiles, that would be the only way to get a definitive answer. A cyst can be aspirated and treated so that it doesn't get infected. Fat lumps are benign and don't need any treatment.
 
Well he took a mouse today and seems his regular self. Maybe I'll wait and see if the mass passes with his stool in the next few days. If not, off to the vet I suppose; I don't want to take any chances. The only problem here is there are not many reptile-knowledgeable vets, but I'll check around.

Thanx for your input, its appreciated. :)
 
Don't necessarily be lulled into false security - Corns are very good at behaving normally when they have major health issues. One of mine had a massive internal tumour, but ate and behaved normally.

If it's a food mass, then I'd expect it to feel harder, but it might be worth waiting to see whether a poop clears it. Is he due a shed? Sometimes mine will "back up" before a shed and let rip immediately afterwards, but the bulge tends to be lower down the body.

Good luck - let us know how it goes. I know how nerve-jangling it can be to have a much-loved old-timer have a bit of a wobble (even though it's usually us who are more bothered than the snake!).
 
Well its been about a month now and the lump seems bigger and much harder! He's eaten and pooped about 3 times since then, but whatever is inside him hasn't passed. Has anyone heard of corns getting tumors or anything? I would imagine they do but I can't think of what it could be. He's never had a health issue. Regardless I suppose. I'll take him to vet this coming week. I just worry they don't have the experience in snakes to know what it is either. I just hope the ole boy recovers from it. Not quite ready to say goodbye to him yet.
 
Yes, Corns can get cancerous tumours like any other animal. I lost one to a tumour a couple of years ago.

As it's getting larger and harder, with no apparent digestive issues, I'd fear the worst.

Really, the only person who can tell you, is a vet. As he's had it for several months, if it is cancer, the chances are that you should brace yourslf for bad news.

Please keep us posted. I have everything crossed that my suspicions are wrong.
 
So I got him into vet yesterday. They did an ultrasound and can only see that its a very dense mass. He took a sample of it and said its not bacterial or an infection. The only thing we can do is either, leave it and it will probably eventually completely block him from passing anything, which will kill him. Or... they can operate to try to see what it is and if they can remove it. It's fairly expensive (about $1000) and its not a sure thing. they might get in there and find there is nothing they can do. He is leaning towards it being a tumour but will find out once he's in there. The vet said its hard to operate on snakes because their membrane is so thin that its hard to sew them back up once you get them open... so that is a big risk. They will have to open his intestine as that is where the mass is sitting. Also, Seymour being so old may also be a factor. But the vet just did a c-section on a snake 1/2 the size of mine last week so he's confident he will do a good job.
I will think it over for the weekend and am due to call him Tuesday to see which way i want to go. I honestly can't sit back and watch him get worse so I am sort of leaning towards the surgery. The mass has grown quite a bit in just the last 5 or so days so I don't think I have much time. I gave him 2 very small mice as the vet wants to see if he'll eat and he did so I will have to give him warm bathes to make sure he can still pass them, which he should be able to because he's not fully blocked.
So I am crossing my fingers that the operation goes well and he comes thru with flying colors... :)
 
I'm hoping for the best for Seymour. You're a great momma getting him that surgery. He's lucky to have you.
 
I'm sending my very best wishes to you and Seymour as well. Destarte is right - whatever the outcome, you're doing your very best for your lovely old boy.
 
Just an update on my snake Seymour. He has surgery 2 weeks ago and it seems to be a success! When they opened him up they found the mass to be a urinary tract blockage. The vet said once he had a blockage, everything started to just back up, which caused the mass to grow so much. His bowels and blood vessels had grown into it but he said they came apart easily enough.
There are things called 'readers' (hoses kind of) which move urine from his kidney's to his bladder. The vet said serwing that up was the trickiest part because it's such a thin membrane. The real test was to see if he would pass urine or if the readers didn't get attached properly, it would just leak out of his kidneys and into his body. He had to have antibiotics injected into him for a week afterwards so he wasn't a big fan of that unfortunately.
But I'm happy to say he just passed urine yesterday so I am sure the surgery was a success. He has about 10 stitches along the side of his body which the doc said he will eventually just get rid of when he sheds. He said snakes heal slow so he didn't want to remove them.
Seymour is fairly sluggish and doesn't really come out of his house when I open his cage. I'm just hoping that's because he is still recovering and that he'll bounce back. But he made it thru surgery and I am hopeful he'll be around to turn 22.. :)
 
Wow! That's a peach of a vet you have there - quite the find! I'm so glad the vet managed to do something for him.

Sending you and Seymour my very best wishes for a speedy recovery. Keep giving us the updates.
 
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