HELP Sick boa!

[Marinella]

I have a 17 years old boa (I have her from the age of 9 months). I live in the countryside and I don't have any vets specialized in reptiles around. She has a respiratory infection for two weeks now (although I suspect it was longer-just not noticeable). She hasn't eaten for over a month, she is active and seems healthy except for her mouth (one side is swollen and makes noises when breathing). I started to treat her with Baytril (which did the job 10 years ago). However, since I didn't see any amelioration, I went to see my vet for advice. He has some knowledge (and who got in contact with a specialist) so he told me to continue with the Baytril and to clean the necrotic tissues around her mouth and to desinfect. He also observed that she got like a tine hole (an ulcer) in her mouth. He also gave me Vit.C to administer every two days. She refuses to eat so he wants to force feed her. The expert is 250 km away and at the moment I can't make such a trip. I would appreciate any suggestions.

[Moreau]

I wouldn't force feed her, a month is not long at all. Can you post pictures of her mouth?

[formica]

unless she is loosing weight fast, there is absolutely no reason to force feed her, that kind of stress wont do her any good, and the fact that the vet has suggested it is a big warning flag as to their experience with reptiles

has the snake had any x-rays of the swelling? Infection is the first thing that springs to mind, which would indicate the need for antibiotics - but its important to know for sure what you are dealing with, there are quite a few things that can cause swellings

Personally I would call the specialist vet, and email him some good photos of the swelling etc, he may be able/willing to advise, but I suspect that he will want to see the snake, do x-rays, biopsy etc, if there is no obvious reason for the swelling

also the specialist vet may be able to give you contact details for a specialist closer to you, I would be very surprised if there really are no other specialists close by, if your flag is correct and you are in France?

regarding the RI, F10 nebulisation can help, but the swelling needs attention.

[Marinella]

Thank you for your comments. Actually, I am not very warm to the idea of force feeding her so I contacted the vet (which he confirmed that also he was not too fond of the idea either). Yes, I am in France and the vet only suggested this specialist. I live 40 km from Poitiers (so I thought Poitiers would have specialists) but he said that there aren't any specialised.
The photos were taken and sent to the specialist. He said to continue the Baytril and that it should do the trick but I wanted to have other opinions.
No x-rays nor anything because it wasn't suggested.
She has gotten thinner (but not too drastic) and will shed her skin soon. Otherwise, she is active.

[formica]

contact Zoo's, animal shelters, breeders etc, they might be able to find you a specialist more local, also call the distant specialist and see if they know one that might be closer

for now at least she is on antibiotics, hopefully she will start to respond, but of course snakes respond much slower than humans, give it some time and just monitor her general condition for changes

are you weighing her? I would suggest doing that and recording it, so you can be sure about any weight loss, and the rate of weight loss

I would also suggest increasing her temperatures a couple of degrees (eg area below/above heater up to 35C), of course being sure that she still has access to proper cooler temps

[Marinella]

Thank you, I will monitor her. For now, no changes yet.

[Tsubaki]

Any signs of improvement on this snake yet?

[Marinella]

She is going to shed her skin soon. Maybe it is too soon to tell-continues to be active, her breathing is better but her mouth still continues to have the abcess....Baytril stopped-just cleaning her mouth every day and every two days her vit C.

[Hyokenseisou]

If the one side of her mouth is swollen, could possible be mouth rot as well. Sometimes the pus doesn't show on the exterior and is in the upper nasal track with can also cause difficulty breathing (and sometimes will force them to breath through their mouth). If it is a case of mouth rot (and you're treating for something else that it's not, obviously it won't help) and if it goes untreated for too long, it could cause further issues in the lower respiratory track which can reek havoc, even death, it often is harder to treat.

Look into it possibly being mouth rot. Sometimes it won't look like it at first.
And there's a number of reasons that could have caused that (bad husbandry, a knocked out fang with got infected simply by bumping up against something, etc).

If it not an overly bad case of RI, sometimes boosting the temps and having a nebulizer (like F10) can clear it up if it is RI. But without her seeing a proper vet, it'll hard to narrow down exactly what it is.

I'm not expert by any means, but right away, reading that her nose is swollen, is the first sign of mouth rot to me.

I'm currently going through something similar with my boa. He kept bumping his nose against the locks in his cage, knocked some fangs as well as got shavings in the wound, got swollen, thinking it'd go down on it's own, it didn't, turned into a minor case of mouth rot (due to the infection - which is what mouth rot is, just an infection cause by bacteria in an wound), am treating him now with antibiotics, pain meds, and flushing with benadine and F10. Check out my thread if it sound like this could possible be what she actually as.
http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/general-boa-forum/105496-adventures-mouth-rot.html

[Marinella]

Thanks for the tip, I will certainly check on it. Ten years ago she used to force against a glass pane and hurt herself, though I treated her-it is in the same place right now.

[formica]

Thanks for the tip, I will certainly check on it. Ten years ago she used to force against a glass pane and hurt herself, though I treated her-it is in the same place right now.

hows it looking now, swelling gone down at all? behaviour/mood ok?

[Marinella]

Latest news: She is nearly back to normal-she shed her skin and swelling gone. She has also eaten. Road to recovery. Thank you all for your advice.

[Cmwells90]

Just a note for the future, while I'm not expert on snakes. All things will respond slower to treatment as they age. Now I've never seen a 17 Y/O Boa, so that says to me that she may be old in comparison to her species. Because of this, I would say that treatment will be a longer process than you're use to. I'm glad to see she's back to normal today, and please correct me if I'm wrong but as an older age the immune system would start to decline, so you may see more issues moving forward, just remember that the same cure for younger snakes may take another couple weeks for your girl.

Please if I'm wrong and she's really not that old in comparison to her breed I'd like to know. I have a boa myself so I'm excited to hear that she'll be around for a very long time!

[Frisky]

I can only advise from personal experience.

About 2 years ago, I took in a rescue Boa with quite a bad RI problem.

I bumped temps up to 35 Centigrade on the hot side of the enclosure with 30 Centigrade on the cool side. This temp was maintained constant for a week, and then dropped to 32 Centigrade on the hot side and 28 Centigrade on the cool side. At the same time I also ensured that Humidity did not go above 50%.

Coupled with the heating treatment was a 30 minute F10 Nebulising session every evening f0r 10 days.

If you go on SAReps.com there is a full explanation with pics.

That Boa was cured in a space of 2 weeks. No other meds were offered.