As if Christmas isn't stressful enough...

[AnniesMom]

I've had my bci Jake into the vet not once, not twice, not three times... FIVE TIMES since the 12th of November! The mouth rot that he develped as a stress reaction, we(the vet and I) suspect, possibly from being a new snake in my house was treated with a course of Baytril. Then he got an abcess in his chin, which had to be open and cleaned out buy the vet. More Baytril. Back to the vet after 14 days to clean out the abcess, again, this time larger and in the mouth. "More Baytril" say I. "Yes,.... and we need to pack the abcess and change it every other day for a week" say the vet. " Okay" say I.

I'm being a good snake keeper, encouraging food... no dice! Changing the packing in his chin every other day, giving oral antibiotics every day. This I don't mind doing. Jake, on the other hand, does mind me doing this. No bites, just wrestling matches with me on the couch.

On the 14th of this month, I go to re-pack his chin and lo! there is some flesh missing in his mouth. Call the vet!!!! Back into the vet on Jan 17th. " More Baytril???" say I. " No," says the vet. " This tissue is going necrotic(sp?). It is dead. It will need to be removed and sutured." " What are we going to do?"say I.

WARNING: The following is NOT for the faint of heart, or anyone made easily ill.

The vet said we needed to clean out the abcess. As he is doing this, Jake's chin peels away, leaving a hole big enough to put your thumb in where it used to be. We did some unexpected surgery, putting Jake to sleep so he could suture his chin back together. I have assisted in surgery on people and worked at car accidents giving first aid, but this was gross! There was nothing in the front of his face, just open mouth.

Jake now has 7 stitches putting his mouth back together, which I need to remove in 3 weeks, and 3 more doses of antibiotics that I need to inject intramuscularly over the next 12 days. I also have to force feed him water every day because the drugs are tough on the kidneys. I am hoping that this is sucessful because we are running out of treatments for this snake. He is looking a little haggard, a little stressed, and getting ready to shed. However, he is still friendly, and not once has gotten mean during this whole time. What a trooper! No one can ever accuse me of not loving my pets.

[foman]

Good luck with Jake getting better, sounds like a nightmare and I bet the vet bill is scary too.

[MouseKilla]

What a bloody nightmare! Hope he heals up well.

Just wondering if you know exactly how a snake develops mouth rot... I don't know anything about it or what causes it.

[JDouglas]

From what I have read mouth rot is caused by an infection. It can be bacterial or fungal. The infection can be caused by the snake pushing his head into nooks and crannies, from being bitten by a rodent, from an infected tooth, or from a secondary infection caused by respitory infection. She did the right thing by taking it to the vet because certain bacterias only respond to certain antibiotics and the infection has began to kill off tissue. At this point it is very serious and I wish you all the best.

[Invictus]

I wish you the best of luck, Anniesmom. That is one incredibly special snake to be putting up with all this stress and still remain friendly.

[ScreamingMisfit]

i am so glad you are doing this for your snake most people would just have them put down instead of paying the money needed to save the snakes life....some people think of the money invovled first but what i say is would you have your child put down if you couldn't afford to make him/her better ? NO you would find a way ....same gose for my snakes ....wish there were more people like you out there

[AnniesMom]

Thanks everyone. Surprisingly, the vet bills haven't been too bad. The vet I go to is very reasonable, and since most of these problems stem from the original mouth rot, the visits have been billed as a re-check, which is half the cost of a regular visit.
Jaremy is right, it is often a secondary infection. In this case, we suspect that he might have develped it from the stress of moving. I just got him in September, and because snakes metabolisim is much slower then mammals, it might have been brewing for a while, possibly even before I bought him. The previous owner of my 2 boas kept them housed with 2 burms in the same cage. The stress may have worn him down over time, making him susceptible to infection. He is now and always has been fed FT, so bite infection isn't an option.

The vet that I go to, Chris Collis, often has students in when I come with Jake, and he told one 4th year vet student " Jake is a very tolernt snake. Most snakes would not let you pack their mouth." We joke that he (Jake) doesn't hold a grudge, because even with all these indignanties, he will still go to the vet to be held and be relaxed. He's such a good boy. I don't have any pics of when his face was swollen, but he looked like a boxer, with his chin shoved WAY out. I will try to get some pics of his face as it heals and post them.

[~Suntiger~]

What an awful ordeal to have to go through -- I wish both you and Jake the best.

[scalawag]

Best of luck