Cyst near vent...or..? Don't know : (

[jaleely]

Last night I tried to feed Copper, my western hognose snake a mouse. He hasn't been interested in food for a while, and i figured he was just on a regular strike. He decided he didn't want the mouse, and hissed at it...but at the same time crawled out of his hide, and then decided i didn't get the mouse away from him fast enough so he freaked out and flipped over and played dead. Kind of unusual for him...he's only done it one time the day i got him about two years ago.
He musked, and so I stoically began to clean up. In the process (once he'd settled) i went to wipe him off and I saw his vent had this huge bump next to it!

My first thought was that he had somehow done something weird like folding his hemipeni inside himself...i don't know if that's possible. I took him over the sink, and thought I'd manuver it around to see if it was solid, maybe it was a cyst or something. I pressed on it, and it was soft....and something came out of his vent. I say something, becuase I think it was pus...kind of congealed though. I wasn't sure. It could have been urates. I should have taken a pic but i didnt and it went down the drain.
Looked like the spot went down in size for a brief second, then it was back up. I figured it was swollen, and perhaps it was pus.
This was late last night, so I had to work today.
I just checked on him...and it *does* look smaller....however...when i touched it today, there was blood that came out of his vent!!!!!!!!
See the pics.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n640/jaleely/snakes/Photo5258.jpg

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n640/jaleely/snakes/Photo5259.jpg

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n640/jaleely/snakes/Photo5260.jpg

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n640/jaleely/snakes/Photo5261.jpg

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n640/jaleely/snakes/Photo5262.jpg

He's moving around fine, he's acting a little bit upset (understandably).
Only thing I can think to do is get some antibiotics from the vet.
What else can I do....? Any ideas???

: (

[Wildside]

I had a corn snake that had one like that. I just left it alone and it healed fine. That certainly doesn't mean you shouldn't have it checked out. Hope everything turns out alright

[jaleely]

I hope so too. I took out his moist moss hide, and going to keep it dry in there. He's unhappy with me *lol*
I'll have to wait until Monday either way, so we'll see if it gets better this weekend. I sure hope so. He's a very picky eater normally, so him not eating doesn't have me *too* worried. He is showing interest, but he likes it "just so" and it always takes a few trys to get him interested.

I just worry. I mean, blah, there was blood!

[shaunyboy]

a good vet will be able to tell you more pal

it could be an infection,abcess,cyst,etc

only after examination and testing at the vets,will you know what your up against

i hope it all goes well for you

cheers shaun

[Wildside]

You could always put a little bag balm or even neosporin on it to protect it from bacteria.

[jaleely]

Thank you for the replies, guys!
Shauny, i'm going to try to do the vet thing. It's so darn hard to find a reptile vet around here. The one i tried was horrible, so i'm looking.
sucks.

Wildside i'm kind of afraid to try, but i will see if i can do that. It's better than doing nothing.

No one else has any comments or advice? I feel like i've been shunned lately. lol
Just only one other person has seen something like this on a snake before?

[Rogue628]

I've never experienced it before but I would definitely put some neosporin on it (remember without pain reliever) to help it with bacteria. I would probably keep it as dry as possible as well.

[Wildside]

Thank you for the replies, guys!
Shauny, i'm going to try to do the vet thing. It's so darn hard to find a reptile vet around here. The one i tried was horrible, so i'm looking.
sucks.

Wildside i'm kind of afraid to try, but i will see if i can do that. It's better than doing nothing.

No one else has any comments or advice? I feel like i've been shunned lately. lol
Just only one other person has seen something like this on a snake before?

If you can't find a good reptile vet just keep an eye on it. The one on my cornsnake took a while to heal but the healing was definitely noticeable after it ruptured. Of course a wound will throw any snake into a shed cycle so that came on almost immediately. Also, I only suggested an ointment, (more for your comfort) because it certainly can't hurt anything. However, in my case, I did not use one.

[jaleely]

I've been keeping it clean, and disinfected. The lump is going down! No discharge.
I think he was sitting in his moist moss and making a bacteria snake soup and that started it!

[totheend]

making a bacteria snake soup

I probably will never eat soup again....... :eek:

[Wildside]

I probably will never eat soup again....... :eek:

Chicken noodle still sounds pretty good :)

[jaleely]

Well i'm going to have to take him to the vet. The abscess has not gone away. I am able to relive the size by squeezing the pus out, but after doing some research it seems that reptiles create pus differently than mammals, and the only real way to get healing is to have the pus surgically removed, then have it rinsed with some medical thing. The wound would be left open until all pus was gone and not reforming.

Also, as I don't feed live prey there is no real way for him to have a skin injury, so it seems it may have been something internal...doesn't even have to have been near where the abscess has formed, and that would mean it's in his blood and survival is low. He's not lethargic or upset in any way.
I will have to get things together and take him to the vet...which i truly wanted to avoid because there is NO reptile vet in my area.
Sucks.

Also, friday night the power went out in my area due to a drunk driver. It was out for about 6+ hours when we woke up and found that most of our saltwater fish had died due to no oxygen in the water. Not something we expected. Had to rush to get the remaining live ones into a bucket, and to my mother-in-laws who had electricity, so we could save them with a bubbler.
We took turns for a couple of hours stirring the water with our hands (back here at the fish tanks). After the power came back on, we found our eel had survived, in the back of the tank...and we were only left with 4 fish...though later we found a 5th had hidden and survived.
All of the higher metabolism fish died. 11 of them.
That stress along with realizing i can't home treat my hognose is a lot for me right now.

Super sad face : (

[Wildside]

Best of luck and Thanks for the update.


I have a handy dandy little device I bought for the sole purpose of saving fish lol. It's a power outlet that plugs into the outlets in my car. When we had those bad storms back in June and the power was out for 4 days, it kept most of the piranhas in my 180 gal. tank alive by just running an air stone. Great investment for anyone who has a fish tank.

[jaleely]

yeah, now we know. lol i really never would have thought it would have happened in such a short amount of time.

[jaleely]

Well, I found out what it was!
Found a GOOD vet actually in the area, as a bonus!
I couldn't take him in, but hubby did for me this morning. It was a plugged scent gland!

This is not my photo, but to give you an idea (if you're like me, and didn't even realize this could happen)
Popping a female sandboa | Vida Preciosa International, Inc. (http://www.vpi.com/images/118)

I had expelled it a few times, already, but apparently wasn't started from the right spot. You have to "roll" it out, from the tail towards the vent.
Hard pus comes out.

Well, he got some anti-biotics, a antibacterial syrum for a 15 minute soak a day, and some pro-biotics to put on his food (which i thought was a very nice touch, since anything living that takes antiobiotics loses their good intestinal bacteria along with the bad, when when they take it, and it needs to be replenished).
Very good vet!

Now if i only i could figure out how it happened. I have to play arrogant and say that i find it hard to believe it was bad husbandry...i keep his enclosure spotless and disinfected. Maybe something got in there, or he's just prone to it. My beagle is prone to anal gland impactions *shrug* i'm still googling it!

[Robyn@SYR]

I've seen some very gross, smelly, things come out of snake bumps...

[ILuvMyHognose]

Hey thanks for posting this topic. It would come in handy for future use, just incase this ever happens to my hoggies. Both my dogs have problems with anal glands, it sounds like that may be the same thing as an infected scent gland. Probably along the same lines.

[jaleely]

My poor baby has to have his soak, and some antibiotics in his mouth. He hates it! Well he's okay with the soak, but oh how offended and betrayed he acts when he has the medicine. lol
His scent gland looks much better. kind of pink and still a little swollen, but much better.

I was doing feedings tonight and squishing around a little on some scent glands and nothing was coming out of anyone. I would assume if they were full and like...it needed to happen, it would...?
For instance i can clean out both of my dogs' glands. The beagle is a struggle but the basset's just shoots out. I mean i know it's not the same thing, but...*shrug*

[jaleely]

Well as a last little update, the western hognose copper is doing very well. He's perked up, peed twice, and is all done with his oral medication. The swelling is almost gone, though there is a bit of saggyness to the skin in the area where the buldge had been, as well as a pink spot through the scales.
Hubby said the vet did "root around" in there though, to clean out the gland.

He's been "kind of" shedding. The stress caused him to start a "flake" shed, which i have seen in dehydrated and stressed snakes before. Each scale's shed flakes off. He's doing well overall though.

Gonna keep doing the soak. He is SO good and just sits there and lets me...he's not too pleased but he stays where i want him to.

Anyway, going to tempt him with food tonight or tomorrow. We'll see!

[Wildside]

Good luck :)