Help! Medical/skin issue with Elaphe prasina!

Charis · 10-10-15, 07:23 PM

I got this guy and 2 females, back at the end of April. The females took several weeks to settle in and start eating but the male has never eaten for me. I've been keeping an a eye on him, looking for any signs of a physical problem but hadn't seen much. He does like to soak a lot, which concerned me a bit but I never saw any signs of mites. However, he was getting water all over the enclosure and getting the substrate very wet, that was concerning me a bit, so last week I actually switched out his large water bowl for a much smaller one to cut down on that.

Where he was not eating and I was assuming that it was probably either just taking him an extra long time to acclimate and or a male seasonal fasting thing, I was also trying to leave him alone and quiet as much as possible.

Now though I'm afraid that I wasn't paying enough attention to him because between removing his big water bowl around a week ago and checking on him tonight, he has developed some very scary looking blisters, tumors, parasites or fungal infection, I'm not sure which. I'm somewhat leaning towards them maybe being because he was too consistently damp??
Anyway, there is a small one at the top of his body, near the spine, three very large ones close together on his side, another slightly smaller one above those three on his side and a large one on his lower jaw, towards the side. All except the one on top of his body are on the same side and lower down the body.

He is still alert, tongue flicking and breathing normally.
Pardon the substrate, he dove under it when I went to get him out and a lot was still clinging to him when we took these pictures.

I'm probably going to take him to the vet on Mon, if we can get in, (sure wish I trusted the local vets more!) but I was hoping for some opinions/experience on what this might be and what I should be doing for him right now?
I'm going to move him to a "sterile" enclosure with paper towel substrate but not sure what more I should do.

Thanks for any help!!

**Aaron_S** · 10-10-15, 09:21 PM

They look odd for sure. The ones along the side look like scales are swollen and lost colour.

The chin looks like a blister of sorts. Maybe they are all blisters around the scales? Hard to tell but that's my current guess. And it's a guess at this time. My first thought was also fungal in nature..

Charis · 10-10-15, 09:29 PM

Yeah, the scale is still there on those three but have lost color and then the, whatever they are, are erupting from under the scale. The other two are similar but not as bad. Then the blister on the jaw is erupting from between some of the scales, causing them to be raised and pushed out but they are not lacking color like the others.

PsychoSnake · 10-10-15, 11:31 PM

This is something a herp vet needs to look at. It might require medications depending on how serious it is. But honestly I don't know what else to say.

Best of luck!

toddnbecka · 10-11-15, 12:22 AM

Have you looked for pics of the "blister disease" that develops from too much contact with dampness? I'm not familiar with it myself, just comes to mind as something I've read about being somewhat common among WC green snakes being kept improperly.

**Tsubaki** · 10-11-15, 09:13 AM

The best thing you can do is to get a vet to check it out, it could be blister disease or they could be water-blisters.

However.. If you're convinced it was caused by dirty/wet substrate, there is a way you can treat it yourself. This is at your own risk, i am not a vet i have just successfully treated a few rescues for blisters. If you are going to treat it yourself, do not wait long.. The blisters will grow and larger blisters leave permanent scars. Do not pop the blisters yourself you will expose vulnerable skin, they will pop with shedding or simply drain and dry (which would be best case scenario). Start with a Beta-dine bath with the beta-dine diluted until it has a color similar to weak tea, do not get any in the mouth so clean the blister under the chin with a q-tip. Let the snake dry up outside the tank, scrub the tank thoroughly and give it bone dry substrate (paper towels). Keep humidity up without getting anything wet. For example: A Tupperware box filled with a wet towel, holes drilled into it. Put it on top or under a heat-source. Do not offer a water-dish even remotely large enough to bathe in (Just big enough to stick their head in for a drink, clean often). After a shed, clean the spots the blisters used to be again with diluted beta-dine and let dry. When the spots no longer look raw you can stop with the beta-dine, this should be after 2/3 sheds. Then you can offer a larger waterdish again.

Charis · 10-11-15, 10:28 AM

I'm nearly sure that these are in fact water blisters ... Since something like a Betadine bath seems to be the most commonly recommended for any number of the most likely things this could be, I'm planning on giving him one today, figure it won't hurt and should help.

Tsubaki, how often did you give the rescues you treated a Betadine bath? Between sheds, I mean.

**Tsubaki** · 10-11-15, 10:59 AM

I gave them a bath only once, as long as the tub was clean i didn't bathe them anymore. Just cleaned the blister areas if i felt it was necessary, less drying time, less handling, less stress i figured. They healed up nicely. Most important things are clean dry surroundings, they'll heal fine as long as the surroundings are good.

Charis · 01-17-16, 03:59 PM

As an update, he healed up well. Lost some scales. Still refused to eat.
So back on Dec 27, I finally decided to tube feed him, hoping that getting something in his stomach might reawaken his appetite. Had a more experienced friend come over to actually do it, I just helped. He did very well with the tube feeding.

Tried offering another F/T to him after the tube feeding and he refused it.
Last night I got a bunch of live to try on some of my other non eaters and for the few live only eaters I have, at the same time I got him a peach fuzzy. HE ATE IT WITHIN AN HOUR< YAY!!!!!
Had previously tried live a number of times but this time it worked!

(As an added bonus, 4 out of 5 of my other non eaters, also ate!!)

**EL Ziggy** · 01-17-16, 07:49 PM

Great news Charis! Hope they're all back on track for you.

Albert Clark · 01-17-16, 09:44 PM

Great to hear! Now that he's feeding his nutritional status will improve thus his immunity will take a jumpstart as well. Good call Tsu. Good work with the initial tube feeding as well Charis.

toddnbecka · 01-18-16, 12:32 AM

Yow, you've had him for 9 months before he finally broke down and ate on his own? That's cause to celebrate for sure, lol, but seriously a big relief.