| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| jhk2005 |
Posted - 20/10/2011 : 20:09:20
Hi all, sorry for the alarmist title but I wanted to share some news with everyone...
Out of all my pythons, the cutest / quirkiest in appearance is Misty (Mystique) - she's a gorgeous normal girl that has had a raised 'bump' on her nose since before I got her. I was informed when I bought her (4mths ago) that it had "always been there" and that it was nothing to worry about. In all truth I thought it gave her an 'ugly duckling' appeal, also according to things i'd read online and chatted with other snake keeping friends, all the evidence pointed towards an old 'rubbing' injury / callus so it was never an issue. You can even find pictures / references to 'nose bumps' and 'rhino royal' simply by doing a google search so it seems to be a fairly common occurrence.
In all the time i've had her, she's not eaten and has lost less than 20gms weight, currently tips the scales at 1327gms, appeared in general good health and has shown no other problems until last sunday...
When checking her over (weekly as usual) I noticed that she had a new bump on her lower left jaw that wasn't particularly hard and didn't appear to cause her pain when I was feeling it to see what it could be... to be on the safe side I booked her into my vets for this evening to make sure she was ok...
It turns out that both 'bumps' were actually abcesses  !?! She's always been very inquistive & the vet said it could have been rubbing / pushing injuries that caused bruiseing, which in turn became septic, resulting in the abcesses. The one on her jaw was new and lanced easily ; the one on her nose was so old that when the vet lanced it it came out in a solid lump the size of a petit-pois??? My poor girl! How long had she had that there pushing on her nose and I did nothing about it til now??? I feel like a right muppet to think that all this time my poor girl had that problem like that, but because of my willingness to accept things at 'face value' I didn't act on it sooner. 
Sorry if I seem to be preaching, but it taught me a valuable lesson NOT to accept things at face value as not all the 'nose bumps' are rubbing injuries and unless your a qualified vet you can't be sure that something that appears quite small can acutally be quite a serious problem. I know from my job as a nurse that if an abcess pops and empties into the blood stream instead of out through the skin it can cause blood poisoning and kill any animal, including people!  .It's also reminded me of just how tolerant these snakes are - not once did she hiss / strike / bite either me or the vet despite the pain she must have been in, she just curled up in a tight ball once it was all over as if to say "please leave me alone". The great news is that Misty is back home minus her bumps, has had a shot of antibiotics and pain-killer too, so she will hopefully be a helluva lot more comfortable and happier. 
I would urge anyone who reads this to please please learn from my stupid mistake and please don't just accept things at 'face value' when it comes to your snakes, my girl showed no signs of pain / discomfort and because I didn't act sooner as a result of misinformation I could have given her a more comfortable / pain free 4mths. Thanks to everyone for reading this  |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| jhk2005 |
Posted - 22/10/2011 : 17:18:04
Thanks everyone for your kind words, Misty is doing fine, she's keeping to her hide a lot of the time so i'm gonna try her with a weaner rat next week, just to give her chance to recover a bit from her experience. She is truly a wonderful snake and typifies how tolerant and gentle they are ; in fact she's so gentle she's my 4yr old niece's favourite to handle - Misty always gets armchair walkies whenever Ellie visits!
I do agree with having good vetenary care, i've kept reptiles for the best part of 20yrs and i'm still learning about them  |
| Lotabob |
Posted - 20/10/2011 : 21:06:53
All the best for a quick and full recovery for Misty, good luck nose-rubbing proofing the viv.
Any injury, lump, bump, scratch, nick, cut or scrape that appears and does not show signs of healing needs further investigation, this also applies for out of character behaviour (both individual or species specific). There are minor ailments that can be treated at home but I would only recommend this for very experienced keepers and on advice from a vet. |
| n/a |
Posted - 20/10/2011 : 20:52:31
Yes, get well soon, Misty (though sounds like the worst is over now) but don't beat yourself up about it, Jhk - nobody, not even the most experienced person, can know everything all of the time; calluses and granulation can occur without infection, and animals are so damn brave - sometimes it's almost impossible to know if they're feeling poorly. Your experience will have taught the rest of us something too. All the very best to you and Misty. |
| mystra |
Posted - 20/10/2011 : 20:28:00
awww, thanks for this advice, very useful for people to read i think :)
a lot of people (including me) would probably think the same thing of a lump on the nose being just from nose rubbing... i wish Misty a very speedy recovery, she sounds such a sweetie! |
|
|
