I have a gravid corn snake who should be laying eggs right about now. It might be because she didn't like her lay bin, I don't know.. but anyways I think there is an Issue. I noticed a lump by her vent, and became concerned.. I changed the hide twice till she actually went in it of her own accord, soaked her in warm water, and bumped the heat up a little on her bin. I'm pretty sure she's going to have to go to the vet but I thought I'd post here and see if there's anyone that recognizes the issue and/or has any suggestions on what to try with her. I'm really not sure what that dark stuff is either, she was really feisty and wouldn't hold still for these pics.
I did a little research for you and what i can gather it may be an abscess. Everywhere suggests to see a vet. They will need to check it out. From what i can see they are describing it as a cheesey feel? It says in most cases a minor surgery will easily fix this. It is essentially trapped bacteria that has built up in that specific spot, if of course that is what it is. I would for sure bring her to the vet. Best wishes.
Thank you ajlista, I appreciate that I will get her in today if I can. I wonder if its unrelated to her eggs, but preventing her from laying them.. since all the eggs seem to be farther up in her body..
Well, i dont think it is directly related to her being gravid. It just happened to happen while she was gravid. Im not sure if it will prevent her, lets hope not : ( Im glad i could help.
Definitely helped a lot.. you were exactly right too. The vet managed to squeeze me in today, and he dug all the hard pus out, and gave me baytril injections. said to watch her around when she lays to make sure she doesn't have issues or holds onto some eggs. He didn't say to remove the loose bedding, but i'm going to anyway, leave her with paper towel as a substrate and her lay box and some water.
Thats awesome im glad to hear Yeah baytril works pretty good, i got it for my leo, lol got rid of mouth rot, so if you have extra when you are done giving it to her, i would highly suggest saving it for any further infections Im glad everything went well, keep us updated
so far so good, third shot today, then every other day for 14 days after. she felt good enough to take a big poop in her water dish, so thats a good sign.. lol
All right, end of treatment was two days ago. here are some after shots.. trying to decide if i should call the vet and ask if it should be completely healed now or if i should look for it to continue to heal after the antibiotics are through.
Well here we are a month later. She has laid her eggs *a lot of which i suspect are duds* and I think all of them are out of her, had to soak out the last one. Her vent is looking a LOT better, but she isn't quite there yet. there is a lump along the side of her body near the vent, what i'm assuming is whats left of the abscess. she's getting another vet visit monday.
Good luck at the vet and I'm glad everything went ok with her laying them. You might want to take the pics into the vet to show him/her how it has been progressing (or lack there-of). Good luck!