glad we got on to it early!

[Icarus]

Waterrat, i'm not trying to have a go at you, but a qualified vet examined my animal, gave a diagnosis, and prescribed her professional opinion on what treatment should be. I'm going to trust that the vet is right.

[Mr.James]

Icarus, could you please post some photos of the head?

[Waterrat]

Waterrat, i'm not trying to have a go at you, but a qualified vet examined my animal, gave a diagnosis, and prescribed her professional opinion on what treatment should be. I'm going to trust that the vet is right.

It's absolutely alright with me, I just gave my opinion. Good luck with it.

[geckodan]

I'd be interested in seeing a pic of what you are treating. What Waterrat has said is true for 90% of stomatitis cases that I have seen and treated. Because reptiles have solid pus, not liquid like us, it won't go away without manual help, even after the bugs are long gone. The only reason to not open it up would be if the swelling was tissue swelling alone.

I am not a vet but I have seen and treated mouth canker many times in the past with and without vet's supervision. The first step was always to manually remove the cheesy gunk, sometimes with the aid of diluted hydrogeh peroxide, than swabbing the gums with diluted listerine, followed by course of antibiotic injections.

Mouth canker (necro. sto.) does not manifests itself by lumps but rather dorky lips, partially open mouth and in advanced stages you can actually see the yellow gunk on the gums.


It would help to get better description of what the vet meant by "two lumps (where on the head?) that have "not yet ruptured", that's the part that sounds strange. N.S. is usually caused by trauma or injury, e.g. snake striking the glass, broken tooth or foreign material (gravel, sand) on the mouth white eating. C.S. does not rupture from inside.

Mind you, the treatment I described above may have changed over the years, so don't take it as a gospel. However, the diagnosis an cause of N.S. haven't changed. I am also surprised about the antibiotic course prescribed. I used Amicasin or Tetracycline twice a day for 5 days.

This is what N.S. looks like before and after initial treatment:



If there is someone qualified here, please correct me if I am wrong.

cheers
M

[Waterrat]

Thanks Danny, I feel better now, it's been a long time and I assume the antibiotics I mentioned have been replaced by something new.
If it was a case of tissue swelling, would you call it stomatisis or as the vet suggested "mouth rot"?

[cement]

The listerine is probably not the go, but Pete Nosworthy advocates the peroxide dilution to wash the affected area after the cheese comes away. Along with antibiotic shots of baytrill. I have used this successfully on wild caught/escaped coastals who do it a bit tough getting through a central coast winter.

If it just swelling I would call it stomatitis not mouth rot. Re inflamation only

[Jande]

Well this all has me curious as well now. I'd love to see pics if you're able, Icarus. I suppose I could Google some but if yours is an early/ different case then I'd love to see what to look out for before it gets to the rot stage.

[Icarus]

that was my bad bringing in the term mouth rot - the vet only said stomatitis, but when i got home and googled it mouth rot popped up so i figured they were one in the same. i dont actually have any photos of the lumps- i didnt take any when they first apeared and now theyve gone down since shes been on antibiotics. basically they just looked and felt like there were two tiny ball bearings under her skin- one below her right eye and one in the centre of the underside of her mouth. the vet said we'd caught it in the very early stages, so i guess that means when its only tissue swelling and the necrosis hasnt developed.

[Jeffa]

Another good thread all around guys. Thanks for the info and knowledge.

[Waterrat]

Icarus, I am not trying to lecture you, there are far more qualified people here than me, e.g. Geckodan, but from this description, it wasn't necrotising stomatitis and I am pretty sure (100%) of that.
The main thing is, the lumps are gone and that a happy end.

[Icarus]

well its good youre not trying to lecture me because it wasnt me who diagnosed it, it was the qualified, experienced reptile vet

[Waterrat]

No need to get *****ly, Geckodan is also a vet and very experienced with reptiles. I will spare you of my comments in the future.
BTW, incompetent vets are not rare species.

[phantomreptiles]

vets[/AUTOLINK] are not rare species.

Nor are keyboard warriors...