Jungle Split Skin

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no it doesnt ..... comes up as an invalid attatchment on my laptop and same on works computer
 
I've heard of skin splitting occurring in boas and ball pythons before, not so much in Oz species. According to "What's Wrong with My Snake" by Rossi & Rossi (a great little book by reptile veterinarians, bit old now 'though):

"Spontaneous skin splitting - this lesion usually occurs in young snakes and is presently thought to be due to malnourishment. Immediate surgery may reduce the scarring, but the cause of the nutritional problem must be determined and eliminated if possible..." (accompanied by a photo of a young ball python with a long tear along the midline, just behind the head)

Looking on the web, other keeper have experienced this problem with young snakes that haven't fed for a while and are then presented with a large food item - the skin tears as the snake tries to swallow it (presumably a lack of nutrition makes the skin thinner). Is there any chance this is what happened with your guy?

Anyway, it seems like the vet should be able to clean and suture the wound without too much problem. Post surgery, your snake may need to be fed small meals until it's well healed.

Hope this helps, good luck!
 
Looks more like a burn to me.How is the python heated?
 
Thanks for the input.

100% not a burn. He's heated with an overhead ceramic heat light with a cage over it. Gives him 30 - 32 degrees under it but I can grab the cage without it burning.

We have the book you were talking about and saw the same section, which had us concerned. However the vet said that he is perfectly healthy for his size and as far as they can tell, not malnourished. We feed him medium adult rats and give the same to our BHP, who is about the same size and she hasn't had any issues.

We're now going to take him to a more specialised vet at the wildlife Uni a bit out of town. Didn't go straight there as we weren't sure if they'd see him before we'd been to our local vet. Local vet couldn't really help so we're hoping this will. For those in the know, it's Dr Bob Doneley that we're going to see...

The strange thing is that he's acting perfectly fine. Happy cruising around in his home. Happy to be handled. Doesn't like us touching the area but otherwise you wouldn't know there's an issue.

We are going to drop his feed back to 2 adult rats, which are a bit smaller so won't cause a bulge. Not sure if he'll need stitching up. I'm hoping not as it seems to more so be missing scales that's exposing skin rather than a split, so to speak. But (guess what) I'm no vet, so we'll wait and see.

The thing that really gets me is that I haven't been able to find ANYTHING in regards to this.

Still hoping to have more input (now that there's pictures) to get more ideas.

Will continue to post on this incase anyone runs into this issue in the future, so that they have somewhere to turn.

As always, thanks to everyone.

Cheers.
 
It's a really strange case that's for sure. Definitely keep us posted I'd love to hear what the uni thinks.
 
My Stimmy has the early stages of what yours has. Recently upped his feed to Xbreeder mice from Dolittle Farms, 50-60g which is right at the upper end of what he should be able to take. He wolfed them down no problems before he went off his food mid January.

Once he ramps back up again in his feeding, I will drop his prey size back down to see if that makes a difference. Even after a shed or two, it is still there and I thought it might have been where he wedges himself at the top of the tank, but it only goes down to where his mid-section thickens (to accommodate the bigger prey), so your diagnosis makes sense.

Keep us posted, looks nasty.
 
That's not a split, it's a cut. To me the obvious thing is that there is other damage leading up to the sliced skin - it has clearly got stuck under something that is sharp and it has sliced the dorsal skin as it has moved forward. Maybe you have some cage furniture that is elevated and close to the light cage, which are metal and often have sharp corners/edges, and the snake wedged itself under the light cage. Maybe you fed it when it was under the light cage and it got stuck as its girth increased.

A split caused by internal pressure such as a huge meal would not cause the associated external damage to the skin along the dorsal line you can see on this animal.

Jamie
 
I agree with Jamie and thought the exact same thing as soon as I viewed the pics.

George.
 
Hey Guys.

Need to clear a few things up... Serp is NEVER fed in his enclosure. He is always removed and fed in a plastic tub so that he never associates food and his enclosure. Makes it much easies to reach right in and grab him out ;-)

There is NOTHING in his enclosure that could give him a decent scratch, let alone cut him.

I honestly don't think this issue has ANYTHING to do with the size feed we're giving him. We have a BHP that is currently about his size that is getting the same with no issues. I was just saying that DUE TO THIS we would be feeding a smaller size to reduce any stretching until this clears.

Now, back to the update...

Took Serp to see Bob Donely at the Uni vet. As previously stated, Bob is a reptile specialist. After he had a good look over him, even he had no idea what the issue was (and yes, he saw pics of the enclosure).

Bob said that the only thing he could think of could be a collagen issue.

Serp then had on overnight (which turned into two nights, due to how busy they are) to be sedated for blood tests and skin biopsies to try to determine what's going on.

We picked up our very sooky "gold plated" python today ($710 later) and he is now home safe and sound. I never thought a python could EVER possibly sook, but you should see him!

After removing everything from the enclosure, because he was using anything he could to scratch off the bandages covering the stitches and then even tried scratching at the area the stitches are in, he is now curled up asleep.

We have an antibacterial cream to apply 1-2 times a day. Bob will be calling (probably) Friday with the results from the bloods and biopsies.

Until then, we keep an eye on him and hope for the best...

Will let you know more when we do.

Cheers.
 
Hey All.

So after a week and a half of applying the cream, Serp seems to be on the mend.

He has scales growing back in the area that they were missing, though they are still rather soft and he does lose two or three when we apply his cream, but it honestly can't be helped.

His stitches need to stay in for 6-8 weeks. That's the stitches from the biopsy (they didn't stitch his back).

He's still happy and (seemingly) healthy. We fed him a couple days after getting him home, and yes we checked with the vet that it was alright. Dropped him from medium adult rats (160g) to small adult rats (120g) and he smashed it, as always. The boy never refuses a meal...

The bloods showed that there is an inflammation UNDER the wound area. Which is quite odd, as you would think it would be inflamed at the wound site itself. As far as the biopsy's go, they showed nothing, which has Dr Doneley stumped. He said he'd be sending microscopic pics to a reptile dermatologist to figure out why there is inflammation UNDER the skin rather than at the site.

No inflammation at the site means that it cannot possibly be from a cut, scratch, burn, etc. The question is, does the inflammation deeper down have anything to do with the issue?

Still waiting to hear results from the Reptile Dermatologist.

Will continue posting if anyone is still interested. Maybe like the post or something to give me an idea if it's worth pursuing.

Otherwise, as always... Cheers, Guys.
 
Have to say I'm still skeptical about the cause of this. The longer the search goes on the more you will overthink it. As far as scale regrowth goes, the snake won't grow new scales, but will end up with a scar. What you are seeing when you rub cream onto the site is the old surface layer of skin (the layer the snake sheds) coming off as a result of being damaged in the first place.

Jamie
 
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