Septicemia in snakes

Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Varanoidea

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
452
Reaction score
2
Location
NSW
As many are aware I reacquired my olive that I got when I was 9 about four months from a guy with a collection I sold him to a few years ago. What I haven't mentioned is that the enclosure was horrendous with urate and faeces everywhere. One of the ceramics that we gave away with the enclosure wasn't working for god knows how long. Cleaned it up as much as I could and got a new globe so he has proper temps until his new one I'm building is complete. Today I was letting him slide through my hands when I felt about 10 lumps on his belly. Not blisters, just raised scales in a hump. Do you think he may have an onset of septicemia from these conditions ? Got him booked into sugarloaf vet tomorrow morning. He seems fine otherwise except he had a bad shed this week.

Just looking for any advice if anyone has any experience with this? Could it be life threatening? No experience with this. Can't provide any pics right now.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Septicaemia is when bacteria are living in the blood stream. Septicaemia implies very serious illness.I'm not sure why you think this is the case. I'm not saying that it couldn't have septicaemia, but it may just be localised infections ( likely abscesses) or non infectious causes of lumps.

A vet can hopefully make it all better. Good luck, keep us posted.
 
Hard to say without seeing it. Hard lumps on underbelly can be a few things. Could be patches of retained scales, abscesses or cysts, or other grows. Given the history if the snake has been in poor hygienic environment and with insufficeint heat it could very well be bacterial and or dermatological related. Does their appear to be any hemorrhaging of the scales? Blister disease(bacterial dermatitis) is quite common with snakes in poor conditions and olives in particular can be quite sensitive to it. Sugar loaf will shed some light on it when they check it out.
 
No patches of blood/discolouration. Don't think it is retained scales as I thoroughly checked his belly and his shed. Feel awful for selling him those years ago. Hopefully it isn't anything awful so I can get him back on track.
 
Dont feel too bad, weve all been there. Hard to forsee the future as to whether a future owner will take the proper care of an animal we hand over to them, you can only really put trust into it, sadly theere are a few bad eggs out there. Last year I took on an olive python that urgently needed re-homeing. When i picked it up it was near dead. Hadnt been on heat, encl was filthy had retained old slough and severe blister disease with septic infection.
was the worst case of it that id ever seen, and i had seen snakes die in much better condition than what she was in. Went heavy handed on treatment, antibiotics, topical treatments, wound treatments, etc. 6 months later she was completley healed. Had some pretty bad scaring alone parts of her body but apart from that all good. Olives are one of those snakes that when there environmentals are good they are more or less bulletproof, but kept at too low temps and poor husbandry they go down quick and are very sensitive to resp and dermatalogical conditions. Its a good thing you got him back. Im sure youll get him back on track, hopefully sugarloafs diagnosis and prognosis is all good.
 
Just returned from the vet trip. The diagnosis: he's fat. Ha. Always knew he was a little bit on the porky side but this is quite serious. Mark said the lumps are most likely pockets of fat that are being displaced and pushed to the skin as they disappear under pressure or when my olive is using his muscles. He weighs in at 11kg and he said he should be around 7-8kg. He is currently in an enclosure way too small for him which is probably why he isn't toning up as well as he should. My new enclosure will help as it is much larger. Changing his feeding plan from one large rabbit every month to a small rat every 2-3 weeks to keep his metabolism running without adding in so many calories.
 
Just returned from the vet trip. The diagnosis: he's fat. Ha. Always knew he was a little bit on the porky side but this is quite serious. Mark said the lumps are most likely pockets of fat that are being displaced and pushed to the skin as they disappear under pressure or when my olive is using his muscles. He weighs in at 11kg and he said he should be around 7-8kg. He is currently in an enclosure way too small for him which is probably why he isn't toning up as well as he should. My new enclosure will help as it is much larger. Changing his feeding plan from one large rabbit every month to a small rat every 2-3 weeks to keep his metabolism running without adding in so many calories.


Maybe have a look at going to quail? Much lower fat content than rats.
 
That's a good idea mate, thanks. Never fed him quail but being an olive I'm sure he won't hesitate.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top