Snake Disease – signs, symptoms & treatment

Snake Disease – signs, symptoms & treatment – By Della Golding

The information I have cited below, considers some of the most common snake ailments you are likely to encounter. Being able to identify symptoms means that you can implement some of the treatments I have suggested. However, I strongly recommend that if you suspect that your snake is sick then please take it immediately to an experienced veterinarian.

Respiratory Infections

Symptoms:
Wheezing, sneezing or excessive mucus in the snake’s mouth, would be indicative of a respiratory infection.

Treatment:
Firstly, check to see that its nostrils are not blocked from poor shedding; if this is the case, I cover this problem in the ‘Snake Skin’ section in my DVD ‘A Guide to Keeping Snakes’.

Usually reparatory infections can be fixed by moving the snake to a warm and well ventilated enclosure. Consult your vet if the problem persists.

Bacteria infections

Pseudomonas bacterium is commonly present in small numbers within most snakes, however under certain conditions, such as stress, they can multiply to cause problems such as mouth rot, skin ulcerations and intestinal infection.

Mouth rot

Symptoms:
Cheesy discharge from the snake’s mouth.

Treatment:
Mouth rot can be treated by first irrigating the area with a solution of 25% sulphamethazine. Gently flush the area with a syringe taking care not to sqwert the solution down the snake’s mouth. I have also found a great ‘unconventional’ method of cleaning the area is by using a small tampon as the cotton is compact and bigger than a cotton tip.

Skin ulcers

Symptoms:
Rraised ‘blisters’, open wounds, red weeping sores between scales.

Treatment:
Can be dabbed with an Iodophor based cream.

I have found two probable causes of skin ulcers:

1. Over humid and dirty enclosures.

2. An allergic reaction to food, especially mass produced rats. The reaction is from the highly fattening food the rats are fed. If this happens change your supplier to ‘slow growing’ food.

Intestinal infection

Symptoms:
Wet, greenish faeces, White, slimy stools, with more than normal fluid (as the posterior lining of the digestive track is attacked)

Treatment:
Consult your vet for Administered antibiotic.

Tip: It should be common practice to regularly check your snake’s faeces as this is a good indication of your snake’s health. If, for example, you notice wet greenish faeces the levels of salmonella are too high and antibiotics will be needed. Be very careful as this is transferable to humans.
White, slimy stools with more than normal fluid is a gastric problem and your vet will prescribe the appropriate Dazole-based drug.

Inclusion Body Disease – IBD

Symptoms:
Shaking, regurgitation of food, then the snake may exhibit ‘star gazing’, which is where it points it head up for no reason and shortly after the front half of the body goes limp.

Treatment:
Incurable. It’s the most common in Boa’s and Burmese pythons however it is very contagious and should you have a case of this fatal disease all furnishings, including the enclosure is best to be destroyed, unfortunately that means the snake will have to be euthanized as well.

Other problems

Snake isn’t growing

If you feel your snake isn’t growing as you would expect it could have worms. Take a stool sample to your vet to be examined.

Snake mites – (ophionyssus nartricis)

The most common and annoying problem of them all and are not easy to completely eliminate.

Symptoms:
Snake will become irritated, spend a lot of time in its water bowl and the skin will appear dusted. The other sign is black mite droppings scattering the cage. I find the warmer the climate you live in the more common this problem is.

Treatment –

Spray method – purchased from a reptile shop. A good brand is Callington – Reptile Enclosure Insecticide. Follow the instructions on the can.

Pest strip method – The easiest treatment is to use pesticide strips however they are increasingly hard to get a hold of these days.
If you can find the strips place them into a small film canister container with holes punched in it.
Suspend the container in the enclosure for 2 days and repeat in a week. The strips can be very toxic so be careful how much you use and do not leave in the cage for more than 2 days. Observe your snake and use common sense.

Please be very careful if you keep invertebrates such as spiders and scorpions as this is very potent and have been known to kill even if kept in another room.

• If you live in Australia or can get products from there the most wonderfully effective and non toxic treatment for snake mites is a natural human head lice product called ‘Orange Medic’ and can be safely used on snakes and in their enclosures. I used it for years and it is by far the most effective treatment I have encountered so far. It is unfortunate that you can only buy it in Oz.