JessJohnson87
New member
I have seen yet another trend with mouth infections. Most causes are simple bacterial but most believe that their animal has the dreaded mouth rot. From my experience, many years ago, mouth rot is the most advanced case of any mouth infection. It is a pain to heal and takes lots of patience, medication and time to treat. This does not include the rehabilitation from the animal not eating because it can't.
The case of the Colombian Red Tail Boa with mouth rot....
Some years ago, probably 10 or so now, my mom and I had a massive collection of herps between the two of us. We got a call from our reptile vet about an red tail with ulcerative stomatitis (mouth rot). We honestly had no clue what in the hell this disease was, so we were like screw it lets do this. We went to the vets office to pick up this underweight and very weak boa, brought it home to measure and figure out which tank would be suitable. It measure at about 7ft and could barely squeeze me when I would breath. We had to tube feed with chicken or turkey baby food, give antibiotic injections every 3 days and go in for weekly check ups with the vet. All of this was paid for by the owner who surrendered the snake to the vet because he left a live rat in the cage with the snake to chew on it because the snake did not want to eat it. After months of antibiotics, washing the mouth with watered down betadine, tube feedings and tons of stress on the snake.....it finally was able to eat on it's own. Within 6 months or more, we completely rehabilitated this red tail to where it was healthy to thrive on it's own. The mouth was slightly deformed but it gained back all it's strength and went on to live with someone else.
Most want to jump to the conclusion that their animal has mouth rot, usually this is not the case since mouth rot is a secondary infection caused by something else, IE a bite from a prey item that turned infectious or a wound that was caused by decor that turned infectious.
Here is some reading material on mouth infections and oral care, one is on stomatitis:
http://www.centralfloridaherpsociety.org/Infectious_Stomatitis_Care_Card.pdf
Oral Care for Your Reptile - Preventing & Treating Oral Reptile Infections | Hartz
Identify and Treat Mouth, Shell and Scale Rot in Reptiles
Also a picture:
If you feel that your animal may have an infection of the mouth, take them to a vet. They will need to be started on a regime of antibiotics before the infection gets out of hand.
The case of the Colombian Red Tail Boa with mouth rot....
Some years ago, probably 10 or so now, my mom and I had a massive collection of herps between the two of us. We got a call from our reptile vet about an red tail with ulcerative stomatitis (mouth rot). We honestly had no clue what in the hell this disease was, so we were like screw it lets do this. We went to the vets office to pick up this underweight and very weak boa, brought it home to measure and figure out which tank would be suitable. It measure at about 7ft and could barely squeeze me when I would breath. We had to tube feed with chicken or turkey baby food, give antibiotic injections every 3 days and go in for weekly check ups with the vet. All of this was paid for by the owner who surrendered the snake to the vet because he left a live rat in the cage with the snake to chew on it because the snake did not want to eat it. After months of antibiotics, washing the mouth with watered down betadine, tube feedings and tons of stress on the snake.....it finally was able to eat on it's own. Within 6 months or more, we completely rehabilitated this red tail to where it was healthy to thrive on it's own. The mouth was slightly deformed but it gained back all it's strength and went on to live with someone else.
Most want to jump to the conclusion that their animal has mouth rot, usually this is not the case since mouth rot is a secondary infection caused by something else, IE a bite from a prey item that turned infectious or a wound that was caused by decor that turned infectious.
Here is some reading material on mouth infections and oral care, one is on stomatitis:
http://www.centralfloridaherpsociety.org/Infectious_Stomatitis_Care_Card.pdf
Oral Care for Your Reptile - Preventing & Treating Oral Reptile Infections | Hartz
Identify and Treat Mouth, Shell and Scale Rot in Reptiles
Also a picture:
If you feel that your animal may have an infection of the mouth, take them to a vet. They will need to be started on a regime of antibiotics before the infection gets out of hand.