Skin/Health conditions & treatment

[Spankenstyne]

I figured I would log a sort of visual ongoing treatment of one of my Albino Checkereds. There doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there with pictures & follow-up on some potential health issues with garters, so this might be helpful for some.

A quick background is that this is one of my adult breeder female Albino Checkereds. Over the last while she has had a couple of strange lumps appear along her body, a couple near the neck area and a couple down near the vent. They looked to me like what has been described as possibly: a metabolic issue, a thyroid issue, skin infection, cysts, or even possibly like encapsulated nematodes. The last one being least likely due to the care & conditions it's kept in, but I still wasn't ruling it out completely more recently.
The lumps are soft to the touch and beneath the skin without any harder portions or any feel of anything solid inside. They originally appeared last year and then seemed to have disappeared, but then came back more recently and weren't going away.

A couple of minor skin issues also ocurred recently which I was treating & had been healing and appearing to get better. (The cause being a spilled water dish while I was out of town on business that got missed until i got back.)
Within the last week though it progressed quickly with some scabbing at the side of the vent, and a few places of red raised skin beneath scales. Then yesterday to having a large area under her chin of swollen skin & disfigured scales.

I took her to the Vet yesterday to have her looked at.
Unfortunately the Vet wasn't going to be in until today so we made an appointment for this am, which I was fine with since it wasn't appearing to be anything that couldn't wait a few more hours. I was willing to wait as she's a very experienced exotics/reptile specialist.

This morning when I pulled her out of her enclosure she had gotten even worse, the chin area had fresh blood on it & a couple of places along her body also had gotten worse.

The Vet examination went well, her vitals appeared very strong, her body/muscle tone was great, and behaviour-wise she has throughout this not changed at all from her normal docile but curiously active self (510g on an empty stomach, she's a big girl).
At first examination the Vet felt the lumps were very unlikely to be anything parasitic & that they felt to be likely just fluid but she would open up the lump near the vent to check, she'd prefer to leave the ones near the head unless necessary. I left her with the snake to do her thing as she was tight on time this morning and would have to do it after lunch.

I came back a few hours later and she confirmed that it was only fluids & we would begin to treat what seems to be an infection along with the surface skin issues with antibiotic injections. The surface issues she wasn't too concerned with & felt they should likely clear up quickly with treatment, she's seen far worse.
We also began a round of deworming just in case to eliminate that possibility.

As it is now she's in her bare-bones hospital tank at home while we treat her & in two weeks the Vet wants me to come back for a follow up. If we aren't seeing progress then we'll start looking at bloodwork & other tests, but she felt they weren't warranted at this time and would be an unnecessary expense at this stage.

The current treatment regime is as follows:

-Daily 20 min soak in a Betadine solution (diluted to a light tea colour)
-Every 3rd day I give an injection of Fortaz (.1ml)
-In two weeks I administer the second round of deworming meds (Metronidazole Suspenion 100mg/ml the dose is .5ml, same with the 10% Panacur Suspension .5ml)

I'll post some pics below for visual reference.

[Spankenstyne]

You can see the lumps here, one on her right side at the top of the pic and the other on her left side almost at the base of her jaw.


The staples where she had the lump near her vent opened up

[Spankenstyne]

Underside view of the chin


Side view of the same where you can see the swelling

[Spankenstyne]

One of the worst areas on the body. A couple of others have small red raised skin under a scale. These I expect to be gone/healed next shed. I had her bent around my hand to see between the scales for a better view


The scabbed area on the other side of the vent from the staples

[guidofatherof5]

Very in-depth post, thanks.
She's a big girl.
How old is she?
Looks like she's in very capable hands.
Hope all turns out OK for her.

[infernalis]

Looks like she's in very capable hands.
Hope all turns out OK for her.

^^^^^^ditto^^^^^^^^

[Spankenstyne]

Thanks guys. Hopefully this turns out as hoped so it'll help alleviate some concerns people might have with similar situations.
On a side note I might be looking too hard but this girl looks hypo/pastel albino to me. The crazy head pattern & reduced labial scale markings at least have me wondering.

[ConcinusMan]

Poor girl. I'm sure she'll be fine now. Sounds like you have an excellent reptile vet. The treatment sounds right on-par.

The 5th picture looks like a very typical case of scale rot which, like your vet said, is just surface issues and not really a big deal. Usually stops progressing with a little topical antiseptic and correcting the conditions.(keeping the enclosure clean and dry) Unfortunately, the damaged scales remain for life.

I'm with Steve on this one. Wondering how old she is. Of course we don't know how long the conditions were wet/dirty either. It just seems to be a really bad case of blister disease which would normally only get that bad if conditions were too wet/dirty (and when I say dirty I mean on a microscopic level) for an extended period of time but again there's the age factor. I learned first-hand that an older snake (like people) is more vulnerable to their immune system getting overwhelmed quickly and needing a little help when something like this happens.

My big bertha (very old concinnus girl) got a bacterial respiratory infection seemingly out of the blue. Conditions were fine, at least visually. No other snakes that were in with her, got ill and the entire collection is well. I talked to a vet who bought some snakes from me last year. He said that in spite of good husbandry, there are certain times in a snake's life (such as an old girl getting gravid) when they are vulnerable and it only takes a short time and BAM! they're infected and from that point on, they can't get rid of the problem without some support.

Baytril saved Big Bertha's life.(Thanks to Steve for helping when I couldn't) She just needed help getting over that hill to beat the infection.

I'm sure your girl will be fine too and I'm not just blowing smoke. This isn't a case where in the past I would have said "she'll probably die". Now that she has the right treatment, "she'll likely live" is my answer. She just got a little overwhelmed and needs a little help to get well again. She's going to be fine.

Now, never go on vacation again.

Just kidding.

[Spankenstyne]

Yeah she seems to be getting better. I'll post pics after the weekend of the progress so far.

The scale rot I'm familiar with & was treating it as such, the large lumps under the skin were what was giving me concern. Then when the scale rot seemed to ramp up into something else altogether and not respond to my usual treatments along with the mystery lumps not going away, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and see the vet.
It seems like whatever the infection is beneath the skin along with the scale rot were compounding things and taxing her immune system to the point that everything was getting worse. Even with the topical antibiotic & antiseptic treatments I was doing that normally work she suddenly was getting worse & she needed that extra boost of antibiotic injections. At least it seems that way to this point.

Hah I wish it was vacation, I was away for work .

This girl is only about 3 (I thought she was 4 until I re-checked my records)

[ConcinusMan]

Then when the scale rot seemed to ramp up into something else altogether and not respond to my usual treatments along with the mystery lumps not going away, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and see the vet.

You figured right.

This girl is only about 3 (I thought she was 4 until I re-checked my records)

Well then she's got quite a few more years left. I'm sure she's strong and young enough and will bounce back just fine.

I will be very blunt however, with my following statement...

She looks like she's been overfed much of her life and IMO this can contribute to immune deficiencies and shortened life span. Especially when there is an overabundance of fat deposits under that skin for the infection to take hold. I'm no vet mind you, but after she gets better, she could probably stand to lose some of that fat.