Dingleberry

[Stefan-A]

I noticed while taking a picture that my male has a weird problem I hadn't come across anywhere before: Feces get stuck to the scales around the cloaka. I know it's going to cause, or might already have caused an infection in that area. Once the poo dries it becomes really hard and won't come off with water.

It looks nastier in the picture below, than in reality, but it's still bad. The big whitish chunk came off almost by itself seconds later.




The snake is active and has been eating fine. The only cause that comes to mind, is a partial impaction or complications from a failed shed, but it hasn't even had a partially failed shed since winter, when the humidity occasionally dropped below 30%.

Couldn't get a hold of a vet that could treat reptiles anywhere near here, but I'm going to call one some 60km away that specializes in them first thing on Monday morning. Yeah, I knew something was going to happen to my snakes. Everything was going too smoothly.

[Lulu Bennett]

that does look very nasty!! i am very interested to find out what is actually wrong and what the cause is. im sure it will be fine and he/she will be fine but i am sending you my love not that it will do much good....

[adamanteus]

I've seen that before Stefan, if you give him a thorough soak and a bath, then raise the humidity a little it may clear itself up.

[Stefan-A]

Any idea what the cause might be?

[adamanteus]

Any idea what the cause might be?

Strangely, dehydration would be the first suspect.

[Stefan-A]

Any possible reasons for dehydration that I should be looking out for?

[adamanteus]

Any possible reasons for dehydration that I should be looking out for?

It's a weird one, isn't it? When I've seen this before it's always been in wild-caught or poorly cared for snakes, which is obviously not the case here. Does he use the water bowl much? I dare say there are other causes than dehydration that I've never encountered.

[Stefan-A]

No, he just drinks from it, as does the female. Neither of my snakes swim or spend time in the water.

[adamanteus]

You could try just raising the humidity a little once you have him cleaned up. It doesn't look like impaction to me, it's uric crystals, isn't it?

[Stefan-A]

That's what it looks like, yes.

Coincidentally, I did give him a bath to see if more of it would come off before I started this thread. I also wiped off the area with diluted betadine, don't know if it was necessary or the right thing to do.