growth around mouth

[Spacehawk]

This is a western black neck garter. He has developed this growth on his face. Has anyone ever seen anything like this?photo-2.jpg

[Tommytradix]

looks like mouth rot. have you noticed any labored breathing?

[Albert Clark]

Hi, sorry to see the condition of the western. Welcome to the forum and how long has he or she had the condition? What type of enclosure is he housed in and is he w/c or captive born and bred? Is he housed with other reptiles or in a enclosure by himself? Has he sustained any kind of trauma? What is he eating? Live or frozen thawed?

[Albert Clark]

Hi, sorry to see the condition of the western. Welcome to the forum and how long has he or she had the condition? What type of enclosure is he housed in and is he w/c or captive born and bred? Is he housed with other reptiles or in a enclosure by himself? Has he sustained any kind of trauma? What is he eating? Live or frozen thawed? It's hard to tell what it is. It could be what Tommy thinks and it could also be alot of different other possibilities that's why we need more of a history to make a connection with what it may be. How old is this garter?

[d_virginiana]

My gut feeling is that this is an infection caused by some sort of trauma. If you're checking on your snakes regularly I think you'd notice mouth rot before it got to this stage; it kind of takes awhile to get revved up. I've also seen things that look similar to this that can be caused by tumors, but that's not that common.

Answering the questions Albert asked will help us better assess the situation. Also, is he still able to eat? That's an important one.

In the meantime though, if he's not housed by himself, you need to separate him out. Extra snakes around could stress him when he's already not feeling well, and you don't want anyone else to catch it if it's contagious.
To help treat is (because it definitely looks infected to me) you can dilute betadine or chlorhexidine (brand name Hibiclens) in water and use a Q-tip to swab the affected area. You can find both at CVS. Hibiclens is more mild than betadine, but when I've dealt with mouth infections I usually start with the betadine, then once the infection starts to clear up switch to the Hibiclens. You can swab up to twice a day (I usually recommend once, but this looks more intense than a lot of mouth issues I've seen).

[Albert Clark]

Yes, what Lora says and some is true. Certainly could be caused by trauma. Could also be abcess.

[Albert Clark]

Sorry about the double post folks. Idk what happened there.

[guidofatherof5]

Looks like an infection that can be common due to a bite from another snake or a splinter from substrate. Looks like there is also some retained shed on the lower jaw area. Hibiclens works very well. In the past I have taken my snakes to the Vet. for this situation. The Vet. takes a sterile needle and pokes the area to get the blood flowing. Then treatments with the Hibiclens(50/50 mix with water) After watching this procedure my Vet. told me to do it at home if I was comfortable with it. I've also seen this happen because of retained sheds on the lips. I would first make sure all the retained shed is removed.

[d_virginiana]

Steve walked me through how to do this procedure when I had a very small baby that got an infection from injuring himself biting the silicone on the side of his tank. Within two days the infection had cleared up almost completely. I will say it's incredibly nerve-wracking though.

[guidofatherof5]

I remember that situation. You did well.