Shed in mouth (and how exactly do you open a small snake's mouth?)

[chris-uk]

I learned something new about checking sheds today. I'm not sure if it's a freaky chance incident or something relatively common.

Nobby (female Red-sided, couple of years old, bought as a "Northern" so we don't have any idea how old she is) shed this morning. She managed to make a bit of a hash of the head end but it looked like the shed was all in two pieces.

This afternoon I noticed she was slithering around so stopped to watch her for a bit, and noticed she yawned a couple of times, and her mouth wasn't fully closed. "Bugger. Mouth infection?" were my first thoughts. I took her out and had a look and her mouth definitely wasn't closing fully on the left-hand side and she was dribbling some fluid out of her mouth.
She wasn't being very cooperative, but eventually I managed to get her mouth open a bit (I was using my finger nail to catch her lower jaw) and at first thought it was a lot of white mucous. "Bugger. Trip to vet."
She then cooperated a little more and opened her mouth wider and it was clear that I was looking at a bit of shed skin that was stuck between her upper jaw and her cheek. I changed the mouth opening technique (remembered someone mentioned a credit card method to get a snake to release a bite, so I used a bit of cardboard inserted into her mouth and then used to press her lower jaw down) which enabled me to open her mouth wide enough that I could get the shed with a pair of tweasers.

The piece of shed was three facial scales, one quite large and two smaller (it looks to me like the first of the large infralabials and two of the smaller infralabials forward of it). It also looks like she may have retained her rostral scale, she's quite stressed so I'll take a look at it properly tomorrow. Also worth pointing out how great her temperament is though, because through all my prodding and opening her mouth she didn't musk or bite.

I need to keep an eye on her to check that I've not damaged her, there were a couple of specks of red (blood, but not flowing blood) in her mouth that were either me removing the shed or her working on the plants or woody bits in the viv to try to dislodge the shed from her mouth herself. I'll keep a watch on her and if she shows signs that her mouth may be infected I'll get across to the vet with her.

So, I don't post things like this without some questions...

1. How often have people come across this "shed in the mouth" situation?
2. What are the best ways to open their mouths? Bearing in that Nobby has a relatively small mouth.

[guidofatherof5]

Do I understand the scales were in her mouth or were they still attached to the new scales?

[chris-uk]

Do I understand the scales were in her mouth or were they still attached to the new scales?

The scales were "loose" in her mouth, as if she'd swallowed a small section of shed and it had got stuck in her mouth.

[guidofatherof5]

The scales were "loose" in her mouth, as if she'd swallowed a small section of shed and it had got stuck in her mouth.

Sounds like that is what happened.

I've used the credit card method. It works very well.

So after it was removed the mouth sealed properly?

[chris-uk]

So after it was removed the mouth sealed properly?

Yep, the mouth seemed to be sealed properly. I'm going to have another look at her in an hour or so, that's given her some time to relax before I put her under the magnifier again.

[d_virginiana]

I usually put my thumb on the bottom of the head and another finger on the top. Then I gently move the lower jaw to the left or right (not too much... mostly just the lips are moving I think) and since that only takes one hand, I use the other and a wet Q-tip to clean out the mouth. Of course, I've only ever done that with mouth infections, and they're usually on the edges. Don't know how well that would work for something stuck in the middle of the mouth or something.