Is this blood in the stool?

[rpguzman]

Hi all,

I've had a sick little striped keelback with a nasty case of mouth rot for the past month. I took my little snake Lily to the vet after a week of trying to treat it at home with betadine and hydrogen peroxide. On the advice of the vet, we tried one antibiotic (while waiting for a culture to verify the bacteria), switched to another antibiotic (after the bacteria was verified to be resistant to the first broad-spectrum antibiotic), and all the while staying on top of the topical treatment with a betadine solution (minus the hyogen peroxide). Today I was cleaning the viv and noticed the stool looking a little dark. I wondered if this is blood or what. I had force fed her two thawed pinkies a couple of days ago (and some pinkie parts the previous week), as she had stopped eating around the time I noticed the stomatitis a month ago. She also underwent a shed a week or so ago, and has been looking especially thin.

1. Is this blood in the stool? (See picture attached)
2. In your experiences, how long does it typically take for stomatitis to subside?

[guidofatherof5]

Welcome Romeo and Lily.

It sounds like you are getting Lily some good treatment. Nice job. I don't know what to tell you about your picture. I can say yes and no to it being blood. It sounds like you've already got a little invested in Lily. You might check with your Vet about a Fecal blood test and its cost. They do make an over the counter version but not sure it is the same as the one used for snakes. Check with your Vet about that also.
Good luck. You and Lily will be in our family prayers.

[gregmonsta]

Fingers crossed, you're doing the right things ... best go with the advice and get Lily checked for endoparasites. Keelbacks come with a load of intial problems but hopefully, with your help, she'll come up trumphs.

[rpguzman]

She was treated for endoparasite only a couple of weeks after I got here (nealy three months ago, now). Is it possible they could have come back?

[adamanteus]

I looks like blood, but of course there's no way of being sure from a photograph. Bloody stools would be indicative of another problem, other than necrotic stomatitis. Is the stool abnormally smelly? Good luck with this, but I'll be honest, I never heard of a Xenochrophis surviving more than a few months.

[gregmonsta]

She was treated for endoparasite only a couple of weeks after I got here (nealy three months ago, now). Is it possible they could have come back?

If you've already treated her for those then it should be fine, can depend on the set up at the time. Tank needs to be on a quarantine style cleaning routine with all feaces removed as soon as it's spotted to ensure that there won't be any recurrant parasitations.
Ask your vet when you next check. When I last had to worm a snake there were two courses of medication two weeks apart to clear the problem as the treatment used only dealt with the adult worms and not the eggs - so the second treatment allowed the medication to eradicate the then hatched worm larvae.
Bloddy stools can be a sign of types of hookworms.

[rpguzman]

The stool didn't seem abnormally smelly.

[adamanteus]

The stool didn't seem abnormally smelly.

Well, that's a good thing.... it rules out Entomoeba invadens, which was my first thought. As Greg says, if it is blood, it may well be hookworms.

[rpguzman]

Thanks gang,

I just called the vet and she wants me to drop off a stool sample tomorrow, which I plan to do.

[adamanteus]

Let us know the outcome, Romeo. Good luck.