Vent Abbrasion.

[KephrenJorgensen]

I recently caught a female ordinoides who is unscathed save one problem: she has a scab across her vent. It looks as if something coincedentally bit/scratched her vent or like someone cut it perpendicular with a dull knife. A very similar scar to what you would see across someone's eye in a movie. My only thoughts on what it could be are either a retained sperm plug that was ripped off via shed or general discomfort, or a lucky bite by a predator. I will post pictures when I get the chance. Has anyone dealt with something like this before? My plan right now is to monitor her and see how it effects her excretion. Her temperament is just fine, and she looks nice a fat. Either really healthy or I'm getting another litter this summer. I'm going to introduce her to my male that has been in quarantine for a month and see if they have any chemistry, as these will be the test pilots for my breeding project in the future.

PS. Provided I keep close watch, the tentative introduction of one snake(female) to another(male) -while one(male) has not completed its quarantine and the other is just beginning- would not warrant for an extended quarantine of the snake who has already been in quarantine for 30+ days if no fecal matter is ingested on either snakes behalf, correct? I'm just assuming that the most likely transfer of infection or parasites comes from ingestion. I don't think snakes can pass on any airborne viruses or anything like that, atleast to eachother, or around here anyhow. The introduction as I mentioned before is to try and spark a breeding. I will refrain from doing anything until I get some feedback.

[guidofatherof5]

You're going to put together two snakes, one that hasn't cleared quarantine and one that has a problem and no quarantine time yet. Or did I read this wrong?
I don't see this as a benefit to either snake.
Just my opinion.

[KephrenJorgensen]

I'm not going to do anything right now, aside from whatever I can to help this female heal her wound. I can definitely do introductions further down the road, I just figured I'd ask. As I think about it more now, I don't need another litter of scrubs this year, as much as I'd love one. I wouldn't even have the space for them. For now I'll just continue with quarantine and begin the quarantine of my new additions. On my hike the other day I found several pickeringii, and the majority of them were severely wounded or infected with something. The healthy ones were maybe 1 in every 10. A few of them were in shed, and some of them were showing red on the cheeks, and their heads appeared to be brown, but could be red when they shed. I've never seen pickeringii with such prominent red, so I kept the largest male I've ever seen (well over 24"), who is completely healthy looking, and has this brown head.