Busy day at the Vets.

[guidofatherof5]

This morning I took 4 snakes to the Vet. All had some type of lump in different locations.
My biggest concern was for my girl (Luckylookalike).
She's gone off food and developed a couple of lumps. An x-ray was taken and then the largest lump was removed from a 2 inch incision.
At this time the smaller lump wasn't removed. It may be removed at a later time depending on the results from the biopsy.





The second snake was an injured snake delivered to me last year. He had a prolapsed hemipenis. I removed the dead tissue and 6 months later he developed an infection. This area was lanced open and a pus like material was removed. My Vet. feels he'll make a full recovery. The area will be treated with a betadine solution.


I also took 2 young checkered garters that were born on the Ranch last year. One had an enlarged lymph node and the other(albino) had subcutaneous worms. The Vet. thinks they probably came from the guppies she was fed.

[gregmonsta]

Wow, a hard days work for the vet. So glad they are under your TLC . Hoping for the best for all of them.

[guidofatherof5]

Wow, a hard days work for the vet. So glad they are under your TLC . Hoping for the best for all of them.

Best of all I only had to pay $150.00. Well worth it.

The checkered are being treated with Panacur.

[gregmonsta]

It might not have been the guppies ... worms have been planning payback on garterkind for millenia ...

[Mommy2many]

Hope all of them do well and recover.

[ConcinusMan]

Yikes. Scary stuff. And even knowing that feeding of live fish can cause this, it's still common practice to do so. I have heard that with subcutaneous worms, treating with Panacur can lead to death by septicemia when the worms die inside the skin. Not sure if it's true or not.

All I know is that these snakes would have gone undiagnosed and untreated here. I don't have that kind of money to spend, if I did, it would cost twice as much as it did for you, and even then, no vet here would do it for a garter snake. Sad.

You're lucky to have access to such good treatment.

[drache]

Good day's of work Steve
I weep with envy - my fantastic vet is now two states away

[guidofatherof5]

Everyone did well overnight. Applied some more betadine this morning.
They will spend a few days in a container before returning to their homes.
The young Checkereds are probably doing the best and may be returned a little earlier.
My biggest concern is for Lookalike.
Hoping and praying her biopsy is good news.

[Enneirda.]

You got a great vet there! We got charged twice that for sewing up a cut on our dog (barbed wire+dog+rabbit= not good) I don't even want to think about what that would cost down here. Glad the surgeries went well, and I hope everything works out for Lookalike!

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, I don't think that Steve could have chosen a better place to have a garter snake ranch. You just can't beat having a vet nearby that knows his stuff when it comes to reptiles AND treats wild garters for so little money.

Most of us are stuck with paying so much more. I mean, that's surgery there. There's no way any vet around here would have made the incision and removed that lump for less than $300 and that's just the surgery. Doesn't even begin to cover the total costs. That's if they would even do it for wild garter snake, which they won't.