How do you treat mouthrot?

#1 (**permalink**) 05-04-2002, 09:09 AM

Have any of you ever successfuly treated mouthrot by just using antibiotics and not manually cleaning out the mouth of a snake at all ? I've always cleaned the mouth manually myself when dealing with such, BUT I just spoke with a woman whose vet gave the snake antibiotics and cleaned the mouth of the snake while in the office visit....Then sent her on her way with the remainder of the dosage of anti's and no further instruction to clean the snake's mouth out. Now the snake has got a major infection going in it's mouth compared to what it did have and also has a hard time breathing. What's your thoughts on that ?
[addsig]

JuliusSqueezer · #2 (**permalink**) 05-04-2002, 11:30 PM

Mothrot (Ulcerative Stomititis) is a bacterial infection that invades the gums, jaw bone, palate, and or tongue. It is a secondary infection usually resulting because of systemic infection or because of the presence of foreign matter lodged between the teeth and rotting causing bacteria to grow. Antibiotics are often used and don't hurt anything and will likely even clear up whatever other infection caused the problem to start with in many cases. You MUST scrape out the cheezy plaque build up to get rid of mouthrot and then swab with some type of antiseptic. Peroxide and Listerine work and have been used by many herpers for as long as herping has been around....but they do tend to also kill live tissue as well as bad. So...You must heavily dilute. Betadine is probably the best route....also heavily diluted to the point that it is about the color of weak tea. Novasolon is by far the best according to many...I have never used it but the stuff gets really good revues from people I trust, It is expensive and is obtained from Vets. Swab the mouth daily for about a week...usually after 3-4 swabs you will see major improvment.

Anyway Lori. Bacterial infections such as this MUST be treated with a topical type antiseptic ...antibacterial agent.

If not treated it will work down into the jaw bone and require surgery to have the jaw resectioned. It can also cause septicimia and can eventually kill the animal once the blood poisoning invades internal organs.
[addsig]

#3 (**permalink**) 05-05-2002, 12:50 AM

Oh I know that Juls.. What i was trying to find out is whether others have successfully treated such without doing the mouth cleaning bit and just using the anti's like this woman's vet told her to do. I myself apply both avenues in treatments also.
[addsig]

LdyDrgn · #4 (**permalink**) 05-05-2002, 01:08 AM

I had to do both for Princess. Her mouth was open 1/4" on the right and 1/2" on the left from swollen tissue. Topical treatments helped a bit, but the Baytril REALLY helped. The person I got the Baytril from also did the major debriding of her mouth and I did follow-up swabbings to keep it clean. I seriously doubt the Baytril alone would have been good enough, especially since she had PINE shavings stuck in her mouth for lord knows how long....grrrrr [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_evil.gif[/img]
[addsig]

JuliusSqueezer · #5 (**permalink**) 05-05-2002, 07:38 AM

I don't see how just antibiotics could work without scraping out and treating the cheesy stuff inside too....shrug
[addsig]

#6 (**permalink**) 05-05-2002, 10:01 AM

That's the whole thing.. It hasn't and the vet that saw the snake and treated it with just cleaning the mouth out on the visit and rendering the anti tx is supposedly a reptile vet that knows snakes ARGHH..

I thought maybe I was missing something somewhere and was cleaning mouths out when others may have possibly been tx'g with just the anti [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img]
Guess this is another one of those "reptile" vets that knows his stuff then [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]
[addsig]

JuliusSqueezer · #7 (**permalink**) 05-05-2002, 06:37 PM

Most of the "so called" reptile vets still probably see 1 reptile for every 8 million or so dogs and cats. Specializing in only herp medicine would only be a lucrative field if you work for a large zoo.
[addsig]

#8 (**permalink**) 05-05-2002, 09:43 PM

Yup can see that one Juls. Would be nice if they put it that way when asked if they do reptiles rather than saying "Oh yeah their my specialty" UGH...
[addsig]

eddie · #9 (**permalink**) 05-05-2002, 10:20 PM

A topical solution I use on the cleaned areas is Xenodine.
The cheeses do need to be removed when seen even if it takes several times during a bout, since they still contain infectious materials.
So far I have been lucky and had to deal with it a few times, but always kept the mouth cleaned after seeing signs of more puss.
[addsig]

Advertisement