Vet treatment for hots? (Question for Joe)

[Carinata]

Joe,
When one of your snakes (hots) gets ill and needs vet treatment how do you go about that? Are there vets that deal with hots or are you on your own?

[FLVenom]

Good question. There's a local vet here in South Florida who does treat venomous snakes. Myself, along with other herpers here in my area, are pretty well versed in basic vet treatment as there are a number of great books to go buy. I stock at all times Panacur, Flagyl, Baytril, etc so I myself can diagnose small issues. I do remember when my male Dendroaspis polylepis was extremely sick with a protozoan infection and needed vet care. I walked into the office and the nurse at the front asked what kind of animal I'm bringing. I said "it's a Black Mamba". She laughed and said "No seriously, funny joke but what do you have. A Corn snake"? I then held up the my transport box which has DANGER VENOMOUS REPTILES written on the outside of it and I was quickly escorted to the back to see Dr. John. She looked very pale and nervous walking along side of me.

	Corn Snake The Corn Snake or Red Rat Snake (Elaphe guttata) is a species of Rat Snake.

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[Carinata]

LOL Joe! I mean I always see Al with his medical stuff. Like say a Naja sp had mouth rot. How would a vet treat something like that? (I hope that doesn't sound dumb)

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[FLVenom]

In addition, I've treated pretty extensive mouth infections with Dendroaspis jamesoni kaimosae as they're pretty prone on getting those when they come in. The fang sheath get's swollen with puss and it usually spreads all over.

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[Carinata]

I also heard D. j. kaimosae tend to have little holes under on thier chin where venom gets in. Can those lead to more infections or does the scar tissue act as like a barrier?

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[FLVenom]

Originally Posted by Carinata

I also heard D. j. kaimosae tend to have little holes under on thier chin where venom gets in. Can those lead to more infections or does the scar tissue act as like a barrier?

Those little holes are from where the fang poke down. But the infections don't start there, they usually form up near the sheath. Some also say as it's because their fangs are evolving larger. All my Dendroaspis have it as well as the Oxyuranus scutellatus canni.

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[ViperLover]

Originally Posted by FLVenom

Thuse-a leettle-a hules ere-a frum vhere-a zee fung puke-a doon, Bork Bork Bork! Boot zee inffecteeuns dun't stert zeere-a, zeey usooelly furm up neer zee sheet. Sume-a elsu sey es it's becoose-a zeeur fungs ere-a ifulfeeng lerger. Ell my Dendruespees hefe-a it es vell es zee Ooxyoorunoos scootelletoos cunnee.

Su, Jue-a - Dues zee hules hefe-a a Bleck inner? Is thees frum necrusees frum zee fenum?