Name: Nibbles
Age: Female
Species: Reptile, Ball Python
Sex: Female
Nibbles is one lucky girl! Her owner found her for sale through a local reptile forum. The previous owners could no longer care for her, and clearly unable to give her the proper care she needed.
When Nibbles came into see us she had been with her new owners for only 2 days. Her entire mouth was swollen, more than double in size. Nibbles’ first owners owned her for 2 months and her face started to swell shortly after they got her. During that 2 month period she wasn’t eating either.
Upon examination she was not thin and her body was able to be palpated normally
Skin and eyes were normal. However, her mouth, especially the maxilla (upper jaw), was incredibly swollen; gingiva was inflamed and ulcerated.
Our veterinarians diagnosed her with having severe bacterial stomatitis. This condition is more commonly known as ‘Mouth Rot’ and is used to describe mouth infections in reptiles. These infections can be of bacterial, viral, fungal or parasitic origins. Other possibilities are cancer, foreign body and jaw fractures. Poor husbandry, especially incorrect cage temperatures, poor nutrition and forced feeding predisposes reptiles to mouth infections.
Nibbles was put onto an injectable antibiotic right away and was being routinely soaked every other day.
Nibbles returned to the clinic 1 month later. She had improved but was not 100% back to normal. Her appetite had picked up and she had passed some droppings. Now that Nibbles was feeling better it was becoming harder to give her the antibiotic injections and to keep in the basin to bathe her.
Because there was a significant improvement Nibbles was to continue receiving the injectable antibiotic. We are hoping to see Nibbles back in clinic to be able to radiograph her mouth to make sure there has not been any bone damaged due to swelling
Swelling had gone down significantly
