Skin Infections, regurging and lumps...oh my!

Well on May 23rd we among many others recieved our ball python shipment from Alex Hue. Needless to say, it has been kinda down hill from there.

First i know these are captive hatched, and i can't expect perfect hatchlings. Do not remind me how they are captive hatched. I want to know what i can do to cure these things listed:

Skin Infections: We have about 5 of the 20 having small hard lumps protruding out of their skin. They are not puss filled, nor very moveable. We believe it's a skin infection and really can't link it to anything else. They are totally clean of external parasites. How can we get rid of this? We have been taking the water dish out and only putting it in twice a week, to lower humidity. They are on newspaper, and we drilled more holes in our boxes. Any body got any other suggestions? We are willing to try

Regurging and yucky stools:

We have noticed that most of our snakes eating, regurg. This is usually linked to problems inside, and we HAVE ordered flagyl from Bean Farm. Is there any way to specially prepare this? Or just mix with water and administer? We do have a copy of one of the books, for proper dosing. They at first had bloody stools, but now they are having like diarrhea. Yuck! I am guessing this is all somewhat linked to internals and flagyl should take care of this? How many times should i treat with Flagyl? And to see if my calculations are correct, how much? The snakes weight between 30 grams and 90 grams.

Hard Lumps in stomach:

We have also noticed on 4 of our snakes, that there is a hard lump in their stomach. It feels like a mouse skull, but thing is these are one snakes that haven't eaten. Any idea?


To just give a run down of our set up, each snake is housed individually in 12 quart boxes with back heat. Their hot spot is between 95-100, with cool spot around 85. They are on newspaper, with a large ceramic water dish for them to fully submerge themselves in. Nothing really fancy.

I appreciate your help guys

have you contacted a vet? they know animals pretty well, i swear, they really do. but really if you have a herp vet near you, give them a visit

i am sorry but those sounds like some seriously parasite infested animals, BIG TIME PARASITE LOAd (and possible infections)... the lumps on the skin may not be a skin infection but rather a parasite under the skin or a bacterial infection. also the same in the stomach and not just your run of the mill parasites. regurgitation sounds parasitic considering all the other neat little presents you got along with them.

i would either:
a) send them back [that quality of animal is completely uncalled for [regardless of ch or not]
or
b) put the time and money into them and take them to a vet so they can get properly tested, diagnosed and treated
or
c) keep the snakes and asked to either be reimbursed for them or for the vet bills to be paid

i do not see how alex COULD NOT have noticed the skin bumps and lumps in the stomache. and apparantly they were not feeding prior to coming to you (makes me wonder how long he even quarenteened them) it just kills me what some people will do for a buck
thats just disgusting and btw that is something that flagyl is NOT going to cure

this is truly a testiment why to buy CBB rather than CH... you buy em cheap but end up putting more into them in the end.

Originally Posted by robin s.

this is truly a testiment why to buy CBB rather than CH... you buy em cheap but end up putting more into them in the end.

You do often get what you pay for.

I agree with Robin's first post. This sounds parasitic. Flagyl may not be the only or even the best choice. A vet could help you with that but if you want to do it yourself I would use Panacur in addition to Flagyl. That combination may not hit all tapeworms and if they are still sick after that, you may need to add a course of Praziquantel.

Wow, I got my CH females from Alex also. None had lumps or skin problems. I had 4 accept F/T but 2 regurged. All of them ate live had 9 regurg (out of 24 snakes). Almost all of them have pooped, but no poop issues. I adjusted my temps to be hotter on the hot side, from 90 to 95. All of them seem alert and well hydrated.
Sorry to hear about your BPs, that does suck. You should contact Alex and see what he can do for you, see what the vet says, and keep them away from your other animals!!

Originally Posted by Jim O

You do often get what you pay for.

I agree with Robin's first post. This sounds parasitic. Flagyl may not be the only or even the best choice. A vet could help you with that but if you want to do it yourself I would use Panacur in addition to Flagyl. That combination may not hit all tapeworms and if they are still sick after that, you may need to add a course of Praziquantel.

and if it is bacterial gentamiacin or baytril depending on what kind of bacteria it is none the less lots of ching for those ermm *inexpensive* ch babies

This is real close to a BOI type thread. Please keep the BOI type posts out of it and concentrate on helping her treat the animals. If anyone else and preferably the original poster feels the need to comment on the business side of this, please take it to the BOI where it is more appropriate.

Thanks guys, we did order flagyl and it should arrive tmw, and we also have panacur.

I agree with the statements stated, but i have not gotten a responce from Alex. I think i may start a thread on the BOI.

We have read up more and found out that the skin problems can also be a parasite much like Robin said, and is very highly contagious. They are on opposite sides of the house, and cleaned and feed different days than our precious collection. If we can get half of them to become healthy balls, we believe we made out on a good deal. We knew we were going to loose some, but this is ridiculous.

I just want to get these things fixed if possible...

Any suggestions on the dosage? of Panacur or Flagyl?

Those are classic symtoms of crypto in snakes. If it were me in this situation, I would send a couple of them to the vat pathology lab for complete necropsy and diagnosis. If they test positive for crypto I would (sorry to say this) euthanize the rest.

The small, hard lumps you are describing sound like they are tick bites. When a tick bites something and then you pull the tick off, it's head is imbedded in the host animal, which makes a little bump.

Sounds like these are the crappy ones aka "poor do-ers" from some of the earlier shipments that have been around for a few months.

There is no excuse for a broker to send you crap like that. Just because a ball python is captive hatched does not mean that this is a normal occurance. We have purchased many captive hatched babies for our own collection and have never had a single problem. They have been identical to the babies that we have hatched out ourselves.

Very scary indeed if this does turn out to be crypto (which I am 99% positive it is, going by the symptoms). Crypto is highly contagious and can wipe out your entire collection quite easily and rapidly.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or if you need info on where to ship the snake(s) for a necropsy.