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ETB baby with broken jaw?

creepycrawly

creepycrawly

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Has anybody ever had their snake actually break their jaw? I have a young ETB who has been accepting his prey wonderfully, but eventually he just dropps them on the floor of his cage. I believe he his hungry, and today after he dropped his fuzzy on the floor of the cage I noticed his jaw looked "funny". At first I thought it was just misaligned, and that he would right it, but it doesn't look as if he is going to. I picked him up and held his head, and tried to manipulate it gently with my fingers, but it wouldn't even budge for me a little bit. I have seen it bent upwards like this before, but never quite to this degree. At this point his bottom left lip is actually bent up inside his top teeth.

I don't know what the options really are. He is a great little snake, and I love him, but I don't know what I can do for him, or even if there really is a problem. I figure I'll let it sit for a few days, to see if he'll right it himself (which I don't think he'll be able to do). If he doesn't right it, I will make an appointment with a herp vet, and see what they say, but really what is there that they can do, other than try to align it (if it really is even broken)? And if it is broken, what can they do, and what would the long lasting effects be? If it is a break, the fact that it is his jaw makes me doubt that they would try to cast it, although I suppose they could try to splint it? Would they do surgery on such a tiny snake to try to pin it or something? Has anybody else had this problem before? I don't even know how this would've happened, as he's been on frozen thawed for quite a while now.

If anybody has ever had any experience with anything like this, please post... I'm pretty worried about my little one...
 
A picture would help a lot. The snake's mandible (lower jaw) is two pieces, and they can and do function separately. Usually after a meal they re-align them. If they persist in being misaligned then a visit to a herp vet for some X-rays would be in order.
 
You say he has been accepting food, but dropping it...how long has it been since he has actually eaten? What are you using for substrate? Is there any swelling? If it was me, I would take a look inside its mouth...I know you are worried that it might be broken, but one of the first things the vet is going to do is open its mouth and have a look. you can run your finger along the bone to see if you feel any abnormality beforehand (but if you haven't done this before, you won't know "normal"). There could be something irritating the inside of his mouth (foreign particle, broken tooth, abcess, etc). It could just be that he doesn't know he looks silly with his lip like that, lol. Seriously, I have an ATB that gets himself misaligned and stays that way until I get him to strike at me. I also have several that drop their prey all the time...they finally eat it after the 3rd-4th time I give it to them (feeding time is such a joy...reminds me of the little kid throwing his bottle).
 
I'm working on getting pictures up, I need to resize them though, or upload them somewhere else.

It isn't one whole side of his jaw, but rather just the front 1/4" or so of the right side of his jaw (from his perspective), and it's not really skewed horizontally, but rather turned up vertically. I have opened his mouth, and taken a good look inside, but I don't see anything foreign stuck in there, at all. I have him on large chunks of bark, probably three times the size of his head.

The last time he actually ate was about 3 weeks ago, and I've been trying to get him to retake the food, or even offering brand new food second and third times, but he won't even strike at it after that first time. He just turns around and goes to another branch, and when I show it to him over there and wiggle it for him, he just goes somewhere else. I tried to feel to see if the part that is bent has bone in it, but I really can't tell. It looks like half of his bottom jaw (just the right half) ran into a brick wall really really hard, and got smushed up. That side of his lower lip is actually up inside his mouth, inside his teeth. It's not bent down, showing his gum, it's bent up... very odd to see.

I am guessing that the reason he won't re-take the prey is that it's hurting his jaw - but that's just a guess. He takes it initially, because he is hungry, then drops it because it hurts his jaw to try to swallow it? He was eating wonderfully for me just before he started dropping his food and leaving it, as he has also played the game with me where he'll drop it, and I'll pick it up and rinse it off in nice warm water, and offer it again, and he'll grab it up, and drop it... but this time he won't entertain me trying to offer it again.

If I could get him to strike at ANYTHING (including me) to see if that would realign it (which I don't think it would) I would, but he won't strike at me, won't strike at prey items...
 
Jenni,

Here are your pics.
 

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just to be clear - you've opened his mouth, and it returned to that position when it closed? hmmm
 
Yes. His mouth had been staying in that position, however it is very hard to get a picture of, seeing as how his lip was actually tucked up into his upper jaw. As of a few days ago his jaw looks like it has gotten realigned. My cable modem hasn't been working at all for the last two weeks or so. I figure I'm going to give him a little while longer before I try feeding again...
 
Update...

He seems to be doing just fine. For the last two weeks he has eaten for me without any sort of problems. He hasn't dropped his food, and I haven't even had to offer it to him more than once. I kept him quiet and didn't offer food for two weeks after it got realigned, in case there was some healing that needed to occur. Thanks very much for all of the help!
 
Thanks for the update. Happy to hear he is doing well. (nice to get good news for a change)
 
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