snake mouth issue

[dtknow]

Has anyone seen this before.

This is the male eggeater who hasn't been eating for quite a while(I tube fed him one time about 2 weeks back per reccomendations of others keeping the sp. and he pooped afterward. Not losing body condition from what I see). I don't think this is recent or anything but I noticed it during/after the tube feeding thing because it was much easier to coax his mouth open on one side as opposed to the other. I'll have to look through my pictures and determine if this was always here or it developed sometime in between.

Heres his normal side.

And the side I am concerned about.

From above...not much difference here

And the abnormal side again.


I've looked around online-and am thinking either an injury or maybe an abscess?(gums look fine to me so I don't think it would be stomatitis plus symptoms don't quiite seem to match up) He's a pretty small snake(head the size of my ring finger and I have pretty small hands) so that I'm sure would make treatment more difficult. Anyone have any guesses or experience with similar issues?

 

[snakecollector]

Could be some teeth were broken

It looks to me like it is slightly swollen, likely from a few teeth being broken during force feeding. Also snakes tend to look a little deformed after being force fed, usually from fighting being fed. A small snake is going to show mild deformations more promenently then a large snake, making it look worse than it is.

As long as there is no discharge or obvious discomfort shown I wouldn't worry too much. Also in my experience when breeding season hits many male snakes go off feeding.

Hope this helps!
John

 

[dtknow]

Thanks John,

Problem with that is that this species has no teeth for me to break, but I will definetly keep an eye on him and see what happens.