So thank you for joining this webinar today, entitled Introduction to the Veterinary care of Snakes. Now, I know that the sight of a snake appearing in the consult room of many a vet or a vet nurse can strike fear into you. So the idea from today's webinar was really to hopefully help increase your confidence and, and make you feel a little bit more comfortable the next time one of these guys comes in.
So in order to do this on the agenda today, we'll start off with the basics of snakes. So looking at species identification legislation, husbandry and anatomy, we then move on to look look at snakes at the veterinary practise. So we cover topics such as transportation history, taking clinical exam diagnostics and treatment and then to finish up, we'll go through some of the common conditions.
And just to mention at this point as well that many of the medications I'm gonna discuss in this webinar are used off licence and therefore used under the cascade. So let's start off with the basics of snakes. So the first thing to comment on is the fact that snakes are a carnivorous species, and the diet fed to that individual will really depend on the individual species that you're looking at now.
Many of the snakes in the UK are fed things like rodents and birds. Some of them that are a little bit bigger. We will also feed things like guinea pigs and rabbits as well.
But when you look at the species, in the wild, you'll often find they eat quite a variety of different prey. So we have got snakes that eat lots of amphibians. We've got ones that eat lots of fish, like the garter snake.
We've also got ones that eat lots of eggs, and also some snakes will eat other reptiles as well. There is over 3.5 1000 snake species in the world, so there's loads and loads of variety within those species and always think it's really important to remember this because ultimately you're never gonna remember the husbandry requirements for every single species of snake.
And that is perfectly OK. There is no harm doing a quick Google search to look up the husbandry of the snake in front of you before that client comes in. The other thing to mention is the method of kill.
So we do know that some snakes are constrictors, whereas other ones are venomous snakes. So with the constrictors, obviously they wrap around their prey and prevent them from breathing. Which obviously ultimately results in their death.
And then the venomous snakes obviously inject venom into their prey in order to kill it. There is tonnes of different, varieties of snakes that we will see in the UK. But these are certainly the most common four that you're most likely to see.
So this includes things like our corn snake, our royal or ball python, our boa constrictors and our milk snakes. Now, when you do see the snake in the practise, it may not look exactly like the colorations. In these pictures, there is tonnes of different colour morphs available, and often I find the owners will take great delight in telling you exactly what colour morph that they have.
So say this should give you a rough idea of what the snake looks like. They say you will see a lot of different patterns and lots of different colours available. The other thing to mention is that in the UK.
We also have a couple of native wild snakes as well, and the ones we see most commonly would be the adder and the grass snake. Now it's important to remember that those ADDers are a venomous snake species, whereas a grass snake are constrictors. So if you do get a wild edible into you, just remember the fact that they are venomous, so take extra care.
So how do I tell the difference between venomous snakes, and constrictor snakes? You know, if if an animal gets brought in and we don't know what type of snake it is, how do I know whether I need to be a bit more cautious? Well, there's a couple of things you can look at, so certainly what we tend to look at is the shape of the head of the snake.
If you do have a snake that's got quite a tr triangular shaped head, then that is more likely to be a venomous species compared to our, constrictors, which tend to have more of these sort of spoon shaped heads like the corn snake in the pitcher. The other thing to pay attention to as well is If the snake has a rattle, that usually means it is a venomous snake. And also if if it's got a herd like the Cobra, then that often again means it's venomous.
The other thing to be aware of is that we do also see imitated snakes. So you will sometimes get snakes that, that basically will will try and look like the venomous snake in order to try and, put off any predators that might want to eat the snake itself. So, for example, we get the Texas coral snake, which is, which has got a mix of sort of black, yellow and red markings.
And these guys, they have yellow on both sides of the red bands, and then they look fairly similar to the milk snakes. However, these guys have got black on either side of those red bands. So really looking for those those subtle differences in order to be able to detect which species is which but say, Do be aware.
Some of them are imitators. So what you don't want to be doing is thinking it's a constrictor when actually it is a venomous snake. There was a couple of bits of legislation that I also just wanted to mention.
So the first one is our Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976. So with this bit of, legislation, this basically covers species that are considered dangerous to public health and welfare. And in the UK.
If you want to keep the snakes listed under this act, then you will need to have AD W a licence. So in the UK that does cover all of our venomous snake species. So the good you do, the good news is that, these licences are generally only given to zoos.
So unless you're doing a lot of zoo work, hopefully you won't see too many venomous snakes in practise. The other thing to mention is cites so cites stands for the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, and cites basically covers species that are prohibited from being taken from the wild. So if anyone has these species, then they will need permits in order to be able to import, import and sell these individuals and basically say it's designed to ensure that any animals that are that are being sort of put into the pet trade and things like that are coming from a captive source, so they're not being taken directly from the wild environment Now the reason I mentioned CITES is because this does include some of the species of snake that you may see in the UK.
And just to make you aware, there are also different appendices to cites which will offer different levels of protection depending on how en endangered that individual species is. The next thing I wanted to move on to was looking at snake husbandry. And the reason husbandry is so important is that we know that most of the diseases we see in our snakes are due to poor husbandry to some extent.
So it is really important that we have a good understanding of what what we need to provide. What environment we need to provide for that snake in captivity. I always like to reflect on the fact that we know that snakes are a cold blooded animal.
OK, so basically that means they're gonna rely heavily on their environment to provide them with the correct temperature, humidity, et cetera, so that their bodies can function normally. And when we think about this and we remember this fact. Then I think that really, sort of, makes it super clear of why husbandry is as important as we say it is.
We need to make sure we're providing the correct environment for that snake in order for it to thrive. So how do people keep them? Well, generally, snakes will either be kept in a wooden varum or a glass terrarium, and which, which enclosure will be better for each species does vary depending on the species that you're looking at.
A key thing to understand from the owner is how big that enclosure is. So what is what is its height and what is its width? And also, if you can understand if that species is more of a ground dwelling species, then that will sort of, obviously suggest that, you know, ideally, you want an enclosure with as much, floor space as possible.
Whereas if it is an a boreal species, the one that likes going up trees and things like that, then obviously that vertical height is going to be very important. The other thing to consider is what is in that enclosure. So obviously a lot of people really like to make their enclosures look as natural as as possible, which is obviously really good for the snake.
But do make sure there's nothing in there that can cause harm to the snake. Make sure as well that there's nothing, nothing to say they can they can damage themselves on, but also that they can keep it nice and clean as well as a key thing. A picture is obviously worth 1000 words as well, so I would always, recommend asking your owners to take a picture of the home environment because this can really help.
This can really sort of help you interpret what that environment is like and be able to easily, take a lot of information in, say, just from a quick glance. The next thing to talk about is heating. So with our snakes they will have a preferred optimum temperature zone.
So basically, the the temperatures in between which that species is gonna do best before the animal comes in. Just have a little Google. Look up what the preferred optimum temperature zone is for that individual because it does vary greatly between the different species.
What we're aiming to do in our enclosures is to create a temperature gradient in there, so we usually will do this with a spot lamp for basking at one end of the tank and then possibly some heat background heat going on. And then, obviously having a cooler area down the far end of the the enclosure, your owners should be measuring day and night temperatures. They should be measuring the temperature in the cool versus the hot end of the tank, and they should also know what the temperature is under that basket spot as well.
We also always recommend that the temperature is measured at the level of the animal, so we don't want the temperature probe measuring the temperature right at the top of the enclosure where the animal never goes. We do want to be measuring it where the snake actually lies. There's loads of different ways of providing heat to our snakes, so this includes things like U using basking lamps, ceramic heaters, hot rocks, heat pads and combo lamps as well.
Always be really careful if if if you are using things like hot rocks or heat pads because what we want to always avoid is a snake having direct contact with that heat source. What usually happens is a snake will go and lie on that surface while it's cooling down, and it's been switched off to try and absorb some of that residual heat. But then what the snake won't do is they just won't realise the fact that it's been turned back on.
They won't realise how hot they're getting, and then they end up burning themselves. So I say you can use some of these for some species, but I would be super cautious, particularly with those hot rocks in using those for our snakes. As I said, burns happen commonly, so as long alongside avoiding hot rocks and and not having direct access to heat pads.
The other thing to do is to put guards around any bulbs as well, because I say the same things happen. The snakes will climb up and they will circle around the bulbs, and then they will get burns happening. So make sure all the bulbs are guarded when it comes on to lighting.
Lighting isn't perhaps as important for snakes as it is for some of our other reptile species. However, I do think snakes will always benefit from from from some from some full spectrum lighting. Because of course, they will benefit.
from having access to sort of things that mimic the sun. Basically. So I do think, if you can, then offering full spectrum lighting is really important when it comes to the different aspects of light.
We have the visible light which, is the obviously all the colours that we can see And this visible spectrum, helps to initiate reproductive behaviour in many species. Alongside just normal behaviour being exhibited as well. We then have got infrared lighting, so infrared offers warming.
OK, so the infrared, aspects of light will will help to warm up the snake. We've then got U VA, which affects behaviour, and we've got UVB, which affects vitamin D production and calcium metabolism. Now, snakes do not appear to have an absolute requirement for UVB as they are able to absorb sufficient oral vitamin D from their whole prey diet.
But we do know that some snakes, like the corn snakes, have still got the ability to use UVBUVB light to produce some vitamin D so I say it can be beneficial to provide that source of light as well to them. So in summary, for lighting, really, we we do need to know what lights are being used in the enclosure. We also need to know what's the length of exposure as well.
So what's the difference between the, hours of light versus the hours of darkness that's provided? And we also need to know how often that owner is changing the bulbs, or are they measuring the output? So obviously, you and me can see the visible light and see whether that bulb's working in that respect.
But what we can't appreciate is necessarily what the UV light is doing from that bulb. So we can either measure that directly using a UV, sensor or otherwise. We can just change those bulbs frequently, according to the manufacturer's recommendations.
The next thing to think about is substrate, so there is various different substrate options available, and the choice of substrate will vary depending on the species. What I always like to do is have a little look back at where that snake is naturally found in the wild, because whatever its habitat type and its humidity requirements in the wild is what we need to be mimicking, obviously in captivity. And this can help you help guide you on whether you need a substrate that's gonna retain a lot of moisture or whether you need one.
That's gonna be, more likely to create a bit more of a drier environment in the UK we most commonly, we use Aspen bedding, as a substrate for our snake species. And this comes in this sort of shavings or chips type format. As you can see in the picture here, however, when a snake is poorly, we would recommend you take out all of that substrate, and you pop them on either either paper or incontinent sheets.
And the reason we do this is because it then makes it super easy to keep that snake nice and clean. And it also helps you to monitor the outputs from that snake so we can easily see what's in its regurgitation. If that's happening, we can also see what its droppings look like as well.
The other thing to question the owner on is how often are they changing the substrate? How often are they cleaning the environment. So compared to say, you know, keeping rabbits and guinea pigs and things like that, you know, people are cleaning them out super frequently.
But with a snake, people sometimes don't clean them out for several weeks or even months in some situations. So it's an important question to ask of. When did they last clean out the tank?
What are they using to clean it out? When did they change the substrate and things like that as well? Because obviously, if it's not been cleaned recently, they definitely need to clean that all out and start again.
If the snake isn't doing very well, the next thing to get on to is humidity. So again, humidity will be species dependent. OK, so it will vary greatly, depending on what species you're looking at.
For example, the corn snake, preferred humidity is between 40 to 60%. OK, but I say it does vary with different species. The owners should be measuring this.
So do try to, you know, make sure we ask that question and then make sure they can tell us what the humidity is in the tank on an average day and The reason humidity is so important with snakes is that we do know we can get shedding issues associated with low humidity. And we can also get high humidity causing problems like bacterial and fungal infections. So it is really important that the humidity and that closure is kept within the range that the snake prefers.
The other comment to make as well is that we should never be compromising ventilation in order to control our humidity. If we do need to increase the humidity within a cage, then what we should be doing is doing things like adding extra water sources and things like that. But we should certainly never be blocking a blocking off vents or anything like that, to increase the humidity because all we're going to end up doing is causing other problems.
The next thing to mention is around food and water. So the most commonly fed prey given to snakes in the UK tends to be things like rodents. So that will be rats.
Mice, say sometimes people are feeding guinea pigs and rabbits as well. If they're very large and then also, people quite commonly will feed some day old chicks. In addition, it is really important to make sure that that prey is fully defrosted before we do feed it to our snakes.
Otherwise, obviously we can cause a whole range of problems. And then in terms of providing water, well, many snakes really like a bath. So it's important in their enclosure that we offer some water source in there and ideally, that should be a bowl of water that is big enough for them to fit their entire body in is what we're really looking for.
And so make sure we question the owner on you know how they're providing water and how that snake is using it as well. The next thing I'm gonna go on to is looking at Snake Anatomy. So when when it comes to snake anatomy, most of it is much the same as with a mammal, OK, there are a couple of really key differences which I'm gonna go through in a moment, but in general they have the same organs that you or me have.
They have heart, they have a lung, you know, they have a liver and things like that as well, so try not to panic and say it is fairly straightforward. Really. Snakes do not have a diaphragm, OK?
And breathing in these species is both an active and a passive, event, because they don't have that diaphragm. They don't have a thoracic and an abdominal cavity as such. Instead, we call the whole thing inside a solo cavity.
The heart of a snake is a three chambered structure. OK, so we've got these two atriums and then one ventricle. And the other key thing with, the lung system is the fact that they only tend to have, the right lung as functional.
So the left lung is often vestigial so just tiny and doesn't really work. Or in some species, it is absent completely. The other difference is in anatomy includes the facts, that fact that snakes don't have any external ears.
They also have spectacles to cover over the eye so they don't have eyelids at all. They just have this transparent scale that covers the surface of the eye instead to be able to offer the protection to the eye that obviously it needs. The other thing to check on snakes as well is these pit organs So snakes have little, little, holes that run along the top of the, of the, lip there, which you can see in the top picture there.
So these pit organs are what the snake will use to detect infrared so they use it to basically detect where their prey is. Snakes also don't have a bladder, and in they have a cloaca as the exit to the body. So the reproductive tract, the digestive tract and the urinary tract were all empty via the cloaca.
Male snakes also have these paired heip pens. So these are the reproductive organ of the male snake, OK? And they they can look very different depending on what species it is.
So you can see a selection of heIp pens on the right hand side of the screen. There. Now, the Hemi pen in a snake is purely a reproductive organ.
OK, so what that means is, I say the urinary tract doesn't lie through it or anything like that. And, the helpful thing with that is in, if they do get the Heine damaged in any sort of way, then they can be removed. We can just amputate that organ.
So let's just have a little look, at, the inside of a snake. So we start off, obviously at the head end where we've got the tongue. So when we're looking at our snakes, they should be flicking that tongue in and out fairly regularly to taste the air.
We then start moving down the body and you you'll see, you quite rapidly will hit, the area of the heart So the heart in snakes will tend to lie about a third of the way down the body. And we can easily feel sort of a little bulb where the heart is by running our hand down the ventral aspect of the snake. And you should also be able to feel the apex beat as well.
So you should be able to feel the heart beat in a way under your fingers moving on. From there, you can then see the left lung is a tiny little, tiny little structure, in the snake in front of us. And then you can see the right lung, which extends a hell of a long way down the body of the snake.
So we do know the lung can extend between 25% to 60% of the way down the snake's body, depending on the species after the lung, we then obviously you can see our liver, which again is stretched out, longitudinally to fit the shape of the snake. We've then got our digestive system as well. And you can see that this is a very simple system.
Goes down saying in quite a straight line as well, so that it fits in with the shape of the snake and ending up at the club acre at the end. You can also see you've got your, testes, cos this is a male snake. You've also got your kidneys, which again are longitudinal in nature and are slightly staggered so that they can fit into the body.
Everything. Then, as I say, the external exit to the body is the cloaca, and you can see that the reproductive tract, the urinary tract and the digestive tract all empty via this site. The other thing I want to draw your attention to as well is the, picture in the bottom corner of the spine of the snake.
So what, you can see is we've got the spinal column that runs down the entire length of the snake all the way to the tail tip. And then you've got the ribs that come down either side of that and again, they extend all the way down to the bottom. So now we're gonna move on to looking at snakes at the veterinary practise.
So first things first. We obviously need to get the snake into the vets, and we often find that owners will ask for recommendations on how best to transport their snake in to see you. So one of the most common methods that people use is a pillow case.
So they just pop the snake into a pillow case, and then they seal that off with a cable tie or similar, similar tie. You can Obviously, if it's a massive snake, you can certainly, have them in large wooden boxes or crates. You know, I've had many a snake brought into the practise and being wheeled in on, on sort of a wheelie cart because they do weigh too much to possibly carry them in.
You can also obviously get the the tiny snakes or baby snakes. People will often also bring them in in small sealed plastic tubs as well, obviously with some breathing holes in there as well. The next thing to think about is, do we need to provide warmth during the journey?
And obviously, ideally, yes, you do, because we don't want the snake turning up in an ice cold, ice cold, because it's gonna obviously affect the clinical exam of that individual then, so always devise, obviously, if the owner bringing it in in the car to have the heating on to keep that snake warm. But you may also want to think about providing some other heat source there as well. But the important thing to remember is that the snake should never have direct access to that heat pad.
So we don't want them wrapped around a hot water bottle or anything like that, because they could then go on to develop burns from that, what you do want is if you are providing some sort of external heat, so say something outside of the enclosure that the snake's been transported in. Then what I would also do would be to aim to create a temperature envi, temperature gradient within that, tub. So we want one end hotter, and we want the snake to be able to move away from the heat source if it wants to.
So let's move on to snake history taking so again, A lot of this is very much the same as what you would do for a dog or a cat. So try not to panic. And the only real difference here is that as we already discussed, it is so important that you do ask some more husbandry questions when it comes to talking about snakes.
If you're new to doing this, certainly, using things like exotic questionnaire sheets can definitely help. So if you just have a little look online, there's several different ones available, and that can just help to make sure that you are capturing all the information that you need. We would start off initially by looking at the longer term history.
So things like you know how How old is the snake? How long is it? How long has it been in the owner's possession, and where did they get it from?
We also need to understand did it have any previous health problems? And is it on any current medications at the moment? Always ask whether this is, a snake that's kept in its hou kept in a house on its own, or whether it is part of a larger collection of snakes that the owner keeps, because again, there can be things like viruses that can spread very quickly through snake collection.
So we do need to know that bit of information to know if we need to look at some herd health measures as well, and then also understand what other pets are in the home as well. So you know, if it is that that owner's just got a brand new puppy that's constantly banging on the snake's tank and things like that, then that's obviously gonna stress the snake out a lot. And that could perhaps be causing some behavioural problems that they're seeing.
We also want to understand what does that enclosure look like? We want to know, you know, the design and location, the heating, lighting, substrate, humidity. So all of the things we discussed earlier, it's really important we get a really good idea of what that enclosure is like.
We then also need to obviously know what the diet, what the diet's like. So what is the snake offered to eat versus what does it actually eat? We know that some snakes will go for several months without eating as a natural thing, or you may get a snake that doesn't take every single item of prey that is offered.
It's always important to understand what's normal for that snake and understand. When was it last fed? Did it eat well and things like that as well?
We want to know. How's the water being provided to that snake? And how often is it bathing?
Does it? Does it seem to enjoy a bath? Is it in there quite frequently, any changes to the frequency that it's taken in water as well drop ins?
So we need to know. When did the snake last past its faeces and rates? OK, so when did it last pass the motion?
When we are looking at snake poo? What we should see is this solid faecal looking matter. So this browny dark matter in the middle, and then we should have this, white area as well, which is the rates.
Some snakes will pass a little bit of wet urine with that as well. But say in general when you're seeing it sat in the in the enclosure, it will look like this brown bit with some white on it. So what we need to understand from the owner is when did they last pass faeces?
Has it changed at all? Are they noticed any blood or anything like that in it, and just try to understand and say when it was passed and what it looked like? The next thing to to ask about as well is exercise and routine.
Has there been any changes to that for that snake? Is this a snake that's just kept in a small enclosure and never gets out? Or is it one that the owner does get out and handle and and, you know and allows it to move around a bit more as well?
And has there been any changes to that? After that background history, we obviously need to make sure we are moving on to looking at the current problem. And so what clinical signs is it is it that the owners brought the snake in for What's the duration of those problems?
Has it had vomiting? Has it had regurgitation? Any changes are saying that eating or what's been passed any changes, in its behaviour.
Any neurological signs? How's its breathing? Been any changes noted there?
Has there been any discharge noticed from the nose or from the oral cavity? Has its, has it had any problems with its shedding, or anything noticed abnormally on the skin? Has it lost any weight or gained any weight, any slump, lumps or bumps or swellings?
And has there been any trauma? So I say when we're asking about the current problem, just explore those clinical signs in the same way that you would do if it was a dog or a cat. So moving on from there.
We've now got our history for the snake in front of us. So now we actually need to touch it. OK, so how do we handle snakes?
Well, basically, there is a range of different tools that you might want to use when you're thinking about handing in the snake. So quite often in the consult room, I will always have a small towel with me and I can use that to obviously, allow the snake to have somewhere to hide. But also to provide a barrier between my hand and the snake's mouth as well can be quite helpful.
The other thing that we sometimes we use as well will be snake hooks. So, for example, in the bottom picture here, you can see a hook. And we we will often use these to help us, move a snake from one location to the other.
So particularly if it's a bit aggressive and we need to get it out of its cage and and, out of its transportation box and put into a hospital cage. Then we can use these to just help move them. The other thing that we sometimes use as well is, Pinner.
So this is shown in the top picture there and what these are, they're either sort of metal or plastic structures which come down in this sort of U shape. And then at the bottom, there is a band of rubber. And what we use this for is that we can pin this behind the head of the snake, and then we can use our hand to to sort of pick up the snake while we've got it restrained with the pin up.
Now, this allows us to sort of get that hand near the near the head of the snake, take control of the head of the snake so that we can then examine the other Bo the rest of the body with the other hand. So we say they are very useful. I say I we used to use them a lot, particularly if we've got an aggressive snake really useful, say, just to pin that head and then be able to pick the snake up with these and know then that I've got control of that head.
I've got control of the bite of it and that then it will allow me to do what I need to do. Some people will also, use gloves when they're managing snakes. Now, what I would always be what I would always say is, you know, if you're going to use things like your gauntlet, gloves and things like that, then you do need to be really careful, because ultimately, when we're holding the snake with with the gloves, we may not be able to feel exactly how hard we're.
We're squeezing. OK, so I would be really cautious. I think the only time that I would really use them is if I've got an aggressive snake and I'm trying to move things around in the enclosure, then that could obviously be quite helpful to have gloves on to just help protect me.
The other thing we can use is things like see-through tubs as well. So you can, certainly use these I. I like using these for the tiniest snakes because then I can put them in the little tub and I can lift them up to eye level so I can get a closer look of that snake.
So say these are particularly use for that. And then we do also have things like snake restraining tubes as well. So with these tubes, you basically feed the head of the snake into the tube.
That then obviously stops them from biting or thrashing out at you and allows you to then examine the rest of the body. When it comes to handling snakes do be careful, OK, they can be really fragile, particularly the tiny baby ones. They can also be escape artists and make sure you've got all your rooms and your doors.
Sort of, closed up before you get them out. They can certainly be quite speedy if they want to be, they can all bite. OK, Even if they're not venomous, they will still bite you.
And, they also can obviously constrict you as well. So never put a snake around your neck, OK? Because obviously the risk of, then wrapping around and, stopping your breathing, can occur.
And then if you do have them, if you are handling them in your hand and you feel them start to wrap around the arm, your arm don't panic, but just, do unravel them sooner rather than later to make sure they don't sort of get constricted and they're too tight. The other thing is to make sure that you are hygienic with snakes. So remember they can pass over quite a few different zoonotic diseases, including things like salmonella.
So make sure that you're ideally wearing gloves and that you definitely wash your hands after handing in them. The other thing to comment on is that They can also, carry different viruses that can spread to other snakes as well. So if you are seeing multiple snakes, do just make sure that you're you are cleaning your hands.
You're thoroughly disinfecting the surfaces. You're examining them on things like that as well, then are they an aggressive snake? Do ask the owner before you go and put your hand in to pick it up.
Always when I'm examining snakes in a veterinary setting, I would always take control of the bite bits. OK, so I always have that one hand behind the head of the snake. To make sure I've got control there and to reduce the chance of myself or anyone else getting bitten.
And then the other key thing I just wanted to point out is that an oral exam of a snake is a super important part of your clinical exam. And in order to actually look in the mouth, what we can do is use things like cotton buds to just sort of put into the corner of the mouth and try to ease that open so we can have a look, or otherwise. Obviously, if you've got a much bigger snake.
You might wanna use things like, a one syringe or something like that to be able to get the mouth to open up. So when we're examining them, what type of things are we looking for on our clinical exam? Well, first up, look at the eyes.
OK, look at the eyes. Are they nice and clear? Look for evidence of retained spectacles.
Look for evidence of mites and that around the creases of the eyes. And, and I say, you know, they they should be nice and clear. No evidence of abscesses or anything like that.
Then have a little look at the nares, so they again should be clear of any discharges and then have a good look in that mouth. So check the mucus membranes. Check all the different structures in there.
Check the tongues. Obviously moving as it should be, look for any signs of the inflammation or infection. We also should be checking those pit organs, making sure they're nice and clear.
Check the mucus membrane colour. And then also I would always be checking hydration as well. So to assess the hydration of a snake you can certainly use skin tent as a little bit of an idea.
You should also be looking at the eyes. How sunken are the eyes? And also I really like looking at how moist they are in the mouth.
So they should obviously have a little bit of saliva in there. It shouldn't be really dry. If it is very dry in there, it's a good indication that snake is dehydrated.
Then moving down the snake, the next thing we're gonna be checking is the heart. Now, I would most often use a Doppler to assess the heartbeat in a snake. I find this much more useful allows me to count the heart rate and listen to it for any abnormal heart sounds.
You can sometimes use a stethoscope. But what I often find is is that, you don't get that great contact between the scales and the diaphragm of the stethoscope, so sometimes you can't as hear, hear as well as you'd like to. The other thing you need to do as well is check the lungs.
So, as I said, obviously, that can extend from 25% down the body all the way to 60% depending on the species. So do have a good listen from both sides. Just to see if you can hear any excess noise.
Once we've done that, we then need to feel all the way down the salami cavity. So starting out just below the head feel all the way down on the ventral aspect between the ribs and generally what we're feeling for is any sort of lumps and bumps, any sort of hard areas, anything that doesn't feel quite right on our way down. We should then be checking the cloaca.
Is there any evidence of any prolapse? Can we see any mites? Can we see any staining or anything that shouldn't be around that area and also check the tail so the end of the tail should look nice and healthy.
This is a site where we sometimes get skin getting caught up and things like that. If they're not shedding properly, so do check the end of the tail as well. And then in general, we should be checking the skin of the snake.
Is there any signs of any blemishes, Any burns, any scarring, anything like that? We also need to assess body condition. So to do this in a snake, what we're doing is we're looking at that central, spinal column.
OK, so what? We are looking and what we're hoping for is a nice, rounded profile to the back of the snake. If we are finding that the, vertical column is is sort of further in, then we've got bulges.
Either side. Then obviously, that could be an indication the snake is overweight. And obviously, if it's quite concave either side of that spinal column, then that indicates the snake is underweight and, and obviously needs to improve its nutrition.
We should also be assessing how strong that snake is, so they should be fighting us when we're examining them. They should be wanting to wrap around our hands. So really, you can use that to assess how you know how active that snake is and how strong they are.
And then also, we always should be weighing our snakes as well and keeping a regular check on that next up. I just wanted to talk a little bit about diagnostics. So when it comes to diagnostics and snakes, there is a whole range of different stuff that we could do.
I always think that some people think Oh, it's a snake. There's no diagnostics, I. I couldn't possibly do anything.
But just because it is a snake, it doesn't mean you can't do some tests. So do certainly bear this in mind. Now, obviously this this lecture is all about an introduction to snakes.
So I'm not gonna go into all the different, biochemistry, values and things like that. But it's just a comment on the fact that for bloods, obviously you can do your Biocare and your haematology your blood smears. And we would usually get the samples from a snake from either the intracardiac site.
Which, to be honest is, is the site that I think is most commonly used. And then in some species, you can use the ventral coccygeal vein as an alternative. We can certainly do faecal analysis on snakes, and so that's that's a very useful test.
And it is done fairly commonly because we can see a lot of parasites affecting our snakes. We also can do obviously faecal culture. We can do imaging so we can do radiographs we can do ultrasound.
We can do CT we can do endoscopy. When you do, X rays of a snake. Just a little pointer.
It can always help if you can put a marker on the body of the snake and a marker onto the X ray plate. So say, for example, you can feel a lump in a certain area If you can make sure you can mark that on the X ray plate. Then you make sure you're looking at the right part of the snake when you're trying to assess what's going on.
Also think about ultrasound as well, so ultrasound can be super useful either as a poker so looking for free fluid and things like that, or otherwise, as a sort of a full cavity scan or, you know, a detailed scan of an individual structure. We can also do a range of virology on snakes. We can test for a range of different viruses using PC R.
We can do cytology and histology, and we can do different cultures as well for different bacteria and fungus now just moving on to medications. So there's many, many of the medications that we will use in snakes are off licence. OK, so basically you need to follow the cascade.
It's really important that you get that off licence form signed with the owner, and also just make sure they do understand what what it actually means as well. The dose ranges for several medications will vary greatly between different snake species. And we also have very little data on efficacy on safety ranges and things like that as well.
So what you need to do is is really is ideally, get yourself a good resource to be able to look at when you're trying to work out doses for different medications because, as I say, it will vary between species. But the data we have is is very patchy. You know, we don't always have all the answers when it comes to snakes, but say do ideally get yourself a good formula, eat to be able to have a look.
And ideally, I say you are looking for species specific doses doses for medication to make sure you're treating that animal appropriately. When it comes to medication routes for snakes, there's a variety of different routes that we could take. So the first one is, intramuscular.
So we often we use intramuscular injections for them and we would do those on the Apax or muscles. Along the back, we can also give medications intravenously. We can do per R subcut nebus super useful, particularly with fruits disease.
Obviously, and we can do topical preparations as well. So when you are thinking about medicating your snake, do have a think of the different options, but also always consider what's gonna be easier for the owner. We need to make sure if we're prescribing a medication, that it actually goes into the snake in question.
The other thing I need to mention as well is about the snake renal portal system. So what do we mean by this? Well, basically, the blood from the cordial half of the body in a snake does have the potential to enter the kidneys directly before it goes back to the heart.
Now, this system is of questionable significance. OK, however, obviously the thoughts are is that the full dose of drug that's given if it's given in the in the back half of the animal, could go straight to the kidneys and cause damage. If it's nephrotoxic, and the other thing that could happen is the drug could go to the kidneys and just be excreted straight out before it's had the chance to work.
OK, and so because of this, I say it's of questionable significance. And to be honest with you, I think it's gonna vary depending on the species and also on what drug you're given. But the general rule is to always inject the snakes in the front half of the body, or the front third of the body is what's recommended.
And then you don't need to worry about what the system is doing now when it comes to medications, as I've already mentioned, there's a whole variety of different dose ranges that are appropriate for different species. There's also some drugs that will work better in some species of snake compared to other ones. So the idea from these next couple of slides is not to tell you all that all of these are safe to use in a snake.
But it is just to help point you towards what drugs to perhaps look up for. The dose ranges, so to start off with thinking about analgesia. When it comes to opioids, the ones we're most commonly used in snakes would be morphine and tramadol.
Some snakes do respond OK to butorphanol. And also fentanyl's patches have also shown to be of some benefit in some species. When it comes to nonsteroidals, it's using meloxicam that we are using, with with meloxicam again, I say Efficacy questionable on some species, they say it's really the only one that we commonly will use.
And I say We just need to look up the dose ranges for that individual species and and see whether it it does help. When it comes to antibiotics, fluoxetine is very commonly used. Obviously, it is a licenced, medication to use in reptiles.
So it is one that people will go to fairly commonly. We can also use force injections. We can use flama for things like burns and metronidazole can also be used for a variety of different anaerobic bacterial and protozoa infections.
When it comes to our antiparasitic, we will often use things like fmb Bea zole. We will also, use things like, metronidazole as well you can certainly use, ivermectin in some snakes. But do be careful, because in some of them it it cannot be used.
So things like indigo snakes cannot have ivermectin. And with fril, we can also use this. But we do need to be careful.
We need to make sure we don't overdose the snakes. We need to calculate the doses appropriately. And we also need to ensure really good ventilation afterwards.
So if you never sort of put the foot print on, then keep them in an enclosed area because I say that can cause a whole range of problems as well. So you can use it in some species. But you just need to be careful how you're doing it.
The next thing to talk about is fluid therapy. So when it comes to snakes, our maintenance rate is usually quoted as between 5 to 10 mils per kilo per day for most of our species. But we will usually increase this up to 25 mils per kilo per day when the snake is unwell.
We're often using hormones. If we're gonna give fluids and the roots of which we can give fluids is obviously IV subcut. We can also give all fluids, and as I mentioned earlier, we can also soak or bathe them as well.
So we know that snakes can, obviously drink water. They can also, in some species, take them up through the skin, and they can also take a bit up through the club acre as well. So soaking and bathing can be a really good way of trying to encourage a poorly snake to just improve its hydration.
When it comes to nutrition, some snakes will just not eat for months on end. OK, and for some snakes that can be quite normal. But for other snakes that can be really abnormal and indicate problems going on now, what I would normally do is, as I say, because the timing of one's become worried about a snake, not eating isn't very clear, and it's not a set rule for everyone.
What I will do is I'll have a look at the size of the snake. I'll have a look at the age and the species of snake in front of me and I. I will also, take note of what the normal feeding routine is for that individual.
So if this is a snake that's eaten religiously every two weeks throughout its life and now it's not eaten for the last two months, then I'm gonna be concerned. Whereas if it is a snake that has always been a bit picky but eats a very big meal once a month, once every other month, then perhaps we don't need to worry quite as quickly for that animal. If we are tempting a snake to eat, a key thing to do would be to offer familiar foods.
We can also gently warm up the prey that can really help to stimulate them, to take it as well as, giving it a bit of a wiggle. So using some tongs to stimulate the movement of a prey, because that again can encourage the the snake to strike at the prey and then eat it. Another thing to think about is the size of prey that you're going to offer.
So if you have just done surgery on a snake and say you've got a, you know, wound down its spectrum or something like that, then what you do want to do postoperatively is make sure you're offering a smaller prey. The last thing you wanna do is make give the snake a massive meal, make it stretch itself out, and then, blow your stitches. Basically, so do offer smaller, smaller prey if they just had major surgery.
The other thing is, if we do get snakes that are anorexic for a prolonged period of time, Obviously, we do need to then look at considering feed tubing, and, to to feed a snake. We first need to make sure that that snake is warm and make sure that they are hydrated. Before they are fed, And then when you are feeding them, do be careful because they can regurgitate.
And we can also get refeeding syndrome in snakes as well. So we do just need to be aware of that. And what do we tend to feed via via these, feed tubes?
Sorry. Feeding tube feeding. We will tend to feed them.
Things like this. Carnivorous, recovery food. So one of the ones we use most commonly would be one, the era version when it comes to, husbandry as well.
Don't forget that improving the husbandry is gonna be part of our treatment plan, OK, because we know that husbandry is gonna cause most of our issues. And also, if we don't address that underlying husbandry issue, then the chances are that problem is just going to reoccur. I was always taught to try not to overwhelm the owner with too many changes at once.
Because otherwise they're just not gonna do anything. So I always limit it to a maximum of three things that I'm asking that owner to do after every consultation. So that might be that I'm asking them to medicate the snake.
Maybe I'm asking them to give it some baths and maybe I'm asking them to get a new lamp or something like that. And that will be it for that week. OK, then, next time I see it back, then obviously check to see if they've managed the first three things.
And then obviously you can add extra things in as time goes on. But ultimately say if you just give the owner a long list of stuff to change and do say you're often fine, they won't do any of them or they struggle to prioritise that list. Also, remember that some of our supplement range are also treatments as well.
So sometimes you will use these as part of your treatment plan. So the last thing I wanted to talk about, before we move on to common conditions is just about snake euthanasia. So when we're trying to put, a snake to sleep, one thing you can start off with is obviously giving them a sedation.
So we can certainly give them IM al Faan to do this. That works quite nicely. Or we can also, give them, some gas to help sedate them.
However, some snakes will breath hold, so it can tend to be quite difficult and take quite a while to get them to fall asleep. That way, we would then move on to give them either intravenous or intracardiac pentobarbital. And then after you've done that, what I would do is use a Doppler to check for the heartbeat.
Once I'm happy, there's no heartbeat. I would then go on to piss the brain now, confirming a snake has definitely passed can sometimes be a little bit difficult. So the other thing that I will often do is I do often keep them in the practise overnight just so I can recheck them the following morning.
Make sure I'm happy. They're definitely gone before the owner obviously gets them cremated or takes them home for burial. So the last part of, the talk today is gonna be, on common conditions affecting our snakes.
So the first thing I wanted to mention is that reptiles usually do things very slowly. OK, they get ill slowly, they die slowly, and they get better, slowly as well. Because of this, we need to make sure that we're managing the owner's expectations.
We're managing their commitment as well and making them aware of obviously that financial implication before we get started with this, because what we don't want to do is start down this road of trying to treat a snake and then find out that that you know the funds have run out and that we need to euthanase them. Anyway. If we do get snakes like in the picture below here, you can see how skinny this snake is, how prominent that spinal column is.
If we get snakes like this. Obviously, it's gonna be quite a lot of work to get that snake back up to full health. So, as I say, if the owner is not willing to commit and to that level of, you know, care, really and and finances, then you know euthanasia should be discussed fairly early on.
So when it comes to snake conditions, one of the more common one we will see is issues with shedding. So normally a snake will shed in one large section. OK, so the whole thing will come off in one go.
But we certainly can see snakes developing, impaired shedding so known as dissect diocese and the areas that are most commonly affected by this would be, the spectacles and also the tail tip. OK, so make sure we check both those areas and problems we shed in are frequently associated by low humidity. So when we are managing these guys, it's really important.
We're having those conversations about husbandry to make sure that we are addressing those changes. And making those changes happen so that this problem doesn't occur further down the line. If we do get retained spectacles, So what?
These normally look like is in this picture where we've got this sort of crinkled paper effect over the surface of the eye. And what you'll often find is that you'll get multiple layers of retained spectacles that have sat on there for a while before the owner realises and bring them in. So to get these retained spectacles off, what we need to do is gently soak the area.
We can certainly use things like hyper mellows drops as well to loosen it up. And then we would gently remove those spectacles using cotton buds, being really careful to not damage the bottom layer of the spectacle, which obviously is still present and needs needs to be there to protect the eye. We can also see sub spectacular abscesses in snakes.
So what this is is an infection between the the spectacle and the underlying eye, and so the infection basically builds up in that potential space. We often see these following issues with retained spectacles, and we can also see it, as in sending infection from necrotic stomatitis to treat them, we tend to make a 30 degree window in the ventral aspect of the spectacle. We then flush all that out with Harman's and then treat with, local and systemic antibiotics, if indicated, and then obviously provide some analgesia as well.
Snake burns are also pretty common in our snake species, and they are often occur because the snakes just wrap themselves around that heat source. So all of that stuff I was talking about earlier on about making sure we've got guards in place. The snake doesn't have direct access to the heat source, and that is all designed to hopefully reduce the number of burns that we see in order to treat the burn.
If it's just happened, obviously, rapid call ins advised, we need to provide some pain relief. We can use things like flama zine as well topically as well as systemic antibiotics. If they're required, we will need to address these wounds.
It can be quite a long healing process as well, particularly if we get extensive burns. And the other thing with the extensive burns as well is obviously they can lose some fluid through those burns, so you'll need to provide some fluid therapy potentially as well, longer term as they Once they do eventually recover because of all the scarring we can see there, they can then go on to develop longer term shedding issues as well. So just to be aware of that, snake mites are also a fairly common issue, and the the mites will tend to hide around the eyes.
They hide around the corners of the mouth. And you will also see them quite often at the cloaca. So you can see in this picture here, the mites look like little black dots.
They do not. They will also spend some time off of the snake as well. So that's why it's vitally important that we're treating the environment as well as the individual snake when snakes have got mites.
Obviously, apart from visibly seeing the snake, VI visibly seeing the mites, you will also potentially notice some behavioural changes in that snake so you'll see things like, they they become a bit more agitate agitated. They they may sort of be moving around a lot more because they say they do find the mites very irritating. You also might see them bathing more often in order to try and knock some of the mites off themselves.
And you may also see, shedding issues and also anaemia in really, really bad infestations to treat these guys, we can increase the bathing to try and help soothe them. We can use things like ivermectin obviously being careful. Certain species, obviously, can't have that.
So things like the indigo snake, we also need to be, we also can use fit prin in some of our species. But again, being really careful regarding toxicity in these individuals, we need to make sure we're accurately calculating the dose of fit prin to use. And once we've applied it, we need to ensure we've got good ventilation to actually give the fit Pernil.
What we do is we spray the F pernil onto a damp cloth, and then we wipe that over the animal That tends to be the safest way of doing it. And as you already mentioned really important, we treat the environment as well. Mouth rot, or stomatitis, is also quite commonly seen in snakes, and it's often associated with snakes that have got poor husbandry.
So problems like low temperature or poor hygiene and what it is, is Basically, it's mucosal inflammation and necrosis affecting the oral cavity. And the, agents that are usually involved in this is it often is an overgrowth of comsal gramme negative bacteria. The clinical signs that we see include things like anorexia, hypersalivation, inflammation of the tongue and the oral mucosa.
And to work these guys up. You know, ideally, we do like to get some blood work, if possible, to check for underlying issues. We ideally, we do a culture.
And then, as you can imagine, these infections in the mouth can get so bad, they then affect the jaw. So, you may also want to do rabs to look for osteomyelitis as well. And obviously, if they have got osteomyelitis, that is a much more guarded prognosis.
The treatment for them improving the husbandry is obviously really important. Pain relief debridement if deemed necessary of the wounds. We can also use topical and systemic antibiotics, and we will often also need to provide nutritional support to them as well.
The next condition I wanted to talk about was, respiratory disease in snakes. So, owners will commonly call this R I so respiratory infection and this can be seen alongside the Stomatitis. So what can happen is that infection that's affecting the mouth can then spread down to the respiratory tract.
Earlier on, you may will see just signs like lethargy and a little bit of anorexia. But as the condition gets worse, they tend to stretch their body out to try and improve their breathing. They may also elevate their head in order to try and move some of the fluid further down the lungs so they can actually breathe.
You may also see bubbles forming at the back of the mouth when you look in the mouth. And they may also yawn very frequently as well. If you have got a snake that's presenting with obvious dysnea because of respiratory disease, then that is clearly a sign they are towards the later stages of the disease.
So they will only really exhibit dysnea when they are very bad. To diagnose this, we generally we do it based on the clinical signs, and we can also use imaging and tracheal washes as well. And to treat them we're tending to use antibiotics.
Nebus is super helpful for this problem and also obviously any supportive care that's required. And then the last thing I wanted to talk about today is about a couple of viral diseases. So we get a PID and para mix virus, affecting snakes.
And this is a, significant infection that we can see in them affecting our viper, rs, our boas and our pythons. With this condition, we most commonly will see respiratory signs. We can also get neuro neurological signs, and then ultimately it usually does result in death of the individual to diagnose it.
It's PC R, and the treatment for it is is purely supportive. But as I say, a lot of these snakes do not do well and euthanasia is generally advised The other virus I wanted to mention was inclusion body disease as well. So IBD.
So this affects boas and pythons and is caused by an arena virus. So we previously we didn't We didn't know what caused it. But say in more recent years, we now know it's a cause by this virus.
This is a progressive, debilitating disease and ultimately, does usually result in death. However, the speed that it kills an individual species does vary, So some of them, succumb to the virus very quickly, whereas other in others it can be prolonged for many years. The clinical signs we tend to see include, neurological signs.
But also we see affecting the gastrointestinal tract as well. So we all get things like regurgitation and anorexia. And to diagnose this, we can now do a PC R to diagnose it.
His historically, we used to need to look for inclusions on histology. And again, the treatment here generally is euthanasia. When the time is right and just to include a a little image.
So, this is, star gazing in a snake. So, as I say with with these viruses, you can see neurological signs, and it will be things that you'll see like this. So they're not writing themselves properly, flipping their their abdomen up to the air and things like that.
So that was all I had to say for today. So many thanks for your time. And I hope that's been useful.
Thank you.
