the return of the rosy boa abscess

[Starbuck]

so my rosy boa (16 yo female) has a history of an old burn wound on her tail past the vent. After sheds it opens up and a foul material can be expressed. It was treated at cornell last year (apparently, unsuccessfully) when i first saw it, but during my move this summer i missed her other shed, so i couldn't tell it had come back until last week, when she shed again.

i brought her in to UF vet school (where i am a student), and we did radiographs and cytology to confirm that it wasn't involving bone and confirm that it was indeed an abscess :P we tried to do bloodworm, but the location blocked access to the tail vein, and the heart stick was unsuccessful.

She is coming in for surgery this thursday, where the doctor will drain the abscess and surgically remove the capsule, which can harbor bacteria (and cause recurrence). Worst case scenario is tail amputation. She will be on antibiotics etc, this thread will chronicle her recovery and any interesting medical things i can share (I'm going to try and get my hands on the radiographs).

[metalcopper]

That's interesting, keep us posted. And, of course, pictures are necessary.

[Charis]

Interesting! Good luck to her!

[sharthun]

Good luck!

[Sublimeballs]

Fingers crossed for you.

[Starbuck]

I'm very excited because i should get to observe the whole thing too! to location is about as 'good' as it gets, because it appears to be far from the vent and there isn't too much important stuff going on back there as she was probed as a female during her appt last week. she is already missing the tip of her tail due to some necrosis from the original injury.

[EL Ziggy]

Best wishes Starbuck. I hope all goes well with Neki-monster. Keep us posted.

[Tsubaki]

Good luck! Hope everything goes well.

[Mikoh4792]

Hope all goes well

[Starbuck]

so we had some big developments today during surgery, But neki went through things fine and is almost ready to go home.

The plan was to remove the entire abscess capsule (as well as some of the scar tissue) and try to close as much as possible, and maybe leave a small opening if the incision couldn't be closed all the way. When they opened her up, however, they found that what we thought was an abscess was actually a fistula that had formed into her left musk gland; so that it was communicating with the outside and whenever she shed the plug was removed and infected musk material is what was being expressed.
we ended up removing the unhealthy musk gland tissue on the left, and resecting the healthy gland on the right so they were the same size, and the incision could be closed (the right gland was very very large and the incision would not have been able to be closed without removing part of the other gland). They also removed some of the scar tissue over the wound in order to promote better healing of the healthy skin on each opposing side.
It turns out that when Cornell lanced the 'abscess' last year, it was actually the HEALTHY musk gland. We are really lucky that the antibiotics seemed to keep her from developing another abscess there.

they closed the incision and i will have pictures later tonight when i bring her home. She woke up great and was already tongue flicking and moving around a bit when i left for the afternoon. she will be on injectable meloxicam and ceftazidine for a bit, and will be in hospital caging for a while (no rough materials et until the sutures come out in about a month).

[Starbuck]

It turns out that in this species the musk glands extend several inches past the cloaca, well into the tail. The moral of exotic animal medicine is 'things are like this, EXCEPT....' and highlights how important it is to always remind yourself that with reptiles, we are working with HUGELY variable species, AND individuals.

also, it makes you think about any time a vet is doing a tail-stick to get a blood sample, the vein in question lies RIGHT on top of the musk glands!!! So you have to be careful of what you're doing!

[Mikoh4792]

I'm glad things are seeming well. Hope she heals well. That was an interesting read.

[Starbuck]

here is a picture of the 'before' and the 'after'- more to come tomorrow when get her out for treatment.

we left only a small portion of the old scar tissue in order to close. She is on ceftazidime again, and meloxicam for the next few days, and will recheck again in a week. sutures will come out in 4-6 weeks, depending on how things are looking.

[sharthun]

Thanks for the updates! Very interesting.