First error

[MVE]

Hi guys,

I need your advice before I take action myself. I used woodenshavings as a substrate for my boa as I saw some reputable breeders using them as well. Somehow, my new female seems to have a good amount accumulated in her mouth. What is the best, and safest way to remove this from her mouth? I don't want to stress her too much or do something wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I changed her to newspapersubstrate immediately of course.

Best regards,

Marc

[Boa_Dan]

ok, all i would do is get a wet cotton swab and jentle scrape it away, also, try not to allow any of it to get digested, this could be bad, if the cotton swab dosn't work put her in some warm watter and depending on how comfortable you are with this snake, rub were the wood shavings are to try and get them away
how did your snake get the shavings there in the first place?
was it during a feeding?
i hope any info helps
Dan

[ScooterJ46]

Just grab the snake gently of course and pull the shavings out. I hope you haven't been feeding the animal in with the shavings, ingestion of the shavings could upset the digestive sysmtem and be very harmful to the snake. If the snake does ingest some shavings, you may seek counsel with a vet.

[MVE]

Thanks! I'm not sure how it happened.
I didn't feed her in there, so I thought she wouldn't be able to get any in her mouth. Somehow she did though. I won't feed her untill all shavings are long gone.

Thanks, I'm on it!!

[cahrens]

Be sure she doesn't have an RI too. If she does then she may have mucous in her mouth which would make it sticky and she may also be breathing with her mouth open which would make it easy to get the shavings inside. Check her out real good and if you're unsure then a trip to the vet is definitely in order. Good luck. -Chris

[MVE]

Hi guys,

She was fairly good to handle and I managed to get it all out :'(.
I also got to check her mouth and glottis out for any problems but it is all looking fine. I will make a trip to the vet tomorrow anyway to have get a fecal examination done (which I always do with new animals) to make sure she get's the best treatment possible.

Thanks for the good advise. And my apologies, I see I posted this thread on the picture section of the forum :o