The following is a sequence of photographs of Java, one of my snakes who is undergoing treatment (Metacam and Fortum) for what hopefully is just a serious infection and not multiple tumours. The photos are intended for veterinary inspection, to allow Mark from Valley Vets to assess the progression of his treatment, they're pretty unpleasant.
| Date | Front | Side | Tail |
| 4/10/2011 |  |
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| 5/10/2011 |  |
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| 6/10/2011 |  |
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| 7/10/2011 |  |
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| 8/10/2011 |  |
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| 9/10/2011 |  |
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| 10/10/2011 |  |
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| 11/10/2011 |  |
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Summary: His tail appears to be slowly getting better. His mouth is more complex, with the twice daily bathings and smear of petroleum jelly the tissue looks less sore; overall the mass of tissue might be a small bit less (take a close look at his left), however on his right and under his jaw there's been the formation of what appear to be blood filled blisters/lumps. Overall he's more active, though this has come at the cost of him rubbing at his jaw a little, there are spots of dilute blood where he's been sleeping.
Comments
Update
Submitted by piers on
Unfortunately on Wednesday he had to be put down. From the necroscopy and the vets opinion the problem with his tail and jaw were largely unrelated: an impacted/enlarged musk gland and what appears to have been a tumour in his jaw. The later was far more serious and as it was getting worse the ethical thing to do was to euthanize him. I’ll get a lab report on the tissue next week.
Just got off the phone to
Submitted by piers on
Just got off the phone to Mark from Valley Vets with the results of the pathology report. He had a malignant sarcoma, cancer.
I guess in some way it's a relief that putting him down was the right decision, that I hadn't done anything to cause the problem, I just wish I had gotten the small lump removed by the first analysed. At least he was a little more comfortable in his final week.