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Q:
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my boa bit me and lost some teeth should i be worried
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hey my boa bit me today and i was checking were she bit me and i found two teeth is she going to be ok and do they grow back or should i take her to a vet this is the first time she bit me and left teeth
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Accepted Answer
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5/22/2009 9:43:49 PM
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Geckofactor
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The snake should be fine as long as it's mouth stays clean. You on the other hand should make sure a tooth isn't still lodged in your hand; That can become a rather nasty situation if your body reacts adversely to the animal proteins and foreign body. Try not to jerk your hand back next time.
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Member Comment
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5/23/2009 12:02:50 AM
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shellboa
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Oh brother...snakes have cleaner mouths than dogs unless they have a bacterial infection themselves. Your boa will be fine and you should be also. If you retained a tooth it should fester out pretty quickly. Soak in warm water regularly if you are irritated by it. I got chomped hard by a hog nose once and the teeth didn't come up for three months.
Remeber there are usually only two reasons we get bit...we smell like food or we move to fast and startle. Hey I said usually!!
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Member Comment
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5/23/2009 2:15:23 PM
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ImBooBy
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When getting bit, try not to move your hand around too much. Much easier said then done I know but its in your snake's best interest. Snakes such as GTP have very long teeth and break off pretty easy. A defensive strike is normally bite and let go so if you jerk back too quickly, this will hurt the snake.....Sometimes I rather they just latch on....very slim chance of loosing teeth but the chewing is horrible...
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Member Comment
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5/23/2009 2:45:45 PM
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Katie M
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it takes a LONG time to get the the point where you can just sit there and take the bite, but you will, young grasshopper, you will ;) My friends were amazed by my bite and wrap by Jezzabelle the other day, because I didn't even flinch - just waited her to realize that I wasn't food... it's mind over matter all the way
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Member Comment
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5/23/2009 2:55:26 PM
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shellboa
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You said it Katie! Another thing to keep in mind when attempting mind over metter (for me anyway) it is not the bite itself that hurts it is the automatic defensive reaction to anything coming at you at such speeds.
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Member Comment
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5/23/2009 9:56:48 PM
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Kaiyudsai
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This happens to snakes ... the teeth grow back... they wont look like a toothless hillbilly or anything..... I would be more worried about keeping your wound clean.... I got really sick after that bad WC retic bite last year... I had to go on IV Cipro... and spiked a 104 F fever... had to getr rushed to the ER........ There are some bad gram negatives that are commmon flora.... keep it clean
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Member Comment
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5/24/2009 3:19:04 AM
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shellboa
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apparently I am not making enogh of a fuss over how awful a bite and a few teeth can be. I guess I figured that common sense would tell you to keep the wound clean just like any other wound. I have actually done some bacterial sampling on mouths of my own animals and the turtle came back as the least gram negative which shocked me. I chalked it up to vegetarian diet. ANY animal can have bacteria in their mouth and any one can have a bad reaction to it, if this is you then go to the doctor (again the common sense thing here) As to things festering under your skin...do you know that your nails grow out from under your skin? so does your hair? ever had an ingrown hair? That is what I was referring to when I said fester. not the ick nasty pus wound fester like maybe there is an infection kind of thing, as to it taking three months...google shrapnel stories man.
*please excuse me for taking up this point in this particular arena but I feel forced to keep it public if you know what I mean...
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Member Comment
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5/25/2009 12:32:45 PM
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Kaiyudsai
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"snakes have cleaner mouths than dogs unless they have a bacterial infection themselves" Just curious shellboa......Where did you get this little tidbit of info????
What you need to realize with exotic animals... especially when they are imported.... have the potential to carry organisms that we have limited defenses against.... Even a rather mild bug... like say staph aureus... can come from a strain that our immune systems dont recognize... because it originated in a different part of the world...... the infection I received from the retic bite... was pseudomonas aruginosa... but the particular strain they isolated from my wound was highly virulent and very different than common p aruginosa strains locally... as well as being immune to several antibiotics that typically are very effective in local strains.........
My point is... everone gets bit.... if you havent been bitten you havent had snakes long enough.... just take bites seriously.... especially if you receive deep puncture wounds....
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Member Comment
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5/26/2009 11:29:36 AM
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shellboa
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As I mentioned...I got that little tid-bit from doing my own slides...sampling, staining, and getting an expert opinion. I didn't say anything about wild caught since the OP didn't say his/her boa was WC. In general any captive bred animal snake, dog, rat whatever, is going to be cleaner and carry less flora than a wild variety of the same species. Oh, thank you Captain Obvious! You can pick up foreign bacteria from anything, anywhere. I was not making light of the possibilty of infection nor was I saying that snakes don't have bacteria in their mouth. The point I was making (since this WAS the original question) was that the snake would be fine, the teeth will come back, if the teeth were still under the skin, they come out eventually and it is not a big deal. Am I making light of infection here? NO, do I truly need to spell out that if an infection ccurs that it needs to be taken seriously? I hope not. Do we need a lesson in micro for every bite?...
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Member Comment
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5/26/2009 1:33:48 PM
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Kaiyudsai
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It's just not a good idea to make broad scientific statements that have NO scientific basis at all.... So I'm wondering.... during your sampling, staining...info gathering quest did you determine this by using a random sample of dogs and snakes..... did you quantify this.... or did you just make a couple of gram stains and guestimate your results...... If you make statements like that you should expect them to be questioned.... and you should be able to back them up... herpetoculture is a science.....
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Member Comment
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5/26/2009 7:32:21 PM
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shellboa
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Good grief sticky pants...this isn't a scientific question or a science forum! Ease up! A broad statement is just that, a statement -closely resembling an opinion...I never claimed that it was a hard and fast fact! Never said it was scientific either! Most sampling staining info gathering quests undertaken by microbiology students ARE random and a lot of guessing is involved. However I have done some research on the types of bacteria CAPTIVE animals are likely to carry in order to identify what I was seeing under the micrscope. Asked a bunch of vets too. (through e-mails available on web sites to any one) most of them agreed that the types of bacteria found in a healthy snakes mouth were less likely to cause infection than the types of bacteria in a pet dogs mouth. How long are you wanting to argue this point anyway? Did you just need to get the last word in or what? Ok almighty herpetocultural scientist I bow to your formidable knowledge...happy now? I'm not misleading people here because I make no claim to be a scientist...I'm just offering my opinion, take it or leave it, no bones to me either way. Peace.
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Member Comment
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5/26/2009 11:06:54 PM
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Geckofactor
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I really didn't want to go off topic so I messaged shellboa my thoughts on there comments in private but obviously it got sidetracked anyways so I just want to say i think they missed the entire point of what I was saying since I didn't say anything about bacteria whatsoever. I think they're unfortunately one of these types of people who are stuck in their ways and think they're right 110% of the time even if they're not even on the same page. I also doubt they have a whole ton of actual experience.
At the end of the day I think I answered the question from the get. The snake will be fine and try ot to get bitten too too much.
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Member Comment
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6/17/2009 5:30:24 PM
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jambalaya
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do not be worried. The teeth will grow back eventually. I would be more worried about your hand if you jerked so hard the tooth lodged. Be careful not to move next time.
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Member Comment
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1/17/2011 1:36:32 AM
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abi21491
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