Very, very sick snake. Any help appreciated.

[Stephameow]

Please note: I'm bringing her to the vet tomorrow, but I'd love to just hear any opinions about what might be going on with her until then. Will update tomorrow night with vet's diagnosis. Here's my story.

My friend and I had been enthusiastically talking about breeding ball pythons last year, though neither of us had snakes before. We wanted to get our foot into the door with our first babies and to start understanding the husbandry, so at the beginning of the year (mid January) we hunted down a couple ball pythons off of Craigslist. My male pinstripe's previous owner was a vet tech who had him properly sexed, a tiny healthy 180 gram baby. My friend's female normal, however, came from a gentlemen who very obviously did not take care of her properly, did not consistently feed her, and to top it off she had a huge UTH burn on her belly. She weighed in at 202 grams, but he couldn't tell us how old she was, so we just assumed she was a baby as well. Regardless, she was cheap, came with a ton of reptile supplies as an incentive, so my friend bit the bullet. I didn't see much of her snake after that, just some pics of the burns. My friend told me her UTH burns were healing up, and that she was eating consistently every week.

Six months later (today) my friend asked me if I could go over to her place and grab her snake. She's currently out of town at a convention, wont be back until Sunday night. She was worried about the possibility of her snake having scale rot and that she needed to be fed. Saying I was shocked at the condition of the snake is an understatement, I'm kind of mad. Once I brought her home, I promptly weighed her. She's 224 grams, only 22 more than her initial weigh six months ago. In comparison my male is now 832 grams. Even though I have trouble with humidity sometimes, my snake has never given me any issues, so I'm having a REALLY hard time wrapping my head around whats happening with her snake. My friend takes really good care of her animals, so I don't wanna call her out on neglect or anything, so I'm assuming the lack of weight gain is some kind of internal issue. She tried to set up a humid hide recently with wet moss in a plastic container, she said she was trying to keep better humidity (shes still using an UTH), and I feel like that's what caused the scale rot, some kind of bacterial infection along her UTH burn area.

As well as the scale rot, burn scars, and no weight gain, her eyes also look bugged out. I'm thinking she has layers of stuck eye caps, though I'm not really sure, I was trying to gently rub them off but nothings budging. I gave her a warm bath and took a good bit of her stuck recent shed off. My friend also told me she has not eaten for the last two weeks and regurgitated her last meal, so I tried to feed her with an adult mouse but she showed no interest. After her bath I noticed there was a plug of poop in her vent. I gently squeezed it out and she immediately released liquid evil. It smelled like death. Her vent was kind of open, red, and was swollen for a little while, but looks better now. Her anal spurs look like they've been breaded and deep fried for lack of a better description.

I told her I'm taking her to a vet tomorrow. Any ideas with whats going on? Anything I should check? Uploading pics soon.

[Stephameow]

Not sure how to upload photos.

Album: http://imgur.com/a/Snyw1

[Albert Clark]

Wow, very sad story. It sounds like the belly burn may have fulminated and become blood- borne making the little guy septic with a failure to thrive. Sounds like he is in for a a lot of rehab. Do you know if the uth that he's on now is being regulated by a thermostat? Do you also know what the temps , humidity, and enclosure set up is like? My guess at the condition of the animal is purely speculation and the definitive tests and diagnosis will come from the exotic vet which is crucially necessary. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Ax01]

omg that poor girl. ): ):

if she pulls through, i'm not sure she will be breedable with the amount of damage and scarring she has. also if u plan on breeding and bringing in more BP's or reptiles, practice good quarantining procedures please. for example, if that poor girl is infected or has some a bugs or whatever, i would not bring her anywhere near that good looking Pinstripe boy u got.

i wish her well. keep us updated.

[Greensleeves001]

I have no idea - but I think that you are absolutely awesome for jumping in and taking the snake to the vet! And I agree with Ax01 about quarantine.

[L.West]

X3 with quarantine. I wouldn't let the sickly sn as ke anywherr nesr your snake. Do not share any equipment either. Always wash your hands between handling them.

Your pinstripe is gorgeous. Kudos to you for stepping in to help.

Keep us posted.

[Stephameow]

also if u plan on breeding and bringing in more BP's or reptiles, practice good quarantining procedures please.

I know. I feel stupid now, but I realized I should've quarantined only after I had taken the comparison photo to send to her. I was in shock by her condition and needed my friend to see what a healthy ball python looked like compared to hers, because she had absolutely no idea how bad it was. She just assumed it was all normal and her snake was just taking a very long time to grow, and liquid excrement that smelled like death, because it's what she's been so used to.

I called the two exotic vets in my area as soon as they opened this morning and couldn't get an appointment until Monday, which is when my friend is returning. One said I could come in for an emergency visit, but it would cost upwards of $100. I love animals, however, it being the first of the month I have my own bills to pay and not a ton of money to spare right now. Alternatively, though, I decided to contact a veterinarian friend today to see if she'll see the snake this weekend. She recommended a soak with iodine until she can see her. She mentioned the possibility of internal parasites, which will require antibiotics, and can cause neurological problems. At this point that makes the most sense. The snake seems blind; doesn't react to sudden hand movements toward her face or light shined in her eyes, and this may be neurological problems instead.

[bcr229]

Ok, that is a bad burn and may be even recent. Does your friend have a thermostat regulating the under-tank heater? If not then that's the biggest problem that needs to be fixed. As you're about to find out a thermostat is a lot cheaper than a vet bill for a burned critter (I'd be looking at a $250 bill from my exotic specialist).

The snake needs to go into a tub on paper and kept very clean - no natural substrate.

Soaking in water with enough iodine/betadine added so it looks like weak tea is a good idea. You may have to support the snake's head if it's weak as you don't want it drinking the water.

I would write this girl off as a possible breeder with the burns around the vent area, there will be scarring and that could interfere with egg laying.

Also if you don't have money in savings or a line of credit to tap I would rethink breeding. When an emergency crops up your gravid snake will need a vet immediately, not next week when you get paid.

[Stephameow]

I don't intend to breed her. I don't even intend on breeding balls until I absolutely know what I'm doing, maybe a couple years from now. I love my pinstripe but I don't have enough space to keep more than one snake right now. That should change in the future where I'll have more funds, space, and time to throw into it. These were meant to be educational purchases to possibly breed later, though that obviously isn't happening with the female. I'm wondering once these issues are remedied (if they can be) if she'll be dwarfed for the rest of her life. Or if it's even female. Or if she's even 7-8ish months old like we tried to estimate. The guy knew much less than either of us did about his animal before we purchased her, as evident of the burns.

She's had her snake only warmed by UTH with no therm, layered with paper towels as belly protection. The previous owner had her belly directly on glass. Her digital thermometer wasn't really placed in the heat source at all so I don't think she's even been tracking how hot the pad gets. They could be fresh burns instead of an infection, I didn't think of that. I recently bought her an infrared bulb because she talked about her humidity issues, but it hadn't even been taken out of the box when I picked up the snake. My setup has been with an infrared bulb without a thermostat, I just check temps every day to make sure everythings fine. Would a thermostat still be recommended though? Her snake is currently using the same setup with paper towels for bedding because I thought aspen shavings would be a little harsh on her belly.

[Willowy]

Any UTH needs a thermostat. They commonly get to 120 degrees. . .which doesn't feel very hot to a human. But because the snake is right over it and may stay in one place for a long time it can cause burns even at that temp. And they can get up to 140 or 160 but that's not as common. So unplug the UTH and use a bulb for now, until you get a thermostat (unless you prefer the bulb).