burned/6 months without eating :(

[rayann]

hi all,

in the past 6 months my ball (3 years old) has been through a lot....

he used to be a great eater until I moved him to a friends for 2 months this summer where he never ate (I suspect he could have been overhandled, but the temps were probably ok)

after that i moved to a place that was a bit too cold for him. He wasnt eeating or shedding well, so I got a stronger UTH under the advice that he would move off it if it was too hot (wrong ) He got burned...

I got him to eat one pinky sometime after the burn and now 3 months later with good temps he still has not eaten. He still sheds regularly and all other behavior is normal.

He mostly shows no interest and wont even come out of a hide to smell the F/T mouse (heated). A couple times I have fed at night and when i wake up in the am it looks like he has spat the mouse out on the other side of the tank.

Any thoughts? He used to be a great eater on small adults. I would change to live if i had to, but he has never had them before and i really dont want him to get scratched since he is just recovering from his burn.

thanks

[Homegrownscales]

First did you fix the issue with the tank? Does the uth have a thermostat on it? Are your temps optimal? How are you measuring them?
Second did he get treatment for the burn? Has he has a follow up to review the tissue and make sure theres not an underlying infection?
There could be a host of reasons of why he's not eating at the moment. Many of them could be because of the set up or the burn.


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[rayann]

i saw a herp vet and he said not to put anything on the burn and just to wait and feed smaller mice while it was healing. i got rid of the new uth and went back to his old one plus an nifrared heat lamp from above and moved to a new house with a warmer room. There he started having his best sheds ever.

I am measuring the temps with an infrared thermometer. The vet didnt suggest bringing him in for follow up... I called when the burn was scabbing because it looked horrible, but when i described it he said all was normal.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

I believe the problem is you're not using a thermostat to control the UTH. You never EVER use a UTH without plugging it into a thermostat to control the amount of heat it puts out.

They need to be controlled. They can not just be plugged in by them selves and left to go full blast.

I'm sure you do need the larger one. You just need the proper set up with a thermostat.
Then you need a digital thermometer with probe to measure your hot and cool sides. These are very cheap to buy at Walmart.

The vet sounds questionable. You should have been given silver sulfadiazine cream for the burn to aid in healing and prevent infection.

I wish you luck with your little one. If you don't fix the problems with it's enclosure, I'm afraid you might run into problems later on as well. Your snake could stop eating more often, get sick with RI, or run into digestive issues due to not being warm enough.

Keep us updated!

[Homegrownscales]

X2


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[rayann]

ill get a thermostat tomorrow... thank you