BP Rescue Story

[Rhyasha]

Life is quite often a strange trip, and sometimes you get hit with the most unexpected things and you try to do your best to have a good outcome. I'm a new snake owner and very proud of my little pastel male Kohji. He's a fat and happy boy, and I can almost see him growing.

I work at an animal hospital as a vet assistant, and our practice doesn't see too many exotic pets. We focus on dogs, cats, and the occasional fuzzy pocket pet. So I've taken Kohji into work a couple times to show him off and get weights on him on the gram scale. This has earned me the unoffical title of snake expert around the office it seems.

Yesterday, one of the receptionists comes up to me with a question: If I show you a pic on my camera, can you ID a snake for me? I ask her if its a wild snake, cause I'd give my best guess on that. She comes back and shows me a picture of a little ball python. Now she doesn't like snakes very much, so my next question is where'd she get the picture.

Her son has been hiding a pair of ball pythons from her for about 6 months. She only found out this past weekend because an awful smell was coming from his room. She tore apart the place and found a cage with two snakes, one unfortunately deceased, and a skinny little one. Explanation from her son is that two of his friends bought the snakes and cage in the fall and their mother tossed the whole kit and kaboodle out on the porch in freezing weather and would not let the animals back in the house. He took the snakes and "rescued" them.

I say "rescued" because one, he didn't tell his mother, and two, he is scared of snakes and had no idea how to properly care for them. I try to get some info from my co-worker. The surviving snake is living in a 20 gallon tank with astroturf bottom that hasn't ever been changed. The floor is covered in shed, urates, and feces. It has one UTH, but no thermostat or temp control. Humidity is almost non-existent. The son has been tossing in a live mouse for the snake about once a month.

My stomach lurched into my throat hearing all of this. After all the research and information gathering I went through before getting Kohji I know this poor fellow could be in critical condition. I tell her to bring him in so I can see if he's in really bad shape and that I will find someone to take him and rehab him.

I worried about the little guy all night. Today she brought him in and luckily we had a relief veterinarian in who sees herps and exotics. He isn't as bad off as I initially feared, but he's still in rough shape. He weighs 147g at approximately 1 yr old, is dehydrated, a little anemic, and most likely has a parasite load. His heart and lungs were good though, so no sign of an RI. He doesn't have any scale rot or burns, but a good half a shed was stuck on him.
I was able to soak him and get most of that off.

He's pretty weak, but he's a sweetie. He had plenty of opportunity to bite us if he wanted but he was pretty stoic. He's a nice pattern too, reduced markings with some black speckling. I found a man locally who is equipped to take care of sick reptiles and he'll nurse him back to good health and find him a home/keep him. I'm so relieved he'll probably make it with expert care, I was extremely concerned after hearing the other snake died.

Big thanks to all you BP-netters for helping me learn enough about snakes over the past couple months to know what to do for this little man. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some good reports from the rehab guy on him in a couple weeks.

[Alice]

A big thanks to you for rescuing that little baby! Please post pics and keep us updated.

[ZEKESMOM]

Good for you...wish the little one the best of luck on a speedy recovery to good health!

[frankykeno]

What a sad thing but with your intervention it sounds like this little snake may have a chance at a far better life. Big hugs for your efforts to see him well and safely placed with an experienced rehabber.

[wolfy-hound]

Kudos to you for helping that poor little one out. Hopefully the mom and the son will both get some updated information of how to proeprly rescue animals in a way that will make them aware without making them defensive too. Mom is excused as she didn't know. But her son should get to see how to properly rescue a animal. He meant well, and is just a kid, but if he saw the snake given over to a proper rehabber, then maybe he can remember that and pass on that good information to others too. He must have a good heart to have tried.
I hope to hear some good updates on the rescue! Good on you for helping!

[python.princess]

wow! i can't believe someone would just leave them on the porch! that's horrible! too bad about the one that died but it's great to hear that the other baby will (hopefully) have a good life from here on!

[MATT FISHER REPTILES]

congrats on the rescue. helping in need animals is what it is all about.