A warning for beginner snake owners - Pic heavy

I wanted to post this as a PSA. Back in March, my thermostat from Petsmart shorted out. By the time I noticed it, my ball python had suffered pretty severe burns on his underbelly from his UTH. The vet gave him a 50/50 prognosis, and that was IF I did everything perfectly. I had to take him out of his home and put him in a styrofoam cooler because he could not have direct heat, but he needed as much heat as he could get. I kept him on a towel that was soaked in a betadine solution. I had to give him antibiotics shots to keep him from getting an upper respiratory infection.

My baby was strong, and he pulled through just fine. I was lucky enough to have a vet that does not charge for follow-up visits, so he was able to make all of his appointments (five in all).

Please please please do your research on thermostats! They are NOT all created equal. I thought that I was doing everything right and felt pretty good about myself for having thermostats in my snakes' cages. But trust me, the initial cost of a thermostat is NOTHING compared to the vet bills for a burn, and especially the fear that you are going to lose one of your babies.

The best sound in the world was hearing the vet tell me "We are finally back to dealing with a normal python. Well, no, normal for him. He has never been normal. It's in his charts." (My vet knows me very well and knows this particular ball python has more the personality of a reticulated python.

My original post:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...HELP!!!-scales

Some pics to show our journey:

http://s27.postimg.org/eo3qn5jpv/343t9pt.jpg
The dreaded burn...

http://s27.postimg.org/x2s1wd05v/194...96016731_n.jpg
Baby boy's home for the first two weeks of his treatment. He did NOT like it!

http://s9.postimg.org/rrnzyyr1r/1601...84961062_n.jpg
You have not LIVED until you give a snake a shot. Also gives you a good idea on how skinny he got. The vet was worried because he refused meals for the first two weeks, but he is a super finicky eater, and his temps have to be PERFECT for him to be willing to eat.

http://s24.postimg.org/iaj45v8xh/101...15949126_n.jpg
First day back "home".

http://s3.postimg.org/du0fhmdn7/1030...94127482_n.jpg
Back to normal!

http://s17.postimg.org/qy2kh6jn3/198...55323730_n.jpg
Just for fun: Wrong mouse, Severus.... lol!

Nice post and I'm glad your snake is doing better. Hopefully others will learn from this.

As for giving a snake a shot. I got a GTP with an RI. That was fun trying to keep him still to give the injections. He is a busy body and a skilled climber lucky for me he is also well mannered otherwise I would have needed a tube.

I do like this, Will let other's see. IT TAKES alot of balls to do this and admit your mistakes and well technically be released to the hounds of the internet! Would love to see "horror" storries like this (obv with the good out come :D) Stickied so many noobies can realize that a 30$ "Cheap good thermostat" will not hold its value! And to realize husbandry>Snake should always be priority! Because after some years some of our snakes will cost more then the entire ARS rack they are held in =)

Im happy hes back to "normal as you say" and he can begin with his happy growing!! GL

That's great you got him the medical attention he needed, and he's making a good recovery! I'd be interested in seeing updated belly shots as well.

I'm so glad to hear that he's recovering nicely! Thanks for having the courage to share this, I hope it helps others, too. And x2 for the updated belly shots!

Wow thanks everyone for the support! As one of you said, it is taking a risk to post something where you openly admit to making a mistake.

And drat! I had a pic I was going to add of the before and after shot, but I forgot. Anyhoo, here you go:
http://s27.postimg.org/4qeit13ir/190...65239877_n.jpg

Wow! It looks so much better! It sounds like you did a great job getting him healthy again!

So what tstat did you get? I'm just curious.

Your timing was awesome because we are discussing this very thing on another thread of somebody new to the hobby.

I ended up with a Vivarium Electronics Thermostat. NIGHT AND DAY difference between my Petsmart one!!

Congrats on getting your snake healthy again. I'd have to say too, that my herpstat has been the best investment I've made so far and I didn't even have to deal with an incident, just worrying and checking the temps every few hours when I had the cheaper t-stats / rheostats. I now only use cheaper t-stats on my quarantine setup, but am hoping to upgrade even those to a herpstat or VE.