Hi everyone. As the title says, I rescued a very neglected BP a few weeks ago from one of my boyfriend's co-workers. I thought some of you would be interested in following his recovery.
I haven't actually sexed him yet so I'm just assuming he's male for now. We're calling him Dr. Frankenfurter.
When I went to pick him up, I found him in a tank, with a heat lamp and one oversized hide on the cold side. The inside of the tank was covered in YEARS' worth of old waste. The snake was covered with several layers of unshed skin, blinded by retained eyecaps. He was also very skinny, his spine and ribs completely visible. He was weak when I held him for the first time, almost limp.
When I got him home, I promptly soaked him. I left his head and neck alone the first time because he was so headshy and I was trying to minimize stress, but I gently peeled the dead skin off the rest of his body. Underneath I found several healed over scars. Not sure if they were caused by rodent bites, or the old shed getting tight and digging into his body.
Here he is right after the first soak. This is the first picture I took of him, should have taken one before I got started but I didn't think of it at the time.
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...c67170809f.jpg
That's probably his best angle, it doesn't really show how skinny he actually is. And these are the worst of the scars.
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...837b70bd41.jpg
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...00d35fd86c.jpg
Later that night, I offered him a f/t rat pup and he gulped it right down. You can really see how skinny he is in this picture, his back is a sharp peak. From what the previous owner told me, I know that he's over two years old, and yet he's no larger than my yearlings and definitely weighs a lot less than any of them. :(
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...a4a132f31b.jpg
He also had patches of reddish pink skin under and between his scales that seemed very sensitive. He didn't want to be touched, even by himself. Seeing a BP ball up while trying not to touch himself is pretty strange... but I kept him on damp paper towels and after about a week the reddish areas faded away, and so did his obvious sensitivity. He seems much more comfortable now, though still shy.
He has been eating rat pups steadily every 3-5 days, so I'm feeling pretty hopeful about his eventual recovery. I've been monitoring him for signs of RI but nothing so far. Still, he's in full quarantine and will be for a while. I'll post updates periodically.
PLEASE NOTE: This snake ended up in this situation because his original owner passed away. He was inherited by family members who were not only clueless about proper care, but were also disabled and literally unable to care for him even if they knew how. Please consider who would care for your snakes if something ever happens to you.
