Ball Python Health Problem - URGENT

Not sure if this thread should be under general or husbandry. I rescued two ball pythons last night from an owner who had no idea what they were doing. One is a normal and the other is a bumblebee morph. The bee appears to be okay other than dehydration, which I am treating using a pedilyte soak and high humidity.

The normal however, has some serious issues which we didn't notice until be brought her out of the pillowcase upon arriving home. She too is severely dehydrated and has a stuck shed. For these we are using the same methods as we are with the bee. We also suspect she has a minor URI due to wheezing so we are going to begin the vicks treatment. The more concerning issue is that she appears to have neurological damage. She twists and flops her head around without appearing to have control over her actions. When she is managing to move proporly she appearly have a severe spider wobble to her head. We are treating it as though it is the worst case scenario, IBD and keeping her in absolute quarantine, however I have also heard that it may be due to overheating, dehydration, or poisoning. Her pupils are very large and she doesn't appear to be able to see very well, which others have said may be due to a cap stuck on her eye.

They came with one tank when we got them, which the bee was in and it was dry as a bone, so we are suspecting that she too had little to no humidity in her enclosure. They also came with some heat mats, one of which appeared to have caught fire and had a hole right through it, so overheating is a viable suspicion. Just looking to get some other opinions on what may be the issue with her, and whether there is anything else we should be doing for either of them to help them (hopefully) recover as soon as possible. Absolutely disgusted with the way this person treated them! :mad:

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Would really like her to make it, it is awful seeing her struggle to keep her head straight.

DO NOT USE VICKS

And take your snake to a Herp Vet and I really mean and herp vet, the vet should do a culture to established which antibiotic is needed to treat the RI (if RI is disgnosed) as all RI are not the same, the treatment should be in form of injectable anti-biotics not oral and usually last for a minimum of 30 days .....if none of that is done find another vet.

That's what you do when you have an emergency with one of your pets.

As for the "wobbling" there are a variety of things that can cause mild to severe neurological issues, over heating, chemical exposure etc.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

DO NOT USE VICKS

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Worth repeating. Snakes also don't need the sugar and salt in pedialyte, just soak them in clean water to help rehydrate them.

Im glad you got them away from soemone that let them get to this terrible point, however there is nothing you can do yourself unless your a Herp Vet and can do tests & write Scripts! They will not come out of a hardcore illness like a RI from just hydration, warm temps and a meal. They will end up dying. If money is a issue, check with your local aspsa and ask if they have phone numbers for groups that give assistance for rescued animals ect.. In NY there are vets that have Rescue bills covered by Volunteer groups that have funds available for such situations.