Need some help with a rescue

Interesting turn of events today. I worked an overnight last night and came home and basically went straight to bed. After I got up and posted the above update I checked on the little guy. He was curled up in the warm spot and the edema was quite a bit better. There are some spots I can see now where he does have some erythema along his scales, but it still doesn't look like blister disease or anything. This fluid is not related to his scales, it's under his skin completely.

Anyway, I did some warm compresses on his eyes just to see how retained the eye caps are and the bad news there is that they are not going to come off easily and the right one doesn't respond to light at all (if you shine a light in there, the pupil remains dilated). The left one is well formed, moveable, and the pupil does respond to light so I have some hope there.

Because he is still so active, I decided to forgo tube feeding as the first option and see how he reacted to a prey meal. I offered him a f/t fuzzy and once I put the nose of it in his mouth, he swallowed it with no trouble and with enthusiasm. So far, there has been no regurge and he edema seems pretty comfortable. We will see.....

If he's stable, a vet visit and blood work, as well as a sample of the fluid will be next.

He's pretty friendly!

I don't think I've ever seen an eye that looked as bad as this. Hope he pulls through okay! :(

What's sad is that that's a picture of the "good" eye....

It's so good to hear he's getting better, the poor guy.

This enrages me so much!! :mad:

I am very glad someone experienced has taken him in, I hope he gets back to good health.

My first BP is a rescue. That was about 10 months ago, and so much has happened since. " Lily " is my first Normal Female that i rescued from a CL ad in my home town. she was thin and cold. I took her to the vet within that very week,after i got her home, warmed up, and fed. My personal vet has been my doctor since 2007 and he is my reptile expert. A Barrium Test was administered to her.(blood analysis) and she came out clean. Thank GOD! Internal parasites are dangerous and can infect others. I separated her for 30 days and do so with new arrivals. All separate tubs within a rack system.

The other kids i got along the way, I bought from reputable breeders and collectors. Good luck with your continuing work with your rescue. Best gift to give oneself........Information, Information, Information.:D



1.0 Spider
1.0 pinstripe
1.0 lemon pastel - blushed out
0.1 Lemon pastel
0.2 Normals
0.1 Amel Corn Snake
1 Oscar fish

Update: Still alive and getting feisty. Now that there is less edema, I may change my mind about the cause. He has what seems to be a dent, where I can feel his ribs, then not feel them so well, then feel them again. Maybe broken ribs? It's hard to tell because of the swelling unless I were to really press on him and I see no need to torture the little guy. Back for x-rays next week I guess.

Trooper had x-rays this weekend. No broken bones, but the edema he has all looks to be caudal to the heart (i.e., there's none from his head/neck, then once you get past his heart he's all puffy). So we were considering heart failure as a possible cause. We saw a veterinary cardiologist and friend yesterday who did an ultrasound. His right aortic branch looks really dilated and his right atrium looks like it might be enlarged (hard to say because they are usually bigger than the left atrium anyway).

We are not doing research as to whether it makes any sense to try him on some sort of heart medication. As long as I can get something injectable I might give it a go, as he is still eating and seems pretty happy otherwise.

He's very famous at work now!

Thanks for the update, keep them coming! Go little one, go!

Trooper!! This is why these snakes are around today after millions of years. :) pretty hearty. Best of luck to you and your critters!