Help pls

i live in montreal canda

polak,

talk to your parents and explain to them that your snake really needs to see a vet, then call around to find a vet who works with snakes and ask them how much a visit will cost.

take this one step at a time and don't feel bad... everyone has to learn!

in light,
Aleesha

Hi again,

Ok if your folks dont agree to take you to the vets and have time of school to do it (and I really ,really hope they do), then theres a couple of things to be aware of.

I'd keep the poor thing on something sterile and easily cleaned (newspaper at a push). At no point in time try and pull the loose shed skin hanging from it's belly - it's very likely you would open up the wound and provide another point for infection etc.

Make sure the tank is kept at the proper temperatures - the caresheets on this site will tell you what those should be.

I hope she pulls through - keep us posted if you can.And if someone on this board has better advice to give about care before he manages to get to the vets could they sing out as I've never had to deal with anything like that and hope never to have to.

In Britain we have an organization that will treat animals whose owners cannot afford regular vets for a donation (I think they are called the P.D.S.A) of generally about £5.It might be worth looking for something similar in Canada if it would speed up getting the treatment started.


dr del

money wise i will get money thats not the big thing right now i found a reptile vet in my area now the only thing i can do is wait until saturday morning at 10am thats when im going to go to the vets cuz thats what time it opens and i got like that good thing in a way that i have it now cuz i dont know what my neigbhour would of done

what are you using to heat the tank?

hi,


Do you know what actually happened to the snake?

Also make sure it has plenty of drinking water as it could get quite badly dehydrated - I'm not sure I would give it anything it could fit in as a water bowl though - hopefully someone will know better than I do about that.


dr del

Oh my lord, that is the most serious thing I have ever seen. I don't even know what to say- I know there is something helpful to say in the back of my mind, but there are some serious words for your neighbors blocking them from coming out.

I really, really hope you can either find someone to surrender that snake to or manage to keep it alive under your care. That is going to take some serious $$$ and love. If you aren't up for it, I would suggest finding someone ASAP.

im going to do what it take to keap my snake

Yes, vet, asap...I'm glad you have an appointment for Saturday. It's unfortunate you can't get him in sooner...

What it looks like is that the snake has been badly burned by either an uncontrolled under tank heater (UTH) or by a "hot rock", those used for desert lizards but absolutely terrible for snakes. Snakes are ectothermic, so they gather their heat from the environment. If the only heat source is an uncontrolled UTH or a hot rock, both of which get waaay hotter than a snake can handle, the snake will use it for heat but will literally begin to cook and burn.

What happens after is that the dead, cooked/burned flesh on the belly begins to rot. This is called necropsy - and can be quickly fatal as you can imagine.

Getting the animal to the vet as quickly is possible to stop this process and start the healing is vital to enable the snake to have a fighting chance. It can take several months of proper (and expert) care to turn a snake in this situation back to completely healthy.

For an example of this process, have a look at the following thread. One BP.net's members, goldenburm, took in this badly damaged ball python with burns and necropsy and the snake has made a full recovery:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ghlight=rescue

It might also be worthwhile to phone the vet as soon as he opens and ask if there is any interim advice he could give. He may ask you to (very ,VERY gently) clean the wound with some kind of mild reptile friendly disinfectant - or,conversely, he may feel that leaving it as is would be better.

The link cassandra posted has some excellent advice in it and shows that recovery is possible.

dr del