IDEA: scale rot, mouth rot, ticks, worms, etc.

Actually.....I think that's not a bad idea at all. It would take a bit of time and effort to collect images and permissions to use them, as well as the appropriate information to go along with them.....but it could be a very useful resource for referencing when someone says "my snake has this weird spot on its belly..." or just for the additional education of all of us.

Of course, something like this would have to have a strong caveat that these sorts of conditions should always be diagnosed and attended by an experienced vet.

I'll start looking into this and see what we can come up with. :D

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Originally Posted by joepythons

OK.Now think about what you just wrote here a minute.The problem would not have been caused in the more experianced keeper collection,it was allready in place.

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In that case they would not need to be identified?

Whether an animal in quarantine, or one in your collection, it would still seem like a good idea to be able to recognize what kinds of common problems you are dealing with, and both experienced keepers and first-timers could benefit from a thread like this.

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Originally Posted by joepythons

Now what if someones snake has a burn and they look at the scale rot pic and think its scale rot when its not.Then they treat it in the manor scale rot is dealt with,how does that help the REAL problem being not treated correctly?We all know how pics never really capture the whole images.

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I think it would be a good idea to put a warning up at the top of the sticky,
WARNING: this is for learning purposes and/or helping diagnose health issues with your snake, The final call of a health issue should be made by a Herp specializing Veteranarian(sp). Just so we dont have any mix ups as Joe said.:salute:

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Originally Posted by joepythons

First off anyone with ENOUGH experiance let alone LOTS would of course NOT have these problems in his/her collection.

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I agree with Rapture, this statement is just not true.

Large collection management is not for the faint of heart ... mouth rot can be caused by a rodent claw or tooth during feeding, respiratory infections can occur during breeding season due to stress and other factors, etc. It's completely naive to think that people with lots of experience are completely immune to common ball python health problems ... if anything, they see them more than the average keeper because they have large numbers of animals.

Death and illness are unfortunately two inevitable side effects of working with live animals.

-adam

joepythons:
While I understand some of your concerns such as BP owners attempting to act as vets, I do not at all understand your basis for saying that I am exclusively tailoring to experienced BP owners.

I realized that even with years of experience, even a breeder may not encounter these common problems. If you would kindly re-read my second paragraph, I was careful enough to use the word "probably" and also to state clearly that someone with zero experience, like myself, would also be capable of constructing such a document.

Now, as to address the issue of BP owners masquerading as vets... I am glad you brought up such a point. As a counter-argument, I would like to point out that there are numerous places online where an individual worried about their health could look up possible illnesses based upon symptoms. I do not believe that this forum should be used to discuss the social/ethical rammifcations of such websites, but that such services ARE already available online even for BPs.

While composing this Sticky, I do believe that we can offer enough warning that each individual case of illness is different and require personalized attention (possibly from a vet, or perhaps just opinions from experienced forum-goers such as yourself). Also, I do believe that it is also necessary to include a boldface warning stating that self-diagnosis and/or treatment is not a substitution for veterinary attention .

I apologize for not including these things in the original post. To tell you the truth, I didn't think about that it was a problem until you mentioned it.


Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone (joepythons, Rapture, jdmls88, JLC, Adam_Wysocki) for reading and responding to my idea! I would really appreciated it if we got the ball rolling now :D

Now see this is one reason this site is way by far THE BEST and why i spend majority of my time here:rockon: .We can all have a nice peacefull discussion without someone flipping out lol.Ktzero3,i guess i could have responded a little differant also.When i read you wanted input from people with ALOT of experiance i took it as you were favoring one group over the others.My main concern was someone looking at the pics and misdiagnosing(spelling) the true problem.I agree that some type of warning should be added along with this sticky when its created.

Has anyone taken the job of creating the sticky yet?

I'll put it on the list of many things we need to get done!

Mind - we've got jobs and other things also vying for our attention out here as well - as awesome as it would be for staff to be able to work full time and get paid it just ain't so ;)

if there is anything ic an do to help i would be glad to. Pics, info. etc.

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Originally Posted by Smulkin

I'll put it on the list of many things we need to get done!

Mind - we've got jobs and other things also vying for our attention out here as well - as awesome as it would be for staff to be able to work full time and get paid it just ain't so ;)

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Jobs, Jobs! We don't need no stinking jobs.
We just want to play with our snakes all day :)

( just kidding )