Disabled Snake

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ps4py9iayl.jpg

This is how the enclosure WAS. The water bowl however is now in the corner. She seems to like her cage, at least we thought she did. She is all over exploring every night. Mostly balled up under a hide during the day.
Especially likes to hang out all stretched out on the wood.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SDA

Good as I meant none. I am used to huge losses myself so I understand completely.

I think pictures will help of your enclosure. We can't give you medical advice but we can give husbandry and feeding advice to make your snake less stressed and more apt to learn to eat on its own.

P.S. I applaud you and your son for taking on a special needs snake. I have one and am going through the thick of it too so I feel for you :D

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This was her when he first got her.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...psi7ldve2d.jpg

This was her about 2 weeks ago:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...psjfc33yxr.jpg


Still waiting for my pics to upload from yesterday.

Vet did say she does still look ok, not to thin really. He said she had to have been eating somewhere before we got her even if she was being assist fed at the store.

My son has not touched her in 2 weeks except for cleaning. I'm going to print everything out for him today so when he gets home from school at 9:30 tonight, i'll give him the directions for making a tub for her.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SDA

Good as I meant none. I am used to huge losses myself so I understand completely.

I think pictures will help of your enclosure. We can't give you medical advice but we can give husbandry and feeding advice to make your snake less stressed and more apt to learn to eat on its own.

P.S. I applaud you and your son for taking on a special needs snake. I have one and am going through the thick of it too so I feel for you :D

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What is your snakes disability if you don't mind me asking.

Chronic prolapse where we finally went through with surgery. She is 2 days post op and I am taking it day by day. She suffered damage to her cloaca and was prolapsing after every defecation. We suffered for 4 months before finally having surgery.

If interested, I wrote about it in this post

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...a-got-new-digs

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SDA

Chronic prolapse where we finally went through with surgery. She is 2 days post op and I am taking it day by day. She suffered damage to her cloaca and was prolapsing after every defecation. We suffered for 4 months before finally having surgery.

If interested, I wrote about it in this post

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...a-got-new-digs

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Oh wow..... that poor baby. I am so glad it sounds like things are working right now.

Can't give up on them though.

We had a baby donkey that was born a bit early but made it. Got sick when he was about 2 yrs old and we spent (now don't judge me here) but we spent $5,000 on trying to save him. Just a few months later we had to give up and let him go. Was so hard, we had so much hope. Have to do whatchya have to do. I am so thankful my husband is an understanding person when it comes to me and my animals.

And luckily my son got his love of animals from me.

Although when i first met my husband he had a HUGE snake. Can't remember what it was, all i remember is it was about 6 foot long. I'll have to ask him what it was.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SDA

Chronic prolapse where we finally went through with surgery. She is 2 days post op and I am taking it day by day. She suffered damage to her cloaca and was prolapsing after every defecation. We suffered for 4 months before finally having surgery.

If interested, I wrote about it in this post

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...a-got-new-digs

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Ok here are some pics from vet yesterday.
She's hiding on my sons shoulder while waiting.
Hope this works. My first tapatalk post. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...41ed699d7d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9d9f2f04f7.jpg

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maybeka

Ok here are some pics from vet yesterday.
She's hiding on my sons shoulder while waiting.
Hope this works. My first tapatalk post. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...41ed699d7d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9d9f2f04f7.jpg

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

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Another onehttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...20c2339efa.jpg

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

What a beautiful baby. I hope things work out for you folks.

Now here is the thing about petsmart. They get dumped off breeder's unwanted snakes and most if not all are feeding on live food. My concern is you might not be able to get a fuzzy or hopper mouse to try and feed. 100 grams means a 10 gram rodent is about the good size which means a large fuzzy or hopper.

Maybe your breeder friend can help out to offer this snake a live rodent.


Now there are some things about that tank that could improve to offer a better condition for reducing stress and improve humidity.

Aspen is not very good for humidity control and the depth you have in there is slightly too thick for the under tank heater. 1/2 inch should be the most you want and something like coconut fiber would be much better to keep humidity up. I see you block off a lot of the screen so sounds like you are working to keep humidity in.

That half log hide is absolute garbage for a ball python hide. You need one entry point and two of them, one of the warm side and one on the cool side. They need to feel secure and a half log is just not going to cut it.

Now you may have the back and sides blocked off but if not that really needs to be done to get things secure


Also temps need to be on point. You absolutely must have a thermostat on the undertank heater. There is not way around that for heating.

The warm side above the under tank heater needs to be around the upper 80s like 88-90 at the surface of the inside of the glass, not the surface of the substrate. The cooler side or at least the temp between the warm hide and the cool hide needs to be int he upper 70s and needs to be tested by a digital thermometer or a infrared temp gun and not an analog dial thermometer.

These are some basic changes you can do to help give your snake the opportunity to get healthy.

I would also stop handling the snake. Until it can eat on its own and gains weight, avoid handling it. You just are stressing it by handling it right now.


Looks like you might need some husbandry improvements and by doing so you would at least improve chances that your little one will have a fighting chance to thrive.

This is just my personal opinions of course and you are welcome to how you want to care for your snake but these suggestions come with a lot of experience and some years of trial and error that helped me get problems solved.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SDA

Now here is the thing about petsmart. They get dumped off breeder's unwanted snakes and most if not all are feeding on live food. My concern is you might not be able to get a fuzzy or hopper mouse to try and feed. 100 grams means a 10 gram rodent is about the good size which means a large fuzzy or hopper.

Maybe your breeder friend can help out to offer this snake a live rodent.


Now there are some things about that tank that could improve to offer a better condition for reducing stress and improve humidity.

Aspen is not very good for humidity control and the depth you have in there is slightly too thick for the under tank heater. 1/2 inch should be the most you want and something like coconut fiber would be much better to keep humidity up. I see you block off a lot of the screen so sounds like you are working to keep humidity in.

That half log hide is absolute garbage for a ball python hide. You need one entry point and two of them, one of the warm side and one on the cool side. They need to feel secure and a half log is just not going to cut it.

Now you may have the back and sides blocked off but if not that really needs to be done to get things secure


Also temps need to be on point. You absolutely must have a thermostat on the undertank heater. There is not way around that for heating.

The warm side above the under tank heater needs to be around the upper 80s like 88-90 at the surface of the inside of the glass, not the surface of the substrate. The cooler side or at least the temp between the warm hide and the cool hide needs to be int he upper 70s and needs to be tested by a digital thermometer or a infrared temp gun and not an analog dial thermometer.

These are some basic changes you can do to help give your snake the opportunity to get healthy.

I would also stop handling the snake. Until it can eat on its own and gains weight, avoid handling it. You just are stressing it by handling it right now.


Looks like you might need some husbandry improvements and by doing so you would at least improve chances that your little one will have a fighting chance to thrive.

This is just my personal opinions of course and you are welcome to how you want to care for your snake but these suggestions come with a lot of experience and some years of trial and error that helped me get problems solved.

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OK, here's some answers for your suggestions (which i take suggestions Graciously) :)

The young man my son met tried a live mouse, she didn't take it. She didn't take a f/t after that either so that's when he assist fed her.

We cleaned the cage after the vet visit yesterday and put less on the bottom so it is not so deep..

The hides you see in there are from when he first got her, he doesn't have those now and the ones he has are smaller and there is one on each side of the tank. (there was a hide behind the branch in that old pic that you just can't see)

The water dish is maybe to big, and it has been moved to the corner under the Ceramic Heat lamp and i think that may help his humidity a little. No?

We will definitely change the bedding if it is best for her and get the coconut type.

The back and sides of the tank are covered in black construction paper.

He has a ceramic heater (not a red light heat lamp which is what he bought when he first got her) on the warm side on a thermostat and it stays around 88 and the cool side fluctuates between 74 and 75 and he checks it with a temp gun he bought.

Only time he has handled her since the day he brought her home was once to completely clean the tank and then once to try to feed her with his new friend. Then of course yesterday to take her to the vet which i'm SURE that must have REALLY stressed her out.

Other than changing it to where she lives in a snake tub, I am hoping we are doing things right.

I do think she's beautiful, normal colored or not!! :)