Ball python with a broken jaw 😢 Vet pushing to force feed 🤔

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Originally Posted by Asasara

I'm having trouble getting pics to post, but she was able to drink with it on. It was simple medical tape around her muzzle and back toward her jowl on the underside of her jaw, with a collar of tape around her neck connecting to the tape under her jaw. It looked wonky to me... I'm looking for another vet... this one was reputed to be one of the better exotic and reptile vets near Seattle, and I'm not impressed.

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Its some of the strangest things I've read about a snake/Vet. I cant imagine its broken. My snakes have Pushed so hard they have tumbled down 20" but i cant believe anything like that would break a jaw when i see the force in the way pythons strike... So odd.


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If the snake can drink with the splint on then I wouldn't take it to the vet for force/assist/tube feeding. It will survive for six weeks without eating.

I'd still take it to a second vet for a second opinion personally. Make sure another vet agrees that bump is actually a broken jaw and not an abscess or something.

Wants a triangular shape with back bone showing :O:O:O

While I like the back bone to be "there" I definitely don't want a triangular shape along with it, gosh, does that Vet realize there are ribs and such in there ? That snake would have to be emaciated to look triangular, what nonsense.

And that splint sounds a bit wonky to me, too. Tape on a Ball Pythons? Like...sticky tape ?? :confusd: That sounds like a recipe for more injury..sigh.

Honestly, if the snake was able to keep its mouth closed, but also open it (which apparently it can since they force fed her) I'd just leave that snake alone and not feed her for 6 to 8 weeks and let it heal. Or ...take it to a real reptile specialist.

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Originally Posted by zina10

Wants a triangular shape with back bone showing :O:O:O

While I like the back bone to be "there" I definitely don't want a triangular shape along with it, gosh, does that Vet realize there are ribs and such in there ? That snake would have to be emaciated to look triangular, what nonsense.

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IIRC the preferred Woma python shape is triangular, the same way boas are rectangular. :)

But agreed that a BPs should not be triangular!



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Originally Posted by Prognathodon

IIRC the preferred Woma python shape is triangular, the same way boas are rectangular. :)

But agreed that a BPs should not be triangular!



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Oh, I was definitely talking about Ball Pythons, I should have mentioned that. I know many other snakes have different shapes, far more streamlined. But while BP's shouldn't be so obese that they have fat wrinkles and a "dip" where the spine should be, they should be pleasantly plump looking.

A reptile specialist veterinarian should at least know the basics about the most popular "pet" species, and have medical books and documentation handy to refer to more rare species.

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Originally Posted by zina10

Oh, I was definitely talking about Ball Pythons, I should have mentioned that. I know many other snakes have different shapes, far more streamlined.

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And I was being a little pedantic, so we’re even! :)


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