No vet nearby; need help

I've had Yoshi (my ball python) for about three years now. He's gone through his fasting before. Normally I just make him comfortable (he likes warm baths) and wait for him to shed. Normally after he sheds he'll eat.

This time however he still refused to eat. He's gotten more lethargic and I noticed from his last shed there remained bits of dead skin (which he's always gotten off himself on his half log) had hardened and are now pretty much attached to him. I'm afraid of trying to remove them for fear of hurting him (and I don't want to try the bath approach as I noticed he has a little wheezing to his breathing, which is pretty common, I swear I got the one snake that is allergic to nearly all bedding.)

It's been three months now since he's eaten, his underbelly is constantly red no matter what I do (change bedding daily, clean the cage daily). He won't eat. He doesn't even coil up really, most of the time he's just half stretched when normally it was instant curl. When I pick him up he barely puts any effort into holding onto my arm.

There isn't a vet anywhere near me that I can reach due to car issues. Anyone have any idea's on what I might be able to do to help him until I can find a way to the vet?

What are your specifications. Size of enclosure? Temps? Humidity?

That will help get the ball rolling for you so you can get some great help from the more experienced members here.

BTW! Welcome!

I dont know what substrate you are using, but if you think it is an allergic reaction, switch to newspaper or paper towel. A lot of people on the forums use it with good results. Is it red/pink like as if he is going into to shed, or red like he could be burned? If a burn, lower your temps with a lamp dimmer, or at least turn the UTH off until you can get one. They are about 9 bucks at a hardware store or walmart. Hope this helps.

hey bud, redness could be due to your under tank heater, he must be in very close contact to it through the glass and bedding and it may be on too high use a dimmer switch like the guy above me said, or it could be early stage of belly rot too much water like soaking and if his enclosure is always very moist could result in belly rot, the weazing could be a sign of respitory infection or R.I. its fatal if it gets worse and could lead to mouth rot... the best way to cure it and you dont really need a vet for most snake problems unless its something internal, but it usually can be solved with heat, 100 degree heat get his inclosure to 100 degrees for a couple of days and watch and listen to his breathing, but make sure he has a cool spot of like 85 degrees to get out of the heat, but 85 is still quit warm, that should fix the weazing, remember to keep a close watch on him while his enclosure is at high temps, also keep a very big water dish in with him with cold water every day, that also will help with the high heat, do not spray with water too often, you want the air to be dry he basically has fluid build up in his lungs, so dry is a little better in this case, and about the shed skin as long as his eye caps aren't on he will be ok, if they are still on then spray his head with luke warm water and let his chill for like 2 min let the dry skin soak up the water do it as needed until you see caps start to ripple or if it doesn't then just wait until water is almost dry get some electrical tape or duck tape but make sure you dull the tape a little with your fingers, the gently place on the eye and pull slowly untill caps are off, (dont use tweezers to remove skin you can hurt or even cut the eye) and basically thats all. I am very knowledgeable about snakes and some lizards i worked with vets and reptile for a long time and myself ran into many of these same problems, unless life threatening at that moment dont take him to the vet you will get charged a arm and a leg and all he gonna tell you is what i just said...lol high temps... ok well hope that will help and if you have anymore questions please ask....

I keep a very close eye on his conditions. He's in a 50 gallon tank currently. I learned in the past that just about every bedding bothers him so I finally settled on newspaper for the longest time now. I haven't had any problems with it.

As far as his underbelly it's a irritated pink. I'm pretty sure it's not belly rot or anything so serious though I think I figured out why he has that when I woke up this morning. He pushed his log out of the way and somehow managed to get under his bedding to lay directly on the glass. So for now I just have his heating lamp on until I can get to the store and get something to bar his way under the bedding. ><;

He's still wheezing as of this morning so as of the advice given I turned up his heating lamp to bring the temp up. He has his half log that he likes to disappear under for shade.

Aside from the wheezing and bad shed that I don't want to mess with (I refuse to soak him until he's not wheezing) quite yet ... anyone have any idea why he's so... lethargic? He still barely does anything to try and grip onto me when I move him. Could his fasting have made him weak?

You need to take the snake to a vet. No one here is qualified to assess the issues with your snake. Maybe there is a bus system or a friend with a car?

how long hasnt he eaten, balls can go up to 3 months no problem with eating mine went almost 6 months, but the weakness is a result of the RI i know i had a boa that a rescued that had it, very limp no attempt to move or wrap my arm, wouldnt eat anything it cam to the point that i had to force feed him to get energy in him. but the 100 degree temps worked great and has been working with my friends snakes and my girlfriends snakes. if you dont mined spending lots of money then by all means take him but im saying this from a view of me having over 30 balls and 4 jungle carpets so it would cost me a fortune to take them to a vet , besides snakes dont do good anesthetized and there is no medicine for snakes, oh for the red belly you can use a vitamin E but make sure it has no purfum or pain killer in it. that will help heal the redness... oh and like i said iv worked with herp vets and i know what they do. the doctor I worked with took in a big boa with RI and mouth rot the owner left the snake for the doctor to look at and take care of all he did was clean its mouth with watered down paroxide every day twice, and put her in a 55 gallon tank with temps at 95-100 degrees and a big water bowl with cold water that i changed 3 times a day to keep cold spot for her after 5 days she was back to new and the owner was $450 pluse tax in the hole when he could have done it at home and used that money for his electric bill...lol

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Originally Posted by royalballs

how long hasnt he eaten, balls can go up to 3 months no problem with eating mine went almost 6 months, but the weakness is a result of the RI i know i had a boa that a rescued that had it, very limp no attempt to move or wrap my arm, wouldnt eat anything it cam to the point that i had to force feed him to get energy in him. but the 100 degree temps worked great and has been working with my friends snakes and my girlfriends snakes. if you dont mined spending lots of money then by all means take him but im saying this from a view of me having over 30 balls and 4 jungle carpets so it would cost me a fortune to take them to a vet , besides snakes dont do good anesthetized and there is no medicine for snakes, oh for the red belly you can use a vitamin E but make sure it has no purfum or pain killer in it. that will help heal the redness... oh and like i said iv worked with herp vets and i know what they do. the doctor I worked with took in a big boa with RI and mouth rot the owner left the snake for the doctor to look at and take care of all he did was clean its mouth with watered down paroxide every day twice, and put her in a 55 gallon tank with temps at 95-100 degrees and a big water bowl with cold water that i changed 3 times a day to keep cold spot for her after 5 days she was back to new and the owner was $450 pluse tax in the hole when he could have done it at home and used that money for his electric bill...lol

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I cant even begin to address all of the ways that the above quoted post is wrong.
DO NOT LISTEN TO THE CONTENT OF THE ABOVE QUOTED POST.
There are antibiotics given (either orally or injected) for RI and other bacterial infections.
BAD advice like the previous post is why I suggest to you, and now urge you, to find your way to a vet. You could even begin by calling a vet. Please.

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Originally Posted by starmom

I cant even begin to address all of the ways that the above quoted post is wrong.
DO NOT LISTEN TO THE CONTENT OF THE ABOVE QUOTED POST.
There are antibiotics given (either orally or injected) for RI and other bacterial infections.
BAD advice like the previous post is why I suggest to you, and now urge you, to find your way to a vet. You could even begin by calling a vet. Please.

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Agreed, first and foremost we want to help all people with their snakes, but the only advice we should really be giving in a case like this is that snakes needs immediate medical attention. Anything farther than simple husbandry tweeks, we run the risk of improper medical advice, even more so when we are not Vets, and most vets will NOT diagnose over the internet.

I advise these few things.

Give us a very detailed description of your set up. Temps, what your using to heat it, how you control the temps, bedding, size of food, when he last ate. Every nitty little detail.

Second, we can recommend husbandry changes to avoid any further complications.

Third, we can only tell you minor tips to help speed along the recovery of your snake, no diagnosing.

I hope you can understand the delicate situation.

well this is how i run things here and i never lost a snake to infection or disease and I have had snakes that were close to dying many times. im old fashioned but don't tell me what i do is wrong it works for me, so if your intent with pumping your snakes with all this bull:cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: medicine then go ahead but believe it or not reptiles are the far most incredible healers in the world and don't need medicine for healing, all they need is the right conditions. hey bud i hope you dont take my advice, and listen to all these other guys and hope your snake gets better. but i hate how ppl got the nerve to say what i do is wrong. The one snake i ever lost was i fed one of my snakes a live rat and the rat killed my snake i was young and my first snake.. I have rehabilitated 100's of snakes from corns to retics and my methods work you name it i had it belly burn where there was puss comeing out i rescued him a boa he was almost bbq i saved him my way, belly rot, saved him my way, rot mouth RI saved them my way, eye capes multipul ones saved them my way i had one so bad the eye was dead underneath and i removed the eye and it healed no problem.. , im more hands on with my animals, the only time i ever took a snake to a vet was when i had burm swallow a piece of wood and i waited but it wouldn't come out yes i took him to a vet and it was lodged in his intestine, im not saying vets are bad but reptiles dont need medicine or vet help for every little thing ,and i think it will lower their life span. But again please don't take my advice thank you good luck with your little guy!!!!

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Originally Posted by royalballs

well this is how i run things here and i never lost a snake to infection or disease and I have had snakes that were close to dying many times. im old fashioned but don't tell me what i do is wrong it works for me, so if your intent with pumping your snakes with all this bull:cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: medicine then go ahead but believe it or not reptiles are the far most incredible healers in the world and don't need medicine for healing, all they need is the right conditions. hey bud i hope you dont take my advice, and listen to all these other guys and hope your snake gets better. but i hate how ppl got the nerve to say what i do is wrong. The one snake i ever lost was i fed one of my snakes a live rat and the rat killed my snake i was young and my first snake.. I have rehabilitated 100's of snakes from corns to retics and my methods work you name it i had it belly burn where there was puss comeing out i rescued him a boa he was almost bbq i saved him my way, belly rot, saved him my way, rot mouth RI saved them my way, eye capes multipul ones saved them my way i had one so bad the eye was dead underneath and i removed the eye and it healed no problem.. , im more hands on with my animals, the only time i ever took a snake to a vet was when i had burm swallow a piece of wood and i waited but it wouldn't come out yes i took him to a vet and it was lodged in his intestine, im not saying vets are bad but reptiles dont need medicine or vet help for every little thing ,and i think it will lower their life span. But again please don't take my advice thank you good luck with your little guy!!!!

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For thousands of years ppl have done whatever they could to fix what ails them and their animals and they SWORE by it. But you know when I have migraine I don't drill a hole in my head, I take a Tylenol. People are living longer than ever because there were willing to learn and use more and more modern treatment methods.

While your animals my have survived and recovered with the treatments you described above, many of the methods you mentioned have been proven to not be the best or most effective method. Nothing helps RI like antibiotics, period. Antibiotics kill RI bacteria.

Justin

Hi, I´m relatively new to this site, but I have to agree that you should take your snake to the vet. About the fasting a trick I have used on my girl when she wasn't eating, I found this on some website "an exposed brain can induce a hungry snake to eat" (I know this is quite nasty but it worked on my girl, although I would recommend doing this with a pre-killed mouse/rat.)
Best of luck with your snake and I hope he/she will get better.

o_o; Uh. Now now kids?

I thank you for your advice.... and for those telling me to ignore it and go to a vet I figured the first post covered it. I can -not- get him to a vet. Think of it as a downfall of living in the middle of nowhere. By the time I can get him to a vet should there still be problems I will.

I'm not expecting a perfect medical opinion. I will take all the advice I can get so please don't bicker amongst yourselves.

As far as my specifics. Right now his cage is about 85-90 F, 50 gallon glass tank, newspaper bedding. An under tank heating pad, a main heating lamp with a secondary I use during the winter.

He eats medium sized rats.... he has a thing for female rats. I don't understand it but in the years I've had him he's never eaten a male rat no matter how hard I try. I can try for weeks and the second I switch to a female rat BAM he eats. Kind of wishing it was that simple again this time around.

Where exactly do you live?

I would definitely call the vet's office and ask for some advice. Explain your driving situation to them and ask to speak to a vet on the phone perhaps, or maybe the person who answers could give you some tips. If you have to, ask to maybe set up a certain time in between the vet's appointments to call and talk to him, if he happens to be busy when you call. If you keep a short record of daily notes about his condition, that might help the vet get a better idea of what's going on since he can't meet you and your BP personally. Hope these ideas help. :)

I've suggested calling a vet. I bet you have a phone ;) You have not posted any pictures. Connie explained to you the dangers of any forum member trying to diagnose your snake.
Danger Danger Danger
Call a vet.

you should get a taxi or take a bus to the vet; your problem sounds really serious.

You do need to at least call a herp vet for advice. I know not having a car sucks, but maybe you can get some kind of rideshare. Otherwise, paper towels, newspaper, high temps. Possibly remove the water dish and replace with a smaller one to lower the humidity.

Just as aside for others reading, not necessarily the original poester, i advise everyone to have an emergency plan in case your animals do get sick. stash some money away only to be used for emergencies and have some reliable people or taxi companies that can get you where you need to go and see if there are multiple herp vets in the area, or emergency night-time vets open at 1 in the morning. Have a special snake carrier that is always ready to go in an emergency! it saves enough timee that it may save your animal's life!


I don't think many people have had snakes long enough to "prove" that medication is bad for them. medical fields are always changing, there is a pet revolution going on.

What type of UTH do you have and what controls it?

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Originally Posted by darkbloodwyvern

...Just as aside for others reading, not necessarily the original poester, i advise everyone to have an emergency plan in case your animals do get sick. stash some money away only to be used for emergencies and have some reliable people or taxi companies that can get you where you need to go and see if there are multiple herp vets in the area, or emergency night-time vets open at 1 in the morning. Have a special snake carrier that is always ready to go in an emergency! it saves enough timee that it may save your animal's life!...

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I agree and have a snake first aid kit with PAM, heat pads, spare t'stat and spare t'stat parts, some cash, tube socks (to put heat pads in), neosporin, snake bags, phone numbers for the vet and for the night-time emergent care place, etc. It is best to be prepared so that an emergency does not become a crisis :colbert:

Ok. So with the raised temps he's already almost stopped wheezing completely. I put some pure vasaline on him to help with the previous bad shed and lo' and behold I got home from work tonight and he shed again. To top it off he ate just a few moments ago.

I know he's not out of the woods yet but I'm less worried about loosing him until I can get to a vet. The closest vet that's I've found that works with reptiles is about two hours away... and hopefully my car should be fixed within a week or two so I should be able to take him to the vet the day I get my car back.

Thank you for all the advice. :) I'll throw some pictures up of him soon.

hey there,
glad he's better, hope he keeps improving! I think i read somewhere not to use vaseline on snakes, but I'll have to research that.
good luck!!

Good deal! Sounds like things are starting to turn around for the better.

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Originally Posted by riv3t

Ok. So with the raised temps he's already almost stopped wheezing completely. I put some pure vasaline on him to help with the previous bad shed and lo' and behold I got home from work tonight and he shed again. To top it off he ate just a few moments ago.

I know he's not out of the woods yet but I'm less worried about loosing him until I can get to a vet. The closest vet that's I've found that works with reptiles is about two hours away... and hopefully my car should be fixed within a week or two so I should be able to take him to the vet the day I get my car back.

Thank you for all the advice. :) I'll throw some pictures up of him soon.

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If it makes you feel any better, my herp vet is about an hour and half away. ;)

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

If it makes you feel any better, my herp vet is about an hour and half away. ;)

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Hey Connie, I have a local vet for any little issue, but my herp vet is nearly three hours away and over a mountain range!!

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Originally Posted by starmom

Hey Connie, I have a local vet for any little issue, but my herp vet is nearly three hours away and over a mountain range!!

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Lol, yea I do have 2 vets as well! One for the mammals about 15 minutes away, and the one down state for my snakes. :D

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Lol, yea I do have 2 vets as well! One for the mammals about 15 minutes away, and the one down state for my snakes. :D

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Luckily Tut is alive because we have a herp vet ten minutes from us. I got calling around when our last tort needed surgery, there are way to few vets even willing to look at reptiles!! I was in a panic when someone mentioned they knew of someone in town.
It pays to know where they are ahead of time. And when I am unable to get to her she answers questions on the phone even in the middle of the night.
:hug:

Good luck with your snake.

I guess it's nice to live near a city...lol. I couldn't imagine being so far from a herp vet. I have 4 close by within 20 mins. But I'm sure where you guys live it must be beautiful.:)

Oh it is beautiful up here, especially in winter... though the summers are pretty nice too. I live in upper Ohio with Lake Erie like a ten minutes away. The lake effect makes the winter a beautiful white landscape and the summers are nice and cool. :D Does suck I have to drive to Cleveland to get Yoshi professional care but he's more then worth it.He's extremely friendly and absolutely loves a warm bath there and there and is a shoulder addict. I try and hold him on my arm but 90% of the time he keeps trying to get to my shoulders to sleep around my neck.