HELP! Corn snake in trouble :(

[Ch^10]

I don't typically post in this forum, so hello all! Somewhat of a long post, so please bare with me.

About 6 weeks ago, my girlfriend purchased a corn snake from a local "box" pet shop. Overall, the snake seemed healthy, despite being an infrequent feeder (would take one or two meals and skip the next one or two).

Last Thursday, we attempted to feed her but to no avail. Sunday, I took her out to try feeding her in my hand (worked before), and I noticed that the back half or so of her body was flaccid--quite similar to a wet noodle. She also seemed to have a slight wobble--if you are a BP person, this would be comparable to a very mild wobble in a Spider. Neither symptom was present prior to this; she had always been spunky with good muscle tone and zero wobble.

We took her to the vet yesterday; fecal and acid-fast were clean. They were unsuccessful at drawing blood. There was no diagnosis, just a bad prognosis. They had no idea what was wrong with her. And yes, this is an exotic vet with a good track record (they've helped me save 2 rescues). We are giving her daily Carnivore Nutrition supplements through a tube and injections of a full-spectrum antibiotic every 3 days as advised (sorry, forgot the name). There best guess was that she is septic, but I'm skeptical.

Finally, the QUESTION: The onset of her symptoms was nearly instantaneous, have any of you ever experienced a similar occurrence? (i.e., wobble, flaccid body, lethargy, and lack of appetite that seemingly surfaced overnight.)

I would like to believe that the problem is neurological and associated with the type of morph she is (our best guess: Gold Dust Stripe Motley....I'm a BP guy and no accessible pics), but I honestly haven't had time to look into it. It is terrible to watch the life drain away from this little 8g beauty and even worse to watch my girlfriend fall apart. Thanks in advance!

[TheWinWizard]

Never seen it. How about getting a second opinion from another vet?

[Blue Apple Herps]

Never seen it either. Good luck.

[JLC]

The only things that come to mind would be some sort of injury to the spine or nervous system...overheating...or chemical exposure. It sounds awful and the mystery of not knowing what it is and feeling helpless to fix it must be very painful. I wish there was more we could do to help.

[Ch^10]

Never seen it. How about getting a second opinion from another vet?

I have a friend that is a vet, but unfortunately he lives across the country. I gave him all of the details and he frankly stated that it didn't sound good. He did suggest some meds that we are looking into.

Never seen it either. Good luck.

Thanks.

The only things that come to mind would be some sort of injury to the spine or nervous system...overheating...or chemical exposure. It sounds awful and the mystery of not knowing what it is and feeling helpless to fix it must be very painful. I wish there was more we could do to help.

I'm wondering if she fell off of her hide and landed funny? Her hide is only 3 inches tall though. Maybe she stretched out while atop her hide, fell, and landed funny? My t-stat doesn't show any temperature spikes. No chemicals are in the room other than Chlorhexadine in a sealed container.

Thanks for the support, it is very scary not knowing what it is. We may take her to another exotic vet in the area, but we are trying to minimize stress in case stress exacerbates the illness.

[wilomn]

Things happening on the inside of a snake often go unnoticed by those of us who only see the outside.

It's possible she had some bacterial or parasitic problem that simply took a while to manifest.

Did you have her checked for crypto?

[Ch^10]

Things happening on the inside of a snake often go unnoticed by those of us who only see the outside.

It's possible she had some bacterial or parasitic problem that simply took a while to manifest.

Did you have her checked for crypto?

Very true. I had a typo in my original post; she is on a full-spectrum anti-bacterial. Her fecals and acid fasts were clean, so no parasites. Crypto can be detected in fecals (from what I've read, 4 negative fecals indicate a crypto free snake). They couldn't draw blood to confirm anything. She has not regurged in our care, nor is she displaying any crypto symptoms (belly swell, chronic regurge, etc.) This seems to be purely neurological..maybe age related manifestation?

[Ch^10]

My previous post was from my phone, so I apologize for any incoherent sentences. The medication she is being administered is Ceftazidime.

Thanks for the input wilomn. We immediately thought Crypto was the culprit, but she seems to be retaining her body weight, and as mentioned in the previous post, fecals and acid fast were clean. I would really like to get her blood tested to confirm that she is Crypto-free, but she is too small (they couldn't even get a single drop).

Has anyone on here ever had a Crypto-positive snake in their possession?

[cmack91]

sorry, i dont know much about this stuff, but i do hope everything goes allright