Help/advice/thoughts? (LONG POST w/PICS)

[xFenrir]

I was talking to some of the neighborhood kids (between the ages of 9-12) and they mentioned they had snakes. I was surprised and asked them what they had; turns out they have a normal ball python and a baby marble blood python that they got a few days ago. They asked if I wanted to see them and I said sure, and let them ask me questions about my snakes and in general. Well their ball python looked fine, they said it eats great and everything (and it looks like it). But as soon as I saw their blood python I felt awful. I thought it was dead at first. It's maybe 10inches long, definitely a baby, but limp, tongue barely able to get out of its mouth (it was like it was too sticky) and about as responsive as a piece of spaghetti. I got his mouth open and didn't see any excess mucus, but it looked a little swollen, especially the left-hand side of bottom jaw in the front. They had tried to buy food for it today but the store was out of anything smaller than adult mice, so I offered for them to come up to my apartment and let me try and feed it a rat pink, since I've got tons. Put down some paper towels on the table and set it down, and the poor thing just laid on its side, something I've never seen a snake do. It looked so wrong. It felt kind of like fine sand paper too, mostly on the bottom, but I've never touched a blood python so I couldn't tell if that was normal. The scales looked especially shriveled on it's belly, so I thought maybe it was dehydrated (which wouldn't surprise me) so while I was thawing the pink I filled a shallow bowl with lukewarm water and placed it in. THAT made him thrash a little bit, but after a second he just laid there too. It looked like he might've drank too, but when I pulled him out to feed him he blew some water out of his mouth and nose. While doing this, I asked them how they kept him.

He's in a 75 GALLON tank, WITH the ball python. I'm not sure what they have in there, but they definitely said they've got a heat rock in there, which I stressed severely to get taken out of there. I told them the enclosure is wayyy too big for either snake, and that they should NOT be housed together, period. I tried without success to feed the little guy (they said they haven't tried to feed him) so I gave them the rat pink to take home (just in case they could have more success at home feeding him in the tank or something) and gave them the number for my snakes' vet, and told them they should REALLY get their parents to go get him checked out, because the way he was acting was just so WRONG. I've NEVER seen a snake lie completely on it's side, even his head was to the side. I took some pictures, just in case y'all are able to see something I can't...


You can see how his jaw's weird-looking in this one. ^


That last one almost makes me cry. That's pretty much how he looked when just left alone, minus his head being all the way upside-down. I wanted to get a belly shot and we had to prop his head up because he just hung there like he was dead. I was continually checking to make sure he was breathing. Since I have no experience with them, can people chime in and tell me what I can do to at least give them proper advice beyond the basic "general snake knowledge"? I'm hoping that it's nothing too serious and that this baby will make it.