Injured Yearling Struggling with Shed and Feed

[Ellizaryn]

Hello All,

I'm including the whole story, but if you want to skip that my question is down at the bottom.

I have a yearling female ball who's been a notoriously picky eater her entire life. After nearly starving herself to death and a couple weeks on the tube, she bounced back and was eating and growing like crazy. She was shedding pretty much monthly and we kept bumping up the size of her prey because she was acting hungry after just 3-4 days post feed. Time to switch to rats.

At first, she ate rats just fine. I was always very paranoid about one of them hurting her, so I'd let her sniff and see it and then knock it out, but she wouldn't eat them. She won't take any f/t, prekilled or even the ones I knocked out. After seeing her tackle several small-medium rats without problems, my paranoia subsided and I stopped trying to knock them out first.

Well, about 3 months ago she refused to eat for the first time since her growth spurt. She typically takes live prey right out of the tongs, though with rats I'd had to drop it and sit and wait for a few minutes before she'd get interested. We introduced her to the same refused meal every 4-5 days for about 3 weeks before switching back to multiples of mice (which she would catch in midair if you dropped them into her tank; talk about enthusiasm). After a month of feeding her 4-5 mice a week, I tried swapping a mouse out for a juvenile rat the same size and color in the same feeding. She refused the rat, but having seen her tackle rats twice that size with no problem I decided to leave her alone with it...I will never forgive myself. Please don't lecture me about how stupid this was: I know.

She got a big chunk taken out of her back right above the tail. How she let the rat do it, I actually don't know. I took her to the ER vet and they said, minus the injury itself, she was incredibly healthy and personable. For the first week or two after the attack, she totally acted herself socially, except that she suddenly seemed scared of her food--which isn't a surprise. I haven't been able to get her to eat anything since it happened. After a couple weeks she went blue-eyed and pink-bellies and the wound finally started to scab over, and she started acting like a total brat. She hisses if you open her tank, didn't want to be touched, etc.

Vet says she's healing well, so I'm not worried about the wound, but she hasn't eaten in 2 months now and she's acted like she's been in shed for the past six weeks. I've had two yummy mice for over a month now that I've tried introducing to her once weekly. The last time was about 2 weeks ago, she actually struck and I was very happy, but she didn't hit it right and dropped it! After missing, she didn't try again, and I haven't tried feeding her again because I assume that she missed because she couldn't see very well.

She's bathing a lot and losing a lot of scales on the inside of her tub, and even managed to get some of the skin off of just her nose, but she hasn't gotten out of her body skin. I've noticed a big difference in the last 3 days--she looks and acts almost completely blind and her skin is all a very opaque grey. She looks like she's about to shed, but she's been looking like this for weeks. She's not hissing at me anymore, just acting scared of me. I haven't handled her much since the injury except when I'm cleaning her tank. She looks just miserable.


THE QUESTION:

When she still has an open, albeit scabbed over, wound is it the expectation that shed will take this much longer? The vet warned me that it might be difficult and I might have to help her around the wound itself, but she hasn't even started the unwrapping process. Could there be something wrong? Is there anything I can do to help her? I've heard about putting snakes in a warm pillowcase with a wet towel to help, but I don't want to do anything that will risk infection.

Thanks a million to all who answer. I'm very worried about my baby.

[Ax01]

i would make sure the humidity and temps are spot on and let her shed on her own. your preemptive intervention can stress her out even more if u try to force a shed. u could try the pillow case or this method or other methods only when it doesn’t go well. she might be off feed if she's in shed or if her husbandry is off.

it’s normal for BP’s to go off feed. they’re just fickle snakes and why some prefer Boa’s (for example) over BP’s b/c they are not picky and a garbage disposal for food. BTW how big is she for a yearling? she might be off feed or simply her body is readjusting after the growth spurt.

also check out this thread about a BP who’s skin had split: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...les-Just-Split big wound! it takes time but the BP is healing well. i hope your girl makes a full recovery as well.

[Ellizaryn]

Thanks for your reply! She shed over the course of this week, on her own. It came off in large patches and was a bit gross, but she's acting normal and happy again and wants to be out of her tank and handled.

The last of the skin came off a day or two ago, but I still couldn't get her to eat. She's acting disinterested or scared of the food. I've had one breeder suggest force feeding when it gets desperate, but I don't want to do that unless it's necessary. Do you have any tips for how to tell when it's time to take her in for more intervention?

i would make sure the humidity and temps are spot on and let her shed on her own. your preemptive intervention can stress her out even more if u try to force a shed. u could try the pillow case or this method or other methods only when it doesn’t go well. she might be off feed if she's in shed or if her husbandry is off.

When she went off feed the first time, I visited several herp specialists who helped me make sure her husbandry is spot on.

BTW how big is she for a yearling? she might be off feed or simply her body is readjusting after the growth spurt.

Today she is around 32-34 inches and 570-600g (she refuses to hold still to be measured and she's strong). She is definitely more slender than she was three months ago, though she could possibly be longer. I'd have to hunt down her medical records to see how much weight she's lost. I'm actually not sure her exact age, but I've had her for a year this Christmas and she was a pretty stunted juvenile when I got her. She could be older.

[Ax01]

the most important thing about sheds is that it all comes off. ideally it would come off in 1 piece but a dozen pieces is fine as long as your snake fully sheds.

i don't have experience in force feeding/assisted feeding. maybe others can chime in on that subject. i know know that it's a last resort, usually reserved for babies that have never eaten or sick animals. also again keep in mind that BP's a finicky. some are fine with only eating a few times a year. some pig out and then fast. some eat weekly.