Brought home a severely underweight BP baby. Please help me get her back on track

[Spoons]

That would be awesome. When I brought her home, she did have big flakes of shed all down her back that came off during the first soak. Is it possible for shed to peel off in layers? Like, the outer layer of shed peeled off but there's still a layer on there?

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[WhompingWillow]

Here's Norm. The first two are with stuck shed, the third is after 30 minutes going through a damp towel.

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[WhompingWillow]

I circled the parts that jump out to me and make me think it's stuck shed, other than her overall crispiness.

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[Bogertophis]

Her skin MIGHT actually tear if you handle her with any force...snakes that are chronically-starved have very weak skin because they didn't have the nutrition
to make & maintain their skin, so do handle her very gently. I once rescued a starved adult boa (a beautiful Argentine of all things!) whose skin tore in multiple
places when the owners removed her from their cage to bag her & drop her off to me. (I had wanted to be the one to handle her removal but they jumped the
gun, not knowing my reason for wanting to do that myself. I had made a house-call in response to their call for help & planned to return the next day, when
I had a cage set up for her to move into, and food with me to tempt her off her branches with...but they didn't wait OR listen. The skin on that boa would
never be normal, and the same may be true of this BP, I'm sorry to say.

Her skin is super-thin...it appears the shed came off the back-top of her head, but that she retained the rest, at least as far as I can see. I think she'd be better
off with a warm AND humid hide, because misting doesn't hang around long enough to actually help much.do agree with you that she needs "peace & quiet".
Water & food are critical for her...and you may be right that this isn't stuck shed, but that's how it looks in photos, you're in a better position to tell than we are
online. (so refresh my memory, you actually got pieces of shed OFF her when you first got her home?)

[Spoons]

Well, hopefully with good nutrition and care she can improve, at least. I'm hoping she's young enough that she tissue paper skin won't last but if it does so be it, I will just learn to be more careful with her.

I will try and add some humidity to the warm hide! I can cover more of the lid to keep humidy in as well, right now a piece of foil covers the warm 1/3 of the lid.

Yes, I got quite a few decent sized flakes off of her back when I brought her home, and a huge chunk that came off on her neck. They were half peeled off, I used a warm rag to wipe them off, which is a big part of my waffling on the subject. I don't mean to be argumentative about stuck shed vs. emaciation, especially since most people on this forum are more experienced than I am, I just genuinely don't know much about it in terms of recognition or if maybe it still could be stuck shed even though I removed quite a bit when I got her home, or if she could still have a layer stuck on. I've never dealt with it so you all know more than I do! My adult has always shed well, and my Kenyan's only shed with me was complete.

I will err on the side of caution and treat it like it is. No reason not to, and it won't hurt anything. I'll ramp up the humidity overall - she's got to be getting ready for a shed soon either way. I'll give her a soak and run her in a pillow case of damp towels, and take some 'after' pics.

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[Spoons]

I circled the parts that jump out to me and make me think it's stuck shed, other than her overall crispiness.

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Thank you! The pics actually help quite a bit. When I am home tomorrow I will see if I can try a soak/damp towels and take some more pics and see how she does. You're right, your before pic does look a lot like my little girl does.

I'll wait til tomorrow evening so she can chill a bit after being out today, and while she's doing that I can add some humidity to her tank overall.

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[Coluber42]

I could add a humid hide but I almost guarantee she wouldn't use it. She hasn't left her hot hide since she was put in the tank - not to eat, poop, nothing save for to drink, which is right outside the door. All the bedding in the rest of the tank is still fluffy and not tamped down like it is where she's crawled over. I believe at the moment she values heat and security over everything else.

Next time she's out, you could try making her warm hide into a humid hide by adding some damp moss, then put her back into it. Or add a bunch of damp moss (or even just damp paper towels) in dishes of a bit of water around the tank to get the humidity up. It really does look like she's still got stuck shed from head to toe, and may still be dehydrated. Soaking won't do a whole lot for dehydration, but humidity will. Keep in mind that if the ambient humidity in her cage is 50%, it's lower than that in her hot hide just because the air is warmer so the same amount of moisture results in a lower % humidity. If you can without making everything damp, aim for a much higher than normal level of humidity, from now until her next shed at least. Animals lose moisture just by exhaling, but breathing more humid air can help that.

[Bogertophis]

Re "warm AND humid hide"- My little Aussie spotted python has such a thing- it's a large rectangular plastic food container that's about 8.5" x 12.5" long
and about 3.5" deep. I use similar humid hides for my corn snakes, but they like cooler temps so their humid-hides aren't heated, whereas my spotted
python loves the warmth, so her humid hide and also a regular hide are both over her UTH- her humid hide currently has damp orchid bark, but mostly
soaked sphaghum moss is best for this & what my corns have in theirs. (I switch things up now & then depending on what I have on hand.) My spotted
python uses her humid hide the most of all her hides (she has a cool one too) and it's essential for her to shed well...apparently these are a coastal species,
not desert. Anyway, I suspect your little BP would love to snuggle into damp moss with warmth... and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for his recovery.

[Armiyana]

I'm so glad the little one is eating for you! That's a step in the right direction for sure.

And it can be so difficult to tell whats going on with little ones that are so emaciated. The delicate 'paper' skin is still a concern for sure! And sometimes they just lose that healthy look and can appear dried and dehydrated like this.

If she can tolerate a nice warm soak while you set up some more humid places in her tank, I would do that with a little gentle towel time after. Just to make sure. Don't apply too much pressure. Just let the baby work thier way out of the damp towel after the soak.

If you get a bit more dried skin off, awesome! But if not, just let the humid hides help keep that skin moist and hopefully the better meals will help the skin toughen up enough underneath for a good shed.
Don't pick or pull at any suspicious bits because if it is just that dull, dry nutrition starved skin, you could end up with a nasty tear. I've seen that happen firsthand when someone tried to assist feed a baby that looked like yours.

Baby steps and patience! I hope that things improve for you soon tho!

[Spoons]

Ok, so I gave her another soak. I'm not sure how much it helped, I didn't see anything come off but it may have come off in teeny pieces I suppose. I let her soak a half hour then slither through some damp washcloths for a while. She is still awful wrinkly (see pic).

I did notice after soaking - not before - she now has a fluid pouch under her skin. Doesn't seem to bother her. I can poke it amd swish the fluid around. Her last third of her body also seems softer amd swollen/squishy down to her vent. but that could be sausage butt too. I know soaking can make them poop. You can see the fluid pocket in the pic that is of her back on the left side- water getting between layers of shed? Under skin? Not sure there.

She seems more curious and less panicked this time. Stronger, too, she's able to hold her body horizontally. I'll take it. I will leave her a few days before feeding since I'm sure it was pretty stressful for her still. Regardless she will be kept in decent humidity at least until she sheds once with me.

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