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

[Spoons]

She has turned into such a rockstar eater, for one that was labeled a 'problem eater.' shocker, give a snake what it properly needs to live and they thrive. Who would have thought? Someone should let the pet stores know, they must not have been told yet (/sarcasm).

Switched to F/T with no issues whatsoever, strikes immediately. She now comes out of her hide and creeps around, coiling back looking for her food when she smells me heating it with a hair dryer. I can't wait until she's done with injections and I can bump her food size (keeping them small but more frequent for less chance of regurge since meds are every 3 days). Gaining confidence, eats like a champ, looking good after her shed.

I'm *so happy* with her progress! Such a turnaround from the half dead little noodle she was not that long ago. Fingers crossed for her next vet check, I hope the vet has the same thoughts I do!

And of course you all have been amazing and helpful for this newbie who was a bit out of her element, having only raised a happy healthy snake. With three animals (two snakes and a little stray kitten) at my house currently being cared for under the eye of my vet they're getting to know me pretty well! (Wonder what the odds are they'll let me bring all three in for their rechecks at the same time, hmm...) My bleeding heart just can't say no to the animals that need help.

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[Bogertophis]

You're doing such an awesome job with her...I'm so delighted to hear such a wonderful update on this snake. Are there more beautiful & perfect snakes
around to keep as pets? Sure...but personally, MY heart goes out to those that need some help or even just a home...the over-looked ones can be more
work, but can also be so much more rewarding in the long run.

[Spoons]

So, just a lil update!

She is off her antibiotics. She is doing *wonderfully* - she's an active, curious little snake with an incredible appetite. She's been steadily gaining weight, she is eating hoppers. Still a little thin but a HUGE improvement. She crawls around at night, hangs out with her head peeking out her hidey huts to watch what's going on. A little hand shy (understandably) still. She has just hit the 100 gram mark - she was 52 grams when I brought her home.

However. She is still getting big fluid pockets under her skin. They do not seem to bother her unless I poke at them, which I try to not do. I brought her back to the vet two weeks post-antibiotics because the pockets were larger than I've seen them. They drew the fluid off and sent it for a fluid analysis, and said that she's looking really good, and that they have no idea what it could be. They looked at the fluid under a microscope and said there really wasn't anything to see - there was like one white blood cell, a bacteria cell that was likely cross contamination from the skin. Fluid analysis showed not much - a couple cells here and there, but no infection (that they could see), no inflammation, no bacteria. A bacterial culture of the fluid would be useless since there's no bacteria to culture.

In short, they're baffled. I did post in a group on Facebook, and it was brought up that there's a possibility of organ damage which can cause fluid buildup in humans, so possibly something similar in snakes. A few people said they had similar pockets on their emaciated rescue BP - a few said they spontaneously recovered, and one said their snake passed. The vet said we can do more testing, but I opted to just watch and see, and the vet agreed that because she is, for all intents and purposes, a healthy snake otherwise, that is a valid way to go and to just keep an eye on her and jump on it if she starts to look sick or go downhill. If the fluid pockets get too big, I have the ok to draw the fluid off of her - I have not done so since the very first time to check for blood, because I am hoping the body will reabsorb it on its own. I don't want her getting dehydrated, and the less needle pokes the better, imo.

So! That's where we are at with her. Here's a few pictures - the red arrow points to the start of one of the fluid pockets. the last pic is her post-vet just an overall pic of how she is looking! She's a little fighter and I am still pulling for her. If anybody has any insight on the fluid, I'd love to hear it.

Posting pics in the following post for ease of doing - For some reason on the computer the pics preview HUGE. I'll add them in a sec via Tapatalk.

[Spoons]

Here's the pics


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[Bogertophis]

Wow, you're doing such a great job with her...she is so lucky to have you! She is precious, by the way.

I hope she outgrows the fluid pockets...that is a concern, but if she does I'd imagine it will be very gradual. I'd agree that it's probably some renal damage from
her starvation, but no idea what the prognosis would be, whether or not it can improve? I hope so. I would do just as you're doing, not draw off the fluid & hope
it can be reabsorbed for now.

[Spoons]

This snake I swear to god. She shed last night. Plus side, all in one piece. Down side, her skin is still so fragile it ripped open. Not down through to the muscle but got her good. Daily betadine soaks, quarantine tub, dabbed on a tiny bit of antibiotic ointment because I don't have anything else atm to put on it. I'll call my vet tomorrow and send a pic and see if he thinks, given her history, she should get antibiotics.

Another plus side, she's doing amazingly otherwise - filling out nicely. Holding her almost feels like holding a normal snake in her back half where she's mostly filled in, and the skin back there feels more normal. I think once she's a solid weight and those damn fluid pockets stop (they are improving) her skin should get better.

I didn't even suspect anything until I came home from work and found her nonchalantly hanging out outside her hide, covered in blood, but her new curious self otherwise. Goon. Crawled into my hand when I reached in to explore like nothing was happening.

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[FollowTheSun]

Poor baby! She's lucky to have you!
I was thinking about the fluid pockets-- coming in late here so maybe it's been mentioned-- but in humans fluid "second spacing" like that is often a protein deficiency. And the fragile skin would also be caused by protein deficiency/malnutrition. I hope she continues to recover. Maybe she needs to be wrapped in bubble wrap until she's all better.

[Bogertophis]

From what I know of severe malnutrition in snakes, once their skin is damaged to where it becomes abnormally thin & tears easily, it does not get back to
normal [thickness], I'm sad to say. What a horrible shock to come home to, this snake all bloody! Some years back I took in an adult unwanted and
chronically-starved boa with numerous skin tears like this...Silvadene cream was helpful to heal them over, but the fragility of her skin did not change.
She never had pockets of fluid under her skin like this one does.

I don't know "the rest of her story" because about 6 mos. later I decided to move out of state, so she was placed with someone in the Herp society that
understood & accepted her issues. She ate good for me, she regained her weight & all her torn skin was healed over, but she remained very fragile I'm sure.

I like the "bubble-wrap" idea! I think FollowtheSun is onto something... Spoons: I'm so sorry for this set-back...and so incongruent for her to act as if
nothing was wrong? Silly snek!

[FollowTheSun]

Poor baby! She's lucky to have you!
I was thinking about the fluid pockets-- coming in late here so maybe it's been mentioned-- but in humans fluid "second spacing" like that is often a protein deficiency. And the fragile skin would also be caused by protein deficiency/malnutrition. I hope she continues to recover. Maybe she needs to be wrapped in bubble wrap until she's all better.

Re-reading this-- I meant *third* spacing! I need to go back to nursing school apparently! I was typing that while trying to pay politely pay attention to our friend's daughter giving us a CutCo sales pitch.

[FollowTheSun]

From what I know of severe malnutrition in snakes, once their skin is damaged to where it becomes abnormally thin & tears easily, it does not get back to
normal [thickness], I'm sad to say. What a horrible shock to come home to, this snake all bloody! Some years back I took in an adult unwanted and
chronically-starved boa with numerous skin tears like this...Silvadene cream was helpful to heal them over, but the fragility of her skin did not change.
She never had pockets of fluid under her skin like this one does.

I don't know "the rest of her story" because about 6 mos. later I decided to move out of state, so she was placed with someone in the Herp society that
understood & accepted her issues. She ate good for me, she regained her weight & all her torn skin was healed over, but she remained very fragile I'm sure.

I like the "bubble-wrap" idea! I think FollowtheSun is onto something... Spoons: I'm so sorry for this set-back...and so incongruent for her to act as if
nothing was wrong? Silly snek!

That's too bad that it may not ever get stronger skin again. :-( I do wonder if a soft padded environment might be safer,but then what would it rub on on for sheds?