Special Needs Snek

[JakBatt]

Has anyone has any experience with a ball python with a non-functioning tongue? My poor lil 8month old female Leopard BP that I brought home a few months ago was found to have a flaccid tongue. Here's how that came to be discovered...

After I brought her home, I noticed she had NEVER flicked her tongue. I thought she was just stressed and getting used to her new environment, or maybe that was just normal for her, etc. etc. However, she was having a pretty difficult time identifying her food once she dropped it to reposition it for eating. She would start looking around (with no tongue flicks) and eventually just rested her head on it like a pillow and would look at me like "where did it go?" ha. It was so cute but also like wtf?? I thought she was just picky... maybe she didn't like the temp, the color, the size, mouse vs rat, the time of day, tried covering the cage with a blanket to give her more privacy, thawed different ways, brained, etc. She would strike, coil, and then leave it. I messaged the breeder and they claimed they had no issues and to try live. So... I tried live & she just watched it and moved away from it, which resulted in me then having a pet rat, ha. (RIP Prometheus, he unfortunately didn't make it after a few weeks.)

Then I bought a Wyze Snek Cam... After watching a recording of her strike in slow mo, I learned that she side strikes, so if I hold the rat horizontally THEN she grabs the rat by the head and doesn't drop it to reposition and she eats with no problem. THANK GOD. She was eating successfully after that discovery, so I thought we were in the clear! With this new camera I was able to watch her 24/7 though, and I noticed she had a little wobble going on which seemed to be getting worse. When she is handled or focused on something she wouldn't do it, but when she was left alone at night, it was more profound. Found a smidge of mold at the base of the ONLY log that I DIDN'T bake (never again),. so I got rid of that, deep cleaned the tank & took her to the vet immediately.

She appeared completely healthy during his assessment. She displayed no respiratory symptoms, no wobble, nothing while we were there. When he looked in her mouth however, the one thing we noticed was that her tongue was completely flaccid on the tongue depressor!! There is no way to know if it is a congenital defect or if she suffered some sort of trauma at some point in her life, but that totally explained why she struggles so much with food identity. I am now giving her Ceftazidime Injections just in case the mold DID cause an infection or is the cause of the wobble...... so now I guess we just wait and see if the neurological involvement improves after the antibiotic course is completed.

I just feel awful because I feel like she gets lost in her own cage, does struggle with finding food if grabbed wrong, and sometimes preemptively strikes and misses the food and hits something else so I have to be careful with what decor I put in her tank.... I guess I am just hoping to find someone that may have experience with a snake with a similar deficit bc I hope I can continue to give her a long happy and healthy fulfilling life regardless of the fact that she is "special." ❤️ She otherwise appears to be a happy lil innocent snek that does great with handling, likes snuggles, boops, kisses, and weaving through my hair. 🥰 ❤️