Help with a frozen BP

[Miah]

Long story short:

Power went out, lamp and pad turned off. Snake was exposed to 24 degrees F all night long. Snakes body temp. was at 24 degrees. Snake didnt move for several hrs and was limp as if dead. 4 hrs later muscle movements were present 8 hrs breathing was obvious. 12 hrs into re-warming she was moving around the cage but couldnt lift here head. Here body just kind of pushed around a dead limp neck and head. 5 days past now she seems normal as far as no illness present but she is no way near the same snake. She doesnt move alot and doesnt react to fast movement (visual). Also she doent keep her head upright when she lays, she sets it sideways or sometimes upside down. In general she seems almost stupid and lathargic. Do you think she has permantent damage? Thanks for any help.

[Nate]

noone can make a diagnosis on line....your best option right now is to take it to a vet for a professional opinion

[PythonFan8]

That is a terrible thing to let happen to your snake. I would recommend next time put a thick blanket over her cage and maybe put her into a container with a small water bowl and hide and put her cage near a gas fireplace or a natural/gas heat source that doesn't need any electricity. As for the health, I dont know if your snake is fine. I do know they sometimes get so cold that they cant move certain parts of their body for a long period of time and they recover over time. I dont know much from waht you said though and i still recommend you take your snake to a vet as soon as possible.

[recycling goddess]

That is a terrible thing to let happen to your snake.

that's not a very helpful judgement to make! who knows if she was awake for the loss of electricity and if she even has a fireplace to keep the snake warm.

~~~

regardless... i send my hugest of hugs to you what a horrible thing to go through for both you and your snake. please take him to the vet... just make sure he is warm during transit. put him in a pillow case with it securely knotted... and i would put it into a box wrapped in another blanket... or with a heat pack if possible.

just a note for everyone here... heat packs are not very expensive at all. i order them from canadianfeeders.com and i have enough on hand for all my critters... so if we had no heat, i could open them up and give each enclosure one or two. they are 60 hour heat packs so that should get us through any power outage *knock on wood*

please keep us updated regarding your vet visit and how you snake is doing and welcome to the forum

[frankykeno]

Definitely a vet visit in order (do transport with heat packs). You can find the shake type instant heat packs in any sports department, hunters use them quite a lot. It's always good to have some in the house for emergencies like this. Do remember to make sure that your snake can't directly lie on them or swallow them though.

I will try to find the link I had before my computer died a few months back. It was an alarm that plugged into your wall socket, then you could plug your tstat into it. If the power failed on that outlet a very loud tone goes off. It retailed for about $35.00 and was for medical equipment if I remember correctly (Christie if you still have the link could you post it please). That would certainly be helpful if the power goes off while you are sleeping and you don't notice it all snuggled in your blankets.

[Nate]

that's not a very helpful judgement to make!

I agree..things happen that you don't always have control over. It's the holiday season, people take vacations. maybe he took some much needed time away from home and oops, bad storm, power went out...it happens.

this reminds me of an iguana we once had...this was when i lived in Arkansas. we had a bad ice storm one year that knocked the power out for 5 days. to keep him warm, every hour or so we would fill a water bottle up with hot water. that worked out well. we also held him on our shoulder in front of a nice warm fire to keep him warm. of course, we were there to care for him...but in the event that you're not there, what can ya do? there's things that are out of control unless you buy an automatic generator that comes on as soon as your power is out

[tigerlily]

(Christie if you still have the link could you post it please

I lost my computer and all my links in July. Sorry....

EDIT - Here's a link from a quick google search though... http://www.talkaboutsleep.biz/cpap-a...lure-alarm.htm

[johnsgirl128]

What a scarey thing to happen to your baby and you the next time something like thats happens if your home take teh snake out and hold it against you it they may not like beign out so much but it would keep he\she warm I hope everything turns out ok for you and your baby

[recycling goddess]

even if they were home... often times "how do i keep the snake warm" isn't on the top of the list of "to do" in that situation.

i know if we didn't have heat packs and if we didn't have our fireplace and our heat went out... we'd have a lotta frozen tarantulas, frogs, anoles, crested geckos, firebelly toads, about 300 fish, cockatiels, parrotlets, budgies, canaries, millipedes, african land snails... i have no idea how i could even begin to keep them all warm.

i do know however, that my kids would be on the top of the list... and everything else would be below them.

i hope Miah comes on and lets us know how the snake is doing now.

[rabernet]

I'm just curious - if it's been five days since this happened, why she wasn't taken to the vet right away?