A Horrific Story about a Rescued BP

[weird_science04]

About 4 years ago, my husband comes home from work asking me to take in a ball python. The BP's name is Big Boy, even though the owners don't know if it is a male or female. I told my husband I really didn't want any ball pythons because I really love my boa's. My husband told me that the owners say, if we don't take this snake it is going to die because they have already lost 2 other BP's.

Now, I was curious what was going on with the snake. Why so many deaths?

The previous owner was someone close to my husband's family. We went over to their house as a promise to "see what we could do". The snake cage had no heat and is on top of the A/C vent. Also, the snake cage is their television holder. Inside the cage there was no water in the water dish, a heat rock, and so much fecal matter that one had to wonder if it is possible to get diseases from wallowing in it. Additionally, there was so much smoke in the trailer (the windows are all plastic up and covered so no light comes in) that I was physically getting sick.

So, I ask questions about what is going on. They tell us, they can't afford to feed the snake. The snake was around 6 years old (they believe). They use to be able to feed all 3 of their snakes but a few years back, they haven't been able to feed them. One by one, the snakes slowly starved to death. They told us that one time, one of the BP's was chocking on a rat and they tried to help the rat go down by "crushing" the rat inside the snake in order to make it smaller. We were also told, that snake had already passed. This snake they were trying to rehome had only had been fed maybe 4 or 5 times within the last 2-3 years and not because the snake was off feed either.

They lifted this snake up and it looked dead. I seriously thought it had already passed. Then he (we always call it a he even though we have never sexed it) slowly started moving but with difficulty. I couldn't walk away from this situation without taking the snake. If I left the snake there, it was a definite death sentence.

Well, we took the snake home and set him up in a brand new enclosure and named him Sinister (figured that would be more unisex than Big Boy). He had heat, a hide, water, and a clean environment. We did a good look over on the snake and found he had fecal matter stuck in his vent. I called the vet, he told me to soak the snake. We soaked him for probably 45 minutes. This was the first and only time he had struck at us.



My husband sat there after the soaking and massaged his tail for about 20 minutes and this hard fecal and urate matter finally emerged, which allowed his vent to finally close but you could tell it was still agitated. Then we felt the broken ribs and realized the previous owners had no clue how to tell the difference between their BP's. When you feel snakes body, you can feel the broken ribs and it matches your thumb print perfectly. It is gross feeling and sad to feel also. The vet said there was nothing we could do about it though.

This is what a 6 year old BP looked like upon arrival. He could barely move and he just dangled. No muscle tone to even pull himself up or to even ball up.



We fed him the same night we brought him in. It was the sadest thing I had ever saw. Brought tears to my eyes. We presented him with a rat, he was excited. He struck it and coiled it up. Except, he didn't have any muscle to move his body near the snake. So his coil consisted of cocking his head sideways.

I was concerned about feeding him too quickly since he hadn't had a lot of food in the past 6 years.

After a few months, he started to look a little better and was able to actually coil the rats and move around some.



It is funny looking back at the pictures. When I took this picture, I remember thinking to myself, he looks so good. However, years later (today), I look at this same picture and think, he didn't look to well there either...lol

That first winter we had him, this snake ate with a vengeance. No refusals, nothing. The second winter we had him, he went back to being a ball python and went off feed. I kept telling him that he should never go off feed because he should always remember how horrible it was when he didn't have food but he forgot about his past...lol Ever since the second winter, he goes off feed every single year around October and comes back on feed around March. While I worry about him when he goes off feed, honestly, it makes me feel good also because he feels well enough and full enough to actually go off feed and be himself.

I can't believe how far this BP has come. He is unrecognizable now. I just can't believe looking back through these pictures that he use to be that skinny. He is such a big snake now. Here are his most recent pictures. He hates being held. He is very scared of people but never strikes (can't blame him though, a human broke his bones!). The outside world is so scary and he would not move at all while I was trying to get pictures of him. These pictures were this year after the weather warmed up for the summer.










My husband and I was this snakes life saver. Even though he is very scared of people, he tolerates us, which is more than what I can say for a couple of my boas..lol

Sorry for the long read. It just is a very long story. I put this in the pictures thread because it has pictures but unsure if it truly belongs here or not. Sorry if it should be some place else.

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