Hi everyone, I was wondering if I could get some advice before dropping several hundred dollars on a vet exam.

My ball python is around 5 months old, and has been eating pinkies once a week, every week since I bought him. He usually moves around quite a bit and is very friendly and curious.

Recently, he has taken to curling up in his hides and not moving. He ate on Wednesday morning, and yesterday night I tried to take him out for some exercise. He appeared to be in the process of defecating, so I put him back (to give the little guy some privacy!) About an hour ago, I took him out again, but he didn't appear to have made any progress whatsoever. I saw someone else's post about ball pythons needing to be soaked and massaged, so I tried, and some very strange and stringy white stuff came out, along with something that looked like blood.

Now he is back in his tank, curled up and so sad looking! ): I've included a picture of his poor little bottom... does anyone know what's wrong? He has a kind of brown/yellow crust on the scales around his poop dispenser (I'm not sure if it's very clear in this photo). He has also been looking very skinny... but has been eating every week?

If anyone can tell me anything about this, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you!