Nursing new BP back to health. Questions about my plan.

[cmccu5]

I will give information first and then will post my questions in a bullet list at the bottom of this post.

I was at Petsmart on Monday (9/18) to look at some cleaning supplies. Long story short, a store associate told me about an aggressive BP that they would not be able to sell and I am now sitting across the room from its new home.


PETSMART CARE SHEET

Their care sheets were seriously lacking. When I actually looked at them closely, I was past livid. No sex, weight, or hatching info on there. I do not know the last time it pooped. They couldn't give a verbal report on any of that info either. They did not have any notes (or even dates written into the care sheets) for 7/24-8/1, 8/16-8/25, and 8/27-9/18.

They got this snake on 6/1. Apparently they offered food daily when they first got it. There is a note that someone told them to do that. They give a name, but do not indicate what his title is. They indicated that it fed on 7/11. One week later, they started offering daily again through 7/23 when they stopped taking notes for a while. The dates are written in without any notes from 8/1 through 8/15. They indicated it was shedding on 8/15. No dates or notes until they offered food and indicated shedding on 8/26. There is no information for 8/26 through 9/18 when I took it home. They verbally reported that it had eaten a fuzzy mouse and 2 fish eggs on 9/14 (last Thursday).


MY CARE PLAN

I weighed it at 143g. Still no sex information. I plan to sex the snake after the dehydration and bad shed is taken care of.

I have attached a picture of the habitat. The rock hide is on the cold side (80 F) and the heat lamp is over the far right side of the enclosure (ground temp 93 F by laser thermometer). Once the snake is acclimated, I plan to move the cork hide to the far right side of the enclosure, but for now, my thought is that the current setup allows for shelter while moving to the water dish. For now, I have seen it out and about a couple of times, but it stays in the rock hide with the exception of those couple times. I do study in the same room, but I use headphones and there is a large shoebox blocking direct viewing. I only go near the habitat a couple times a day to check the temp and humidity.

As for nursing it back to health, my plan is to start with the most conservative approaches first and move to progressively more aggressive therapy if necessary. To start, I have his new home sitting at roughly 60% humidity and I have been replacing the water daily to make sure there is clean water. If this does not work by the end of the weekend, I'm planning to draw some bath water at 85-90 F and watch while I let it soak for a little. Next step would be to start tube hydration. Last step (and I hope I don't get this far) would be IV fluids. For what it's worth, I am a medical student, so supplies are easy to come by and I am trained in human venipuncture. I would not even dream of moving to this without extensive research into the proper technique. (NOTE: I am not currently asking about this step. I will be posting here AND acquiring BP-specific scholarly information before moving to this step. Please DO NOT turn this into a thread discussing whether I should initiate IV therapy. Use the POSSIBLE future IV therapy thread for that.)

I am back and forth on whether to offer food this Sunday or next Sunday night (feeding day at my house). This Sunday would be barely under a week since changing homes.


MY QUESTIONS

*Can anyone guess about the age of the snake? I'm assuming it was hatched around the beginning of the year based on size and when they got it.

*Is this snake good to start with conservative approaches to take care of the dehydration and bad shed? I mentioned 4 steps to my plan. Am I skipping over a step that I should include?

*Should the habitat be set up differently? It seems a bit busy to me, but my thought process described above is why I leave it the way it is.

*Thoughts on my feeding dilemma? Should I wait until I see more activity?

*Is there anything else I should be thinking of that I haven't mentioned or asked about?

Thank you to anyone who takes time to read and reply!




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