Septicemia Dehydration Baby Ball Help!

[Bogertophis]

Thanks for all of the info. I really do appreciate it! I feel like I responded to you but don't see it. Tired, stressed,& kinda losing track of my posts.

Re the photo, we only had him out of his enclosure for a few minutes. Daughter brought him over & I quickly snapped a couple of photos on my phone. He went right back to his tank. At that point we had him for about 2 months. That is how he looked upon arrival. We assumed he was a healthy boy.

Can you please elaborate on how he doesn't look healthy in the Santa pic? Now, I am very curious. Vet did suggest that its possible he came to us already ill... Post or message me, plz. Super interested in your thoughts. Thx!

He was shipped to us as you described.

No lab work. Prescribed Fortaz, said had good results with it/ball pythons/septicemia in the past. He also prescribed Carafate to add to the "food" (Emerald IC Carnivore) for GI support.


1

I think you initially missed this post, no big deal...lots going on in thread and real life too.

Initially I assumed you took him (like to a mall or pet store?) to see Santa (photo op); sorry if this was a home pic, but it never hurts to learn the best way to transport.

I said he didn't look that healthy in the photo just because he's on the thin side, not much muscle tone showing. It's just my gut reaction from 35 years of living with snakes-not so much I can specifically point out to you, so don't feel bad about not seeing something. We ought to be able to trust breeders to sell us healthy snakes, but sadly that doesn't always happen. The more you look at snakes & live with them, the more you can pick up on, even in photos, but especially in person.

I have no experience with Carafate, so no opinion on that. Fortaz may well be the right thing, but without lab work, it's a guess that may or may not be right for whatever this snake is dealing with. As I said, IF it's the wrong drug, it won't help, & can make him worse just because of the delay getting the RIGHT drug, and because of the side effects that most antibiotics have on a fragile snake's body. Keeping my fingers crossed for him.