A synopsis.. any guesses?

[JuliaGoolia]

A little (or not so little) synopsis of the past two months and an update.. sort of. The few of you who have read or been following my past threads may remember what’s been going on…
In October, my son (read: my husband and I!) got our first little baby girl ball. She was great! She even ate (live) for a consistent 4 weeks. She liked being held (or so we’d like to think) had her first shed, grew a little.. all was good!

And then one day she wasn’t.

She started coiling like she had no upper body motor/muscle control. I researched, I asked for advice, and I freaked out!! We took her to a vet in the next town (we live in the boonies…) and although she wasn’t a herp specialist, she did see exotics. After looking at her and diagnosing what she thought was an inner ear infection, the vet prescribed VAL syrup (every day) and Baytril (every 2) to be given orally.
She was getting better.. and stronger.. but still didn’t have a lot of head control. She could get to where she wanted to go, but sometimes she had a tough time of it. We called the vet back, and she prescribed yet ANOTHER med - metronidazole in addition to the other two we were giving her. We learned later, after we had been giving it to her, it is to kill bacteria that may be in the stomach and intestines to stimulate appetite. Now, through all the help I’ve received here, I’ve learned that snakes usually won’t eat while they are on meds – so why on earth would the doctor have done that?? Anyway… when we learned that, we stopped giving it to her – because, really – what was the point? All it was doing was stressing her out more when we had to give it to her.
She’s had a second shed since the meds started, although we had to help her with it a bit on her head. She’s passed two urates, and one little poop (from the last time she fed - what seems forever ago…)At first I was concerned about her not eating, as she ate pretty regularly before, until I heard that they really won’t when they are sick/under medication. I know she’s drinking – I’ve watched her.
She’s been off the meds for a week and a few days.. we’ve kind of left her alone, aside from changing out her water, to recover from all the stress we were giving her shoving all this liquid down her throat..
My one big fear was that she wouldn’t be able to eat, even if she wanted to - what with her lack of total control of her head, I wasn’t sure she would be able to strike, even when she got hungry again. It seems as that is exactly what is happening. She’s eaten live, large mice before. That’s what she’s used to. *sigh* It took her a while to get around to sniffing him out, but once she did, it was just sad to watch. She was hungry. Her little tail was twitching.. she kept going where the mouse was going… but her head and neck just didn’t have the control to get a good line on him, and kept twisting the wrong way. Finally, we took the mouse and killed it… tried dangling that in front of her, thinking maybe she wouldn’t have to have so much control to get a grip on it, even though feeding that way was kind of foreign to her. I think it WOULD have worked, had she not missed, grabbed a hold of HERSELF, and tried to constrict herself!! We ended up taking the feeding tongs and stroking her back a little to get her out of the knot she put herself in and she finally let go of herself.. but when we tried with the mouse again, she just got all agitated and didn’t try. No interest what-so-ever.
I just don’t know what to do. She is better than she was when we first took her to the vet - but she is NOT well. Tomorrow, I am going to call a different vet to take her to, but once again, it’s not a herp specialist, just one that sees “exotics”. It seems you guys are my biggest asset when it comes to taking care of her.. the vet we TOOK her to, didn’t seem to really know what she was doing.. and the reptile store – which is a small, family owned place – which I thought was a great place here in our little town, - I’m not so sure about anymore, either. When we went in and asked if they carried thermostats of any kind, the self proclaimed “snake guy” asked what we wanted it for..!!
I can only guess that whatever happened to her is neurological.. although, I have no idea what it could have been.
Like I said, she is our first. WE have been learning and getting things almost perfect as far as husbandry goes, although, I do admit, humidity has been a bit of a challenge, as we have her in a glass tank, but it hasn’t been bad enough to cause permanent damage, I don’t think!
Like I said, we are going to call a different vet tomorrow – but if anyone has any thoughts about what it could be, PLEASE let me know.. I’m pretty much at my wits end…
-J

btw - for more details and such, my other threads may be of interest...