Hi there,

Just had my 7 mo retic confined at the vets. It was really odd; just 2- 3 days ago, he was nippy and all but now, he's VERY weak and had to be revived using some special breathing apparatus.

One of the symptoms observed today is that he is severely dehydrated; what I don't get is that how could he not "hydrate" himself if he has easy access to his drinking water?

Here's the skinny I gave to the vet earlier:

1) last meal was last week; 1 adult mouse

2) This week, his skin started getting dull so I withheld food

3) roughly 3 - 4 days earlier, he defecated and during handling (still nippy), I felt a few rough stones in his "lower belly area" (the one near the base of the tail); gently massaging this area, I did manage to coax out a rather hard lump of feces. After the discharge, I felt a few more stones but I figured he SHOULD pass them out; he did discharge smaller/pebble like deces before I helped with the big one.

4) His cage was last cleaned last week (a day/2 before feeding). I clean the cages every 1 or 2 weeks. Substrate is newspaper; changed (usually) once he makes a mess; otherwise, changed 1x a week.

5) he always has a hide and his water dish available. Water is changed every 2 days.

6) like the 3 other pythons in my room (2 retics, 1 ball), they are all kept in "room temperature" (take note, I'm based in Quezon City, Philippines). Lately, it's getting kinda humid but still manageable (one of my retics has been with me for nearly 4 years now and no issues with the temps so far).

7) All of my pythons are kept in separate cages.

Right now I'm crossing my fingers that my little buster would do fine. At the same time, I'm also hoping I could get insights from you on what just happened with him. The vets told me that it is still unclear if he could make it through the night; still gave it a shot coz I felt my little nipper still deserved a shot at life.