Lilly's Story

[coball]

So, I hope I have posted this in the correct area. In June I adopted a ball python named Lillith (LIL-ITH) when she showed up at work. I'm posting her story in hopes that someone will read it and get a better understanding of just how important proper care is for an animal like this. And I just want the squeamish people to know that the second to last image I linked show a small open wound. The last image is of a bigger open wound that is bandaged, but the bandage material is clear. Just a warning. I've checked to make sure they conform with site rules. If there are in violation let me know and they will be removed immediately.

When Lilly showed up at work she had a massive amount of retained shed on her head, midsection and tail, and also had many retained eye caps. It's policy of the company I work for not to take in abandoned animals, but she had special conditions. She was a year old, had been purchased from us, and her owners were going to release her into the wild if they could not find a home for her. I also had an awesome manager who was willing to put her job on the line to rescue the snake. She was the sweetest snake I had ever met and pulled at my heart strings, so I took her home that night. After working with her for over an hour, I managed to get all of her retained shed off, and several eye caps, but not all of them, which is addressed as I go on. I was amazed at her patience while I worked with her retained shed. She was a little antsy when I began to work with her head, but that was to be expected.

I had no prior experience with reptile keeping, and had very limited knowledge about ball pythons and I immediately began to do research as soon as I got home. I changed her bedding that night, stripped all of the wood out of her habitat and set her up with a new hide and a ramp so she could get closed to her basking light, and got her digital thermometers an a digital hydrometer. I loved her large water bowl. I kept that.

Her first vet visit for her eye caps was very unsuccessful. I live in an area where access to true exotic vets is limited. The is only one "true" exotic vet in the state, and the rest are normal vets who see exotics. The vet I took her too was one of the latter. The vet gave us some eye cream after working with Lilly's eye caps unsuccessfully and then probed Lilly for me, which was something she didn't take kindly too and responded by balling up.

Everything went fine with Lilly for about a month, and then everything went terribly wrong. Blisters came up on her rear end, and they eventually turned red. As soon as I possibly could I got her to the only registered exotic vet in the state. He put her on Ceftazidime injections to be give every third day, as well as giving us Acetylcisteine to put on her eyes to help with the retained eye caps. She also was underweight (she had lost a lot since I got her due to illness), so we were told to feed her more frequently. I realized I also was not feeding her enough, and slowly graduated her from small mice to large mice. So we began feeding her one mouse every five days, which my corn snake loved because it meant he got to eat every five days, but her greedy little self is a little off track. We did a blood culture, but that returned no results.

A month later we took her back. She was gaining weight, which is awesome, but she still had blisters. In fact, she had more. We did another round of shots for a month, and another round of eye cap treatment since we weren't getting anywhere with those either. Her next appointment in September got more shots and also some Silvadene since he decided to drain her blisters. He looked at the fluid in the blisters and determined it was mostly water. He thought she would lose the skin in that area, but she didn't. Things started to get worse from here on.

Sometime in September Lilly had her first complete shed in which nothing had to be worked off and she shed her eye caps. After this shed, however, her skin became a bright red. She had already gone to the vet a week before, but I rushed her there. By the time we got there, her skin had become a dark brown. The vet said it was nothing to worry about. Her next appointment in October the vet told me to put Silvadene on the area because the skin felt different, but it was a symptom of her disease and it should be cleared up with the shots. They also told me she was getting over weight, and cut her to one large mouse once a week.

Her last appointment was last Monday. Between her October appointment and then, the skin became dry, brittle, and cracked. One of the vets looked at her and told us that her suggestion would be to remove the skin (it was probably going to be sloughed off anyway) and treat the area as an open wound. The skin could then be sent off to be biopsied and have fungal and bacteria cultures. This required surgery, of course, which was very costly. We left Lilly at the vet over night so the vet who had been working with her since day one could look at her. After he looked at her, he gave us the same advice. It was go through with the surgery, biopsies, and cultures, or continue treating this blindly like we had been. We decided to go ahead, and got Lilly back on Wednesday. She hadn't reacted well the the anesthesia, and the only was the describe her was stoned. She was extremely lethargic. The vet explained to us that because of the slow metabolism of snakes, she probably wouldn't be herself until Friday.

This is Lilly now, after surgery. Her bandage has to be changed every three days, and it's a long process that requires myself and my boyfriend to do it. However, her next bandage change is tomorrow, and I have to do it alone. We did her first one together on Friday and it took both of us to hold her and do everything needed. I'm very nervous about tomorrow. She has to be given a shot of hydromorphone, a pain killer, and then soak for ten minutes so that her bandage comes off easier. Then her wound had to be flushed with saline solution, and dried with gauze. Silvadene cream has to be applied on the wound, and finally a new piece of tegaderm must be carefully applied. A piece of white tape is then put on the end of the tegaderm to make it stay on.

She is on amikacin shots pending the results of her cultures. This is an extremely strong antibiotic that is very hard on the kidneys, and I hate to have her on it but it is probably what she needs. Her culture results should be back by Friday, and from there we can decide if she is on the right medication or if we need to switch. They also sent off a sample of the fluids in her blisters. They told me the fluid is a lot more active now, and has a high white blood cell count.

Her first feeding since the surgery (she hasn't eaten since November 12) is tonight. I'm nervous for that also. Tonight will tell me if I've done the bandage correctly or not. The vet told me if it was done wrong, she'll regurgitate. My main concern is the white tape. My boyfriend told me to leave it on, but honestly I'm scared to because I worry about the mouse not making it past the tape. We'll see how it goes.

Needless to say, I'm doing everything I can for her, and I plan to keep doing everything I can. I don't regret getting her, because I know if anyone else would have she probably would be dead by now. I just hope this encourages everyone to keep taking care of their ball pythons properly, and encourages anyone considering a ball python to take care of it properly. I've always kept Lilly's cage clean and I've kept the humidity right, but that obviously was not done in the past.

Lilly still isn't 100% after her surgery. I'd say she's around 80. Rather than exploring when she is out of her cage she just lays around after a little looking about. She cares to see what you are doing but not to the extent she used to. Just yesterday she was finally able to curl up in her hide again. For days she had mobility issues and could not turn her self around properly.

[PorcelainxDoll]

That poor baby! I am so happy you have her and are giving her the care and love she deserves.

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk 2

[barbie.dragon]

Wow what a nightmare. I'm glad you rescued her from it. IMO if there's a chance she'll regurgitate hold off the feeding? But I'm not qualified at all to suggest this maybe someone can chime in on that

[Capray]

That's amazing.
If you give her a tiny meal that the can just gulp down, it would be easer for her.
I really hope she eats okay for you. I doubt she will be able to swallow with that tape on...
Why didn't the vet tell you whether or not to remove it for feeding her?
If I were you I would remove it, you don't want her to try to eat it, have her panic because she can't swallow, and cause more problems.

[Kaorte]

Did you ever find out what caused the blisters and the red skin? I've never seen anything like that. She looked pretty good after you got the stuck shed off, then she just starts to look so terrible Poor baby. Thanks for taking her to the vet and getting her the care she needs.

[mohawk]

Could that red skin possibly be a burn, from the snake crawling up the ramp, and being too close to the basking lamp ??

[Coleslaw007]

Oh jeeze... that poor baby. You deserve an award for your epic snake care! She's very lucky she ended up in your care. I hope you guys find an answer soon, I've never heard of anything like that.

[coball]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Last night I found out she had managed to get her bandage off (she's excellent at that) and I had to replace it so she was in no mood to eat. I talked to my vet today and she said to offer her smaller food (fuzzies or small mice) and just give her multiples. I've got some fuzzies that I'm going to see if she will respond to tonight.

Capray; She didn't think it would need to be removed, but when I talked to her today she said she thought about it and realized, like me, a large mouse isn't getting pass the tape. So, we've decided to just give her smaller critters. My main concern now is not illiciting a feeding response, but she goes into hunt mode when put in her keeper, so hopefully that'll be enough to entice her. I'll let everyone know how feeding goes tonight.

Kaorte; The vet and I aren't sure what's causing the blisters. I've kept her enclosure clean and sanitized the entire time I've had her, so we're thinking it was something her previous owner did. Everything happened so rapidly it's hard to know. No cultures have come back yet, but I should have the results by Friday.

Mohawk; I suppose it could be possible, but I think it is highly unlikely. I don't use UTHs because of the possibility of burns (even though I know they can be safely used). She has basking lights which she can't get close enough to touch. I get deep domes and short bulbs to get them as far away from the screen top as possible, and for her new 40g breeder (she can't have it until she is better ) I've got lamp stands so they won't even be on the screen. I've measure the temp at the top of the ramp and the bottom of the tank and neither one is in excess of what it should be. I can't remember the exact gradient, but I know it never got over 92 under the lamp. And with the blisters being near her tail, that seems to make it more impossible. I see your logic, though. I'll run it by my vet, but I feel like if it had been burns they would have healed by now.

[barbie.dragon]

Please keep us updated.

[Badgemash]

First of all I'm so glad Lilly ended up in such a good home! Part of me wonders though if maybe the first vet didn't transmit something when he probed her? Only because the blisters appeared near her vent. It kind of reminds me of friend of mine who got MRSA, he had blisters like that. Of course it's hopefully not that! Keep us updated please!