wild-caught ball pythons irritable sick disease starvation

[zina10]

I used to own 2 CB (captive born NOT bred) Ball Pythons and also did rescue, which consisted of quite a few WC.

All the WC ones I got, I was able to return to good health. And some were pretty sick. I had skinny ones, blister disease, parasites (external and internal), RI's.
NONE of them were aggressive. Not even defensive. All were extremely shy.

The 2 CB ones were a delight from day one. Healthy and had the best temperament of ANY of the Ball Pythons I've had, incl. the 6 morphs I have now. That, of course, was probably just a fluke. I'm not saying that normals, WC or CB have certain personality characteristics. Just saying that they are not all aggressive or defensive by default.

Back to the WC. None of the ones I had were "fresh" imports. They were imports that had never been treated, that didn't eat for their keepers, that were neglected. So all in all, they were in WORSE shape then fresh imports. For all of those, medical attention was #1 priority. I didn't even attempt to feed them, it was clear they weren't healthy enough to eat or digest.
All the treatments were done with Vet approval and supervision. I would bring the animal in for a diagnosis, it would get the first treatment at the Vet office and I continued the treatment at home. I had a awesome Vet back then. He let me see the "nasties" under the microscope and always explained everything thoroughly.

Most had mites, some had ticks. Those can be treated easy enough. Most also had worms. The ones that were extremely emaciated often had a Protozoan infection such as Giardia. Of course there were also RI's and like I said, blister disease. Some had a variety of problems. External parasites were treated with PAM and keeping husbandry simple and spotless (papertowels, cleaning daily) For the worms we treated with Panacur, orally. The Giardia was treated with Flagyl, orally. The RI's got shots of antibiotics.

Blister disease usually resolved itself once the health improved and the husbandry was spot on. (and clean) I got a liquid to mix with water and have them soak in it for a few minutes, but I don't remember what that was. Betadine maybe? The water was only a quarter inch high or so. Only needed to be done once or twice if I remember correctly.

All that was NOT easy. It was quite the job. But they all turned out alright with intensive care.

Some took rats right away, the stubborn ones were started on Gerbils. ALL OF THEM eventually switched not only to rats, but to FT rats. It can be done.

Nowadays, with so many quality CBB Ball Python available, I don't see why someone would want to go through all the trouble.

Long story short, starvation ? Yes, usually because of protozoans, parasites or disease.

Irritable? Well, they were shy. And stressed. None bit or even hissed. Doesn't mean that they are all that way.

Permethrin fixes external parasites (if used correctly) but usually you have far more issues then that going on, unless the animal was already treated. Back then many people had Panacur and Flagyl on hand and treated all animals that came in, just in case.

All that said, this was years ago. I'm not sure if other meds are used nowadays. Any medical treatment should be done after a Vet has given a Diagnosis and prescribed the correct meds.

That is all I can think of.


In case I'm not making sense, or my grammar and spelling is way off, english is my second language and I have a pretty severe flu. I'm also heavily medicated, so bear with me