To those who have seen my thread on Dave, you may have more of a feel for this. If you do not know Dave, he's a python I got from my friend's step dad and a week into his arrival he fell into a nasty case of slipped skin disease.

The thread: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...les-Just-Split

He's made a full recovery.

But if you know or if you don't know, the previous owner of Dave has two other snakes. Another ball python and a red tail boa constrictor. I recently went to my friend's house again and of course I took out Scorchmuffin, the other ball python. He's about four feet long and pretty skinny but not as famished as Dave once was. As usual, his cage looks the exact same : filthy, full of urates, feces, and old shed and the water bowl is all dried out. I take him own and brush off loose shed of his. He's breathing heavy, about 20 breaths per minute with every one having a wheeze. Poor thing. I couldn't believe I didn't feel it on him. I turn him over and what I see... Oh, man, I thought Dave had it bad.





How long has this been going on to let it get that bad? He's about four feet long and it goes halfway down his body to the very tip of his tail. Two whole feet of him is like this. Once I show my friend, she wonders if it was the heat pads which have burned him before. Yes, but those were minor burns that only reddened his undersides. That could be one of the causes but only one. It's not alone. Arthur, her step dad, comes downstairs in the basement where he keeps his snakes and he sees this. Does he looks surprised? Yes. Ariana, my friend, asks the question I wanted to know. "Does he need to go to a vet?"

"No."

No? Let's break this down.
  • His cage is filthy and there is no clue of how long those lacerations have been open
  • His cage and himself smell awful and I can't decide if it's infection of just poop (or rotting scales)
  • He has multiple open wounds
  • This is on his underside, leaving him very vulnerable to infection
  • He's bleeding in some areas
  • It is most likely very painful for him to even move that side of his body as when I held him, he mostly held it limp
  • It's covers over his duct as well, making bowel movements painful or more difficult
  • Some scales are quite literally falling off as we speak
  • Bedding was very stuckon him in some places


Do I need to go on? Arthur claimed that he has some antibiotic cream that he could use. That's fine. That's good. However, the man simply went back upstairs, leaving the snake to us, the cage messy, and he didn't come back with any medical supplies to help him. I cleaned out his bowl (full of algae or mold) as best as I could and filled it with water but we eventually took it out after he took a very long drink because we didn't want the dirty bowl to aid in an infection. By we, I mean me and Ariana (and her friend Jaina who was over at the time). We tried to bandage the poor thing by ourselves to at least help but of course snakes are very difficult to bandage. It stayed on for a couple hours but came off in the morning. That morning, I woke up before my friends and I took it upon myself to clean his cage, unplug the other heating pad that he didn't unplug. (Arthur unplugged one heating pad so it didn't worsen but apparently he was heating pads on both sides which is bad enough but he didn't even remember to take out the other one. God.) I took out all the bedding and replaced it with paper towels after trying to scrub off that cage. Urates were embedding into the wood, as well as old shed.

His five year old son (do you call it a step-son?) helped me. The five year old helped me with something the owner of the animal was too lazy to do. Yeesh.

I put him back in to rest. But, honestly, I can't do anything for him. I don't have the money myself to offer to take him to the vet; nor can I take him home and care for him until I can get enough.

- - -

However, I'm not here to ask how to handle this. I know how to handle it. I'd do the same process as I did with Dave except with some extra precautions. The issue is that he's not my snake. Dave was given to me by the same guy and look what happened to him. Look what happened to Scorchmuffin. Is Slick, his boa, coming next? He only seems to care for that one, though, so he'd probably give him medical treatment. I don't even know if Ariana is going to bother him into treating the poor guy.

Anyway, does anybody know what this is? Burns with a mixture of some weird deficiency? Has anybody seen anything similar?

I know it's not too late to save the guy but the issue is I can't. I'm towns over from them and I can't tell Arthur what to do even if I try. I don't want him to go alone, though. Scorchmuffin is a very sweet snake that doesn't deserve this in any way, shape, or form. Even if Dave didn't make it he'd have over fifty people to bid him a loving goodbye. Scorchmuffin deserves that, too, I suppose. I'm going to try my best to get this incompetent owner to do something about it but I can't make promises.

I pray he's as strong as Dave.