Septicemia Dehydration Baby Ball Help!

[Buttercup]

Agree ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ and sorry to say I'd be very surprised (but happy!) if this poor little snake pulls thru. That's just a awful LOT for his body to handle, including the well-
intentioned antibiotics. In all likelihood his health was compromised when you received him but no way to be sure...stress & sub-optimal conditions can cause any snake
to become ill that's been apparently (outwardly) healthy. Like any creature (ourselves included), exposure to pathogens that we can fight off if in relatively good health
can become life-threatening if we're simultaneously dealing with significant stress, etc.

In my experience of taking snakes to vets for medical care, the more things that are tried simultaneously, the less favorable the outcome; IMO some over-react & try too many things at once, with the very best of intentions & which may work fine with other animals, but seem to backfire with our fragile snakes. Also, most vets (even those with "snake keeping experience") generally rush to fix the problem with medical options (what they've trained in!) rather than husbandry issues (which take a lot of time to explain & which nets less financial remunerations for them). I really emphasize "TLC" with any new snake of any age.

Thank you. We are so surprised he's still alive. He's a fighter & if he survives all this may get a new name. Rocky?

I completely understand about simultaneously doing too many things. The vet didn't push anything on us, simply told us he is in critical condition & that they are very worried about him but that he stood a chance at recovery & gave us their recommendations. We are doing our best to let the poor baby rest and hopefully heal. I am afraid he may be beyond the point of no return but we felt we had to give him a shot at recovery.We did discuss euthanasia if he takes a turn for the worse.

We will feel terrible if the husbandry is the issue. We will never know, I guess. The vets felt ours was a good setup. One vet has ball pythons at home and she felt the large tank was fine as it had hides and proper warmth, etc. One poster did state our enclosure is too large for a baby. I guess we felt if he had an assortment of tight spaces to hide/stay warm, he would be happy/healthy... We kept our eyes on temps & humidity constantly. Mu daughter cleaned & changed his water consistently. The only issue was that he would not eat which is huge. My daughter researched online and watched a lot of videos and tried various techniques to entice him to eat. Nothing worked.

IF you have any more advice, plz share. We are very open to learning. Thx, again!

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