Scabbed, Thinning Scales Around Spine + Infected(?) Eye

[Craiga 01453]

According to my parents, he hasn't eaten in 2 months. I do believe they may have left a live mouse or rat in there and that could be it. I know they've done it before, even when I say it's dangerous to do that. It's hard to put a foot down from hundreds of miles away. My other two ball pythons are perfectly healthy. I'm not sure what went wrong with this one when they were caring for him. I told them that he doesn't eat rats because he's small enough to fill up on mice, so they shouldn't have put a rat in with him anyway. (Whether they did or not, I have no idea-- but a mouse could do that much damage if it was aggressive enough). All snakes are fed separately so it makes sense for only one to be bitten up if put in with an aggressive mouse/rat.

As far as giving him up to another owner, that all depends. My college is shut down and it might be for the rest of the semester seeing how this panic is going. I'm going to be switching colleges as well as I want to get into another major, and may end up staying home as opposed to a dorm. This means I can watch over my own snakes again instead of them doing so. If it isn't extremely costly, I can work with him to heal him. The eye is my main worry since if those are just scabs, they will go away as long as they're taken care of properly and not injected. Another worry is the fact he's not eating. If there is something I can do, I will try but if not, I'm not going to let him suffer anymore. I don't want to see him die so young.

And my parents aren't doing this on purpose. They didn't know. Of course they don't care for them as much as I do, and they don't spend time in my room so they're not always looking. But they're not evil. They're just very inexperienced, and sadly that was at a cost.

I'm not saying they're evil, or bad people in any way. However, as adults they should know when something is wrong and do the right thing about it. And since they accepted the responsibility of caring for the snakes, that means learning about them, putting in the effort and caring for them properly. It's not a lack of experience, it's a lack of responsibility. Otherwise simply say they don't want to keep the snake and find him a proper home.
You're a college kid, you knew something was wrong and you're acting on it, kudos to you. You're acting more grown up and responsible than your folks.

Good luck to you. Please know I'm not bashing your folks, I don't know a single thing about them other than what this thread reads. They're clearly not interested in taking responsibility, and that's perfectly fine. However, caring for them in the half hearted manner they are isn't fair to the animals.
I truly wish you and your snakes the best.