I would strongly recommend purchasing The Complete Ball Python by Kevin McCurley. It gives great information on the general care of ball pythons and also includes a section on all the common illnesses encountered with lots of pictures and how to treat them. Its pretty pricey though. I think I payed like $60 for it but its well worth the price I think. Im still new to keeping reptiles and havnt had to put the illness section into action yet and hope I never will. Just thought I would share it with you.