Brought home a severely underweight BP baby. Please help me get her back on track

[richardhind1972]

Wow,that is a big scar/wound , at least it doesn't look angry, if that makes sense.

you really are doing a great job, good job there's such nice people on this planet still, a lot of people would of given up on this a long time ago, hat off to you big time

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[Spoons]

It does make sense! It's not angry, it's healing actually incredibly well. It seems, during this experience, I've found that snakes heal much faster than you'd expect them to. The edges of the wound seem to pull closer together every day. The scabby area is flexible still, it doesn't bunch up or pinch.

Currently she's coiled half on top of her hide and half inside, watching me in hopes I'll appear with mice. Little goon. I can't wait til I can give her a full tank again and take her out of quarantine.

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[Bogertophis]

She's one tough little fighter! And so are you! That's great that she eats so well, she really needs it to keep healing.

[Zincubus]

Sorry I’ve not been following the thread .... just noticed this photo though .. what on earth caused that apparent split in the skin !!??




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[Spoons]

Sorry I’ve not been following the thread .... just noticed this photo though .. what on earth caused that apparent split in the skin !!??




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It was a hard scabbed off area of damaged skin from the previous shed. She's had a few rough ones, and this last one peeled the hard damaged skin off. Because of the severity of the malnutrition, she had tissue paper skin when I got her.

No new damaged skin, though, and it's firmer and feeling more like regular snake skin. There is no longer fluid under the skin, or bruising post-shed - I think after next shed, it should be closed up and on the road to full repair

I used to handle her and feel like her skin would rip under my fingers. Now she feels more like a snake!

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[WhompingWillow]

What did you end up deciding regarding giving her Vitamin C or a multivitamin? I'm glad she's hanging in there and slowly improving. She definitely lucked out the day you brought her home.

[Bogertophis]

.... just noticed this photo though .. what on earth caused that apparent split in the skin !!?? ....

Chronic malnutrition in snakes results in skin that tears very easily...I've taken in a similar snake (a boa) myself with the same problem. In case you want to
hear this from more than just one member? It's horribly challenging to treat & yeah, the pictures are shocking, to say the least...but this snake is recovering.

[Spoons]

What did you end up deciding regarding giving her Vitamin C or a multivitamin? I'm glad she's hanging in there and slowly improving. She definitely lucked out the day you brought her home.

I ended up not supplementing because I was unable to find anything about dosing and safety. Vitamin C is water soluble, which means any that isn't used immediately in body is passed through waste (pee) so while over dosing would be a small chance, it's not one I wanted to take. This also means that while I'm sure her body uses the vitamin C from her meals as fast as it can, any left over is passed in waste until she eats again.

I did, however, switch to feeding her smaller meals more frequently so her body has a more frequent source of vitamins than once per week. The smaller prey helps while she heals too, as there's less body stretching than one big meal.

I'm still toying with trying to inject a little slurry of a multivitamin powder into a mouse once a week, but haven't taken that step yet. I would like to do more research on dosing and solubility - anything fat soluble CAN be over dosed, and I don't want to do that.

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[Bogertophis]

I used to add a little bit of reptile vitamin powder to prey when I bred a few snakes years ago...I no longer use it, but in your case, I probably would use just
a tiny amount*, & maybe every third feeding...more or less as a "safety net", & not trying to meet the RDA that we have no standards for in snakes anyway.
My snakes were healthy & remained so, & there's no way to know how much of a difference the vitamins made. I suspect it might help yours though & I don't
believe it would hurt anything. *Either reptile or bird vitamins.

It's the way I take my own supplements, since there are so many "ifs" even in products for humans. There is no guarantee of purity -what!? so while I can
see there may be a benefit for some things (depending on one's diet), there's no way I want to take much of anything, just in case. Know what I mean?

[Spoons]

I just ordered some reptile vitamins for her, and will give some with her next meal. You're right, since most vitamins aren't monitored by the FDA there isn't really a guarantee on purity or anything. Makes it hard! But I don't think it'll hurt her. Gotta stop on my way home today and restock on mice! I'll see about getting an updated weight on her, I haven't done in a while. With everything going on I've been going for minimal handling - but it'll be interesting to see how she's come since the 50something grams she was when I brought her back.