Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I wasn't gonna post this earlier because I didn't think the poor thing would live. But now he/she has pulled ahead and I would love some input. All of this has taken time. We worried most of killing him with stress....though that may have been a Godsend. We worry too about the condition of his highly dehydrated organs and their ability to deal with much in the line of meds. So we were aiming more to building him up to a point where we can treat him if it is then needed. Improving his care has improved him amazingly already.
I work in a pet store and we had a guy bring in a BC in horrible shape that he said he found in his back yard. ( wish I found BCs in my back yard!- not at all believable but we won't go there) The snake is 3-4 feet and was maybe an inch and a half in diameter at it's widest. Dehydrated, mouth rot, probably a URI but mostly, starved worse than any animal I have seen that was still alive. A couple areas of broken ribs. Unable to hold up it's head or have any muscle reaction it hung over your hand like a garden hose.
We gently hydrated him externally. Wrapped him in damp warm towels for hours. Got off at least 6 layers of shed and eyecaps. Pulled more than a tablespoon of shavings out of it's mouth. Got him into a warm humid environment and expected him to be dead every morning.
After some days of slight improvement and a conversation with my vet I tube fed him 15-20ml of the baby food recipe from Barker's BP manual, more water then food though. We thought we had probably killed him as his reaction was nearly seizure like for half an hour after. But two days later he was actually looking better still and on the fifth day we tube fed him again. This time he seemed even better.
So, here we are now with a boa that looks like he might live out of sheer stubborness. Yesterday I tube fed him and got 30ml into him easily. He is starting to move like a snake and not tie himself in pretzels. He actually tongue flicked several times yesterday and we had a small party. His mouth rot is gone btw.
We are taking it day by day and still touch him now and then just to be sure he is alive. But now he will turn his head and recognize us.
All of you that have done this before....what are we forgetting? My vet is good but not that experienced with this extreme. Face it, anything this bad is usually dead and not going to a vet. What sort of time table can we work with and are we pushing it too much to have fed him three times in two weeks? Too little? We are going by feel and well it seems to be good so far we are all expecting him to die anyway. We're a 'wait for the other shoe to drop' sort of group
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

Sounds like your supportive therapy has turned the BC around toward living. Other than providing: food, temperature gradients, hydration until the snake can eat on its own, that's about it. Once it's strong enough, passes feces, then appropriate diagnosis & medication can begin.

Goodluck.

Maybe Christina, Ian and Kelly can add to this...

My own personal perception, and I'm not saying this is how it is in your scenerio, but more often than not pet store's vets are in the relation to gain puppy and kitten clients. The arrangement also thrusts reptiles there way, but it's usually not their specialty, or even much of an interest for them. Another typical scenerio, and to no fault of your own, treatments are restricted by what the petstore's budget for the animal is, and not what is best for the animal.

While this boa seems to have turned around and the current therapy is what I'd recommend for future care, the odds would have been more in favour of the snake if better medical intervention had done. If anything it speeds recovery, reduces suffering, and decreases permanent damage which may or may not be immediately apparent.

You are correct in that hydration was probably el uno on the list of priorities but parental reptile ringers would have been a much more efficient way of doing this. Bloodwork will tell you what the effects are on the body from the dehydration, and whatever caused the initial onslaught of symptoms. It will also show what progress is being made while treatment is underway. Intravenous antibiotics can also be used much earlier than oral medications, which would see the apparent infections heal that much earlier, and reduce systemic complications like septicimia, or spot infections in the heart, lungs, kidneys ect.

To summarize; concise, direct, and effecient treatment see more animals of this nature move on to a healthy lifestyle than does a haphazard, crossed fingers approach. With that said, I commend you for doing the best with what you have available to you, and perhaps this tid-bit of information will just be more usefull for that dreaded "next time".

Ian

>>My own personal perception, and I'm not saying this is how it is in your scenerio, but more often than not pet store's vets are in the relation to gain puppy and kitten clients. The arrangement also thrusts reptiles there way, but it's usually not their specialty, or even much of an interest for them. Another typical scenerio, and to no fault of your own, treatments are restricted by what the petstore's budget for the animal is, and not what is best for the animal.
>>
>>While this boa seems to have turned around and the current therapy is what I'd recommend for future care, the odds would have been more in favour of the snake if better medical intervention had done. If anything it speeds recovery, reduces suffering, and decreases permanent damage which may or may not be immediately apparent.
>>
>>You are correct in that hydration was probably el uno on the list of priorities but parental reptile ringers would have been a much more efficient way of doing this. Bloodwork will tell you what the effects are on the body from the dehydration, and whatever caused the initial onslaught of symptoms. It will also show what progress is being made while treatment is underway. Intravenous antibiotics can also be used much earlier than oral medications, which would see the apparent infections heal that much earlier, and reduce systemic complications like septicimia, or spot infections in the heart, lungs, kidneys ect.
>>
>>To summarize; concise, direct, and effecient treatment see more animals of this nature move on to a healthy lifestyle than does a haphazard, crossed fingers approach. With that said, I commend you for doing the best with what you have available to you, and perhaps this tid-bit of information will just be more usefull for that dreaded "next time".
>>
>>Ian

First...the vet is my vet and the reptile vet in the area though for specialization there is driving and getting into Cornell University.
We didn't opt for ringers because at the time (and still) the snake is not mine, it is the store's and the owner wouldn't okay much. We truly expected this animal to die overnight and once he didn't he has come around remarkably so it was harder to convince the owner...he is not a pet person, just the building owner that wanted to keep the store too.
That aside. The snake has pooped! and is going into shed. The poop looked remarkably good, color, formed and urates. We will see how he manages a shed. Both of these seems like good good things to me.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

Okay, well, the snake shed a few days ago....nicely as a matter of fact, except for a slow down at an area of broken ribs several inches wide....clean eyes, mouth, tail tip and vent. Nice.
Yesterday he was very active....relatively for any snake but very for him. I set in a prekilled small mouse. Danged if he didn't hone right in on it and wolf it down. He was like a little kid with a bag of candy. All excited. SO, now we are waiting to see how that cycles through. But he/she(haven't bothered to probe it yet) seems to be rememering how to be a snake!
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny