Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive got two Baby ball pythons. One has recently shown some signs of a neurological problem possibly... It doesnt look to be the stargazing disease...Hes been refusing food for a little over a month but hasnt really lost any weight. No mites. But he seems to be having some kind of problem with his head..like hes spasming or something... Ive seen him flip over and flip back to normal (and i know thats a huge symptom of the stargazing disease..but they dont flip back over) Hes only been doing this for less then 24 hours now. He had been fine, active up until today. And all my other snakes are fine. Both of these guys i aquired from NARBC Anahiem Show in Sept from High Sierra reptiles.

I keep my temps between 90-95 on the warm side. room temp on my cool side (70 or so)

Is it a spider or normal?
-----
Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

im guessing the animal in question is either a spider or a spider combo and if so just get use to it they all do it to some degree and if its not a spider maybe check with the breeder because ive heard of non-spider siblings can be affected as well hope this helps regards

Its a normal.

I also forgot to mention...Ive moved twice within the past few months. Im wondering if the snake got injured, maybe stressed out or something else.

I also didnt bag the snakes up when i moved.. my move was realy sudden.

When i moved from one house where he was eating fine... Moved to the next house he ate once in October and stopped eating in November ..I typically feed weekly also... I also had them set up in the garage (my dad also smokes in the garage and around them....they were only in the garage for a week or so until i set up a place inside) Im just wondering if he got injured or stressed out which could cause the weakness and star gazing.

Ive also got 4 healthy Kenyan Boas, a Iran Jaya carpet and another pastel ball python that are all fine. I also had a bunch of normals that i sold to a pet store before my last move...they were all fine too...

With my move from the house where he stopped eating in January...he just seemed to go downhill... its just slowly getting worse.

I hope that all makes sense.. lol

Have you gotten any new animals in your collection in the past few months? If not sounds like with all the moving and relocating he might have been exposed either to high temps or maybe chemicals that have affected him adversely. You might want to try taking him to a reptile vet -- but it doesn't sound like it's anything that they will be able to narrow down unless he dies - at which point you should get a necropsy done to rule out the possibility that you have IBD in your collection.

Hope everything works out.
-----
Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

Nope, no new animals. Got rid of a bunch actually.... My guess is something from the moves affected him... None of my other snakes show any signs of the IBD

And unfortuneatly where i live the closest reptile vet is about 300-miles away

At this point, only option is to take him to a vet. It could be anything that is causing the neurological issues. Stress, exposure to too high temps, toxins, injuries, IBD, even infection could cause these things.

Take the snakes to a vet even if not exclusively a herp vet, they can still at least run tests, blood panel, test for toxins etc. We also live in a technological age and many vet clinics have computers. They also have phones so you can give them the name and number of your old herp vet or the one that is 300 miles away.

It is even possible its a genetic problem only now starting to show itself because of all the stress your snakes have gone through. There just no way to know without tests.
-----
PHLdyPayne

Like PHLdyPayne said, you can go to a regular cat and dog vet and have them call and consult the herp vet. Most vets will at least look at your snake if you explain your situation. That's my experience anyway.