Reptile & Amphibian Forums

HI guys. i have 2 BPs. one ive had for almost a year,and is 2.5 ft. eats great,no probs whatsoever. Today a customer of the stor ei work in gave us his 4ft BP. We had no room for it and had no clue what to do,so i took him home. I am not sure of its sex,actually. is colors are very,very dull,i am hoping this is because he will be shedding soon(im not sure,just hoping)alot of his scales look scraped and worn. he has a retained eye cap on one eye. he whistled when he inhales. his belly looks pretty pink.he has a little bit of black residue around his bottom lip. i am not sure if he eats well,but he doesnt look skinny a bit. anything i can or should do in the meantime until i can get him to a vet? is the pink belly a problem thing? I never saw it before,i so i am assuming it is. i will take a stool sample as soon as i can get one,hopefully before my appt. what sorts of medicines are usually prescribed for URIs? Could the pink belly be parasites? since it is uncommon to find a CB adult in the trad,ei am assuming he is WC. ne last question, the little hook-like claws found by the vent,do both males and females have those?

The pink belly is probably a sign that he's going to shed in a few days. The eyes might not be "blue" because the day before shedding, they always clear up. Or it could be pink from burns, from a too-hot UTH. Do you know if the previous owners even had one?
Sounds like he may have a respiratory infection, and maybe mouth rot? Mouth rot is very dangerous from what I hear, but maybe you have caught it in an early stage. If Under normal circumstances I would strongly suggest soaking the snake in a covered Rubbermaid container, big enough for the snake to stretch out in, using some warm, dish-soapy water. Only enough water to cover the snake's back, not so much that he has to swim to stay afloat. I always do this with new snakes, to check for ticks or mites, which will fall off and float around dead in the water. If you move the suds out of the way, you can see if any are present. Please do this, because my recent rescue male turned out to have ticks. Most jerkoffs who give up their snakes are not concerned with their wellbeing, and thus their snakes can be mite infested.
BUT I am not sure if you should soak him, due to his possible RI, until he sees a vet. For now I'd be paranoid about keeping him away from the other snakes you have, in case he has ticks/mites or some other parasite, til he gets vetted. Maybe someone else will know if soaking is definately safe at this time...? I hope I have helped ya! You have a lucky snake there; lucky that you rescued him. I think that if there's a hell, there is a special place there for people who abandon and mistreat their snakes.
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Thanks alot gen, i appreciate it. he is actually soaking hisself now in his waterbowl, so i am positive he will be shedding. his dull color and the pink belly make me sure of this.he has a retained eye cap,i hop eit comes off with this shed. i suppose i will wait to feed him for about a week. i will make a vet appt. as soon as possible.this mouth rot is only a few specks of black so far,so i hope we caught it early. what is that from?

Mouth rot is a bacterial infection, possibly caused by a too-moist or unclean cage. I believe it's also called stomatitis, if you want to look that up.
I'd check his water bowl thoroughly to make sure there are no mites or ticks floating around in there. My new boa was soaking a lot, and it turned out he had a few ticks. That goes to show that even captive bred snakes can have them.
But the soaking could also be cuz of the impending shed. I'd offer him a humid hide also; you can just get a small rubbermaid, or similar, bowl with lid, cut a hole in for entry, sand the rough plastic edges of the hole, line it with moist paper towel or sphagnum moss, and place in tank near the heat source. Or just cover the lid of the tank with something like a towel (if you have a screen lid) and mist the whole tank daily with warm water. Humidity is the key to a good, one piece shed!
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