So as many of you already know I spend my "free" time volunteering at a reptile store which isn't always up to par so to speak but today was just more than I could take. At this store we take in animals that are unwanted by their owners and usually green iguanas and red tail boas are top on the list of returns. So today one of the other guys in the store came to me with a rather large bag and told me it was a red tail that someone had dropped off and that he thought it wasn’t in the best of health. I happened to be feeding the baby corn snakes at the moment so I took the bag and set it at my feet until I finished the corns. It wasn’t more than 30 seconds after I set the bag down that I hear the tell tale signs of a RI coming from the bag... Heavy breathing that was very loud and almost sounded like a hiss more than a RI. It was at this point that I asked the guy that gave the bag to me if he had looked at the snake before we took it in, he told me no, but he thought the guy was shady and that he kept insisting that we pay for the animal, which isn’t our policy, but ended up just leaving the snake on the counter and remarking "you deal with him" as he walked out the door. So after hearing this I was scared as to what condition the animal would be in as I opened the bag, but none of my expectations could have prepared me for what I saw inside. To start with the scales, the snake was covered in about 3 layers of old shed from head to tail, then there was severe scale rot from about half way down his tummy to the tip of the tail and the tail was missing about 4 inches which for a full grown snake red tail leaves a quarter size bleeding, gapping wound at the end of his tail. Then on to the mites and one tick which was latched to his head behind his eye, but the worse part was when I got the face. The face of this poor snake was covered from about a half inch in front of his eye to half inch under his bottom jaw with a large pussy scab that would not allow the animal to breath out of his nostrils but also wouldn’t allow him to open the front part of his mouth so the only form of breathing he could do was by expelling the air through the side vents of the scab... Upon seeing this I just broke down and started crying for this animal. I immediately called our reptile vet and was on my way to the office with the cell phone in the other hand. After a long consult with the vet and some baytril for the obvious infection he had everywhere on his body we sexed him and found our he was a she. Then came the peeling of the scab. With me holding this poor baby girls head the vet applied some Neosporin and started peeling the snake scab off in order to allow her to open her mouth. She was rail skinny and I could tell she was weak and cold... After what seemed like forever the vet got the scab off and sealed the wound with a "blue concrete mixture" the vet told me to keep a close eye on her and that I was to finish the baytril injections and keep her heat high and her home clean. The concrete substance will help her heal over the bone which was exposed on the top of her face and the bottom jaw actually turned out looking okay. I need a name for this little girl and I want to know if I am justified in filing animal abuse charges against the prior owner . I already filed charges so it won’t matter to me if you say no I shouldn’t but I feel that poor snake deserves some level of revenge for the crap that was done to her. I told the other worker there and she felt I was totally out of line for filing charges and her biggest concern was that there would be repercussions to the store about this man not wanting to come in anymore and purchase anything... My feels about it are, if I ever see that man near another animal again I will need to be held back from ripping his face off like this poor snake had done to her... Sigh... im sorry im just really frustrated with the level of insanity that people can lower themselves too... I need some comments and I need a good name for her. As soon as she is mite free she will be coming home with me since I was the one who paid the 482.00 vet visit... So any advice would be good.. And a good name for this lucky little girl. .. Anyways thank you for reading and commenting on my day..
Sincerely,
Rose
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www.srsnakes.com
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