ok,
Background info: had a pet ball python dumped on us back in mid-June. The snake was stated to be at least 10 years old, feeding exclusively on live mice (has the scars to prove it too), and generally well behaved. Snake was being passed from family member to family member as the kids left for college until finally the dad was left holding the bag and he was due to move across country to a new job and didn't want to take the snake with him.
The exam showed the snake was dehydrated as well as underfed (had a lot of loose skin), but otherwise appeared fine overall. Weight was 1785 grams (3.9lbs) and measured 54 inches. Until otherwise proven, I will assume it's a male based on the thickness of the tail base and the large spurs (we have advanced warning that a female bp will need a home when its owner retires and moves to FL to live with family that don't like snakes...so there is a chance for breeding or lack thereof to determine gender, but that's gonna be a project for the future).
Anyways, I had no problems at all converting the snake into accepting frozen/thawed food and even got him easily onto rats because a snake his size would go through a lot of mice pretty quick.
Right around the end of June when the snake was in the late stages of a shed cycle, he one day developed these fluid filled pockets down along the sides of the body above the tail area. A few days after shedding, the edema had receeded until there was just loose skin again.
As the summer has progressed and we get into autumn, the snake has gradually put on weight - now up to 1996 grams (4.3 lbs). Recently he went through another shed cycle. Again he developed fluid filled pockets along the body, but these were much bigger and stretched further up along the sides of the body of abdomen area. I also could sorta hear the fluid as it visibly sloshed around the day after he shed his skin when I took him out to examine him. This time he also had some small amount of blood around the vent.
I set up an appointment with the vet. The vet came back and said the snake was pretty healthy overall if still a little bit underweight. He seemed to think that the edema pockets were forming due to a combination of his still having issues with some loose skin hanging on his body as well as his advanced age and that generally he didn't think there was anything wrong with the snake. He thought maybe if he continued to put on weight it would help further reduce the amount of loose skin on him, but that also he may always form these edema pockets due to a reduction in the elasticity of the skin from old age.
I am just curious to find out if anyone else with ball pythons that are 10-plus years old has problems with shedding induced edema and skin elasticity problems that may be age related and this is nothing I need to really worry about or if there is something else that may be causing this problem that I should be worrying about.
Below is a picture of Drake with my 2yo nephew at work - he wanted to finally hold the 'big snakey' all by himself (normally I hold and he pets him).
Wyvern
