Posted by:
SneakySnakesINC
at Sat May 3 03:51:25 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by SneakySnakesINC ]
Alrighty folks, this is gonna be a long one, in order for me to explain everything fully, so I apologize in advance and thank anyone who takes time to read this! I feel I need to give the full background to the situation,
Some of you may remember reading some posts of mine from last year regarding a sick bullsnake that I was trying to get back to health...He was advertised here on Kingsnake.com as a tame CB orange bull, but I believe he was actually WC, due to the amount of scarring he had on him as well as his absolutely psychotic attitude and the condition he was in.
It started with me receiving this bullsnake from the previous owner through this site, he came to me very sick with what I thought at the time was a RI.(severe Popping,gasping, open mouth breathing, a lot of mucus etc....he was also very skinny) So I took him to the only herp vet in the area, who turned out to be a fraud. She put him on the wrong medicine, at the wrong dose for over 8 months....I didn't realize this until I took him to my current herp vet, I'd never had any of my reptiles get sick before, so this was all new to me.
When this fraud vet's treatments didn't work I found a new herp vet who is my current vet now, and he's amazing. He ran all sorts of tests on the snake and treated him for possible parasites. He put him on every reptile antibiotic on the market to see if we could combat what we both believed to be a RI. When none of those worked he thought it could possibly an obstruction in the snake's throat and ran more tests to rule out possibly having to perform surgery on him.
With surgery ruled out we tried one more series of antibiotics, and had very little luck, it seemed to lessen the severity of his breathing troubles while he was on them, but they would come back full swing as soon as he was off the medicine.
Finally the vet concluded that we've done everything possible for the snake, and if he hasn't responded to any of the treatments he probably wont. The snake had gained a lot of weight and was eating great so the vet was hopeful that maybe he'd pull through alright and told me just to watch his condition, and that was that.
I've been watching his condition and for the past several months, he's been on a steady decline of health. His breathing troubles have gotten bad, his mouth is literally almost dripping with mucus,he's stopped eating and he's lost a very large unhealthy amount of weight, and has become very lethargic....this usually "psychotic and energetic" snake who despises handling of any kind barely struggles anymore. He used to be my best eater, and would eat year round, with an incredible appetite...I used him to clean up my other snakes left-overs.
I've been trying my best to keep him hydrated, and as a last resort I even tried force feeding him some small prey items but he didn't hold any of it down.
My vet still stands by what he said, that he's been through every treatment available and he didn't respond to any of it, so it's very unlikely he will. His illness was probably very advanced way before I ever laid eyes on him.
I have litterally emptied out my bank account on this snake, and I'm even in debt to others for some of his vet bills. When is it time to say goodbye? I hate feeling like I'm playing god with a life, but I hate seeing him suffer and seem to slowly die right before me.
I love all my pets with all my heart and I hoped I would never have to make a decision like this, I just want to make the right one.
Thanks for reading this, it means a lot. Even if I get no replies, I just needed to get this off my chest.
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--SneakySnakesINC--
1.0 Northern Pine Snake (Oshy)
1.0 Bull Snake (Irwin)
0.1 Ball Python (Nagini)
0.1 Yellow Rat Snake (Ember)
1.0 Albino Black Rat Snake (Vegas)
1.0 Citrus X red phase bearded dragon (Twyman)
1.1 Oriental Fire Bellied Toads (Spot and Dott)
2.0 Equines (Sherlock the draft and Cleatis the donkey)
4.0 Felines (Caesar Ray, Pharoh, Phoenix, Boomer)
1.0 WC boyfriend (Ryan)
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 Time To Say Goodbye? - SneakySnakesINC, Sat May 3 03:51:25 2008
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