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96796
Yesterday (on my birthday!) I took in a rescue BCI, a female at about 8'. She belonged to some guys that I went to high school with who quite obviously have no sense of responsibility. She has an incredible amount of damage to her head, which is a combination of rubbing to get out of her cage, and rat bites. She has retained eyecaps and damage to her eyes from the rubbing. Her lips are curled up all around from a combination of deformation from the rubbing, and mouthrot. She has scars all over. The tip of her tail has been gnawed almost completely off by a rat, and will most likely have to be amputated. That is a recent injury (within the past week) and doesn't appear infected yet, but I'm almost positive that her head wounds are infected. Apparently, they dropped a live rat in her cage and left it in with her for 8 days waiting for her to eat it, but she didn't eat because she can't see and has such mouth problems. That was the last straw for them to get rid of her, because they didn't care enough to take care of her, much less pay for vet bills. It was just lucky timing that I happened to talk to their roommate for the first time in months, and he remembered that I had a boa (another BCI) so he brought up the fact that they wanted to get rid of her. When I got to their apartment last night, they had her in a 18"x36" glass cage with no substrate, no hide, no water, and a heat bulb right in the middle. She was completely stretched out and pressed as close as possible to all the edges, avoiding the heat, and frantically trying to get the screen off. I am so disgusted to say that I once considered these people my friends.
On Wednesday, I have an appointment to take her to see a reptile specialist at the University of Pennsylvania Vet Hospital, so wish us much luck. I've taken pictures already, but I can't post them until I get back to my apartment (and my digicam software) on Sunday (I'm home for Spring Break). I'll take pictures after the vet gets her cleaned up, too. Her name was Georgia, but it just doesn't fit her, so we decided to change it. We figured a new life warrants a new name. So now she is Stella. It goes well with Solomon (my male BCI), and hopefully in a year or so I'll be telling the story of "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." It sure feels good to be a rescuer. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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