Very Ill Elderly Snake

[Aaron-Insular]

I'm on your side bro, some people just need to grow some thicker skin. That snake needs immediate attention, and if that was a dog, and someone found this, someone would be getting arrested for animal cruelty

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[tucuxi88]

I understand every ones hostility, she has refused to take any ones advice multiple times now. Though some brutal honesty is good, having every one on the forum voice their opinion is uneccessary. I appreciate that experienced keepers and verteran members are taking the time to help her but since she's refused to take advice it has turned into an all-out hate fest. I probably would have said something myself but waaaay too many people beat me to it. *waiting for pitchforks and torches*

Since she seemingly just posted this just to get praised for this "rescue" I doubt she would even concern herself with this thread anymore after having nearly every regular member share their feelings. It's getting ridiculous people, we all want the best for this boa, but go punch a pillow or something then write something that would be useful.

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[louise]

Originally Posted by Aaron-Insular

I'm on your side bro, some people just need to grow some thicker skin. That snake needs immediate attention, and if that was a dog, and someone found this, someone would be getting arrested for animal cruelty

if it was a dog or cat someone would report them and the humane society or some other organization would get involved and rescue the cat/dog and put sad pictures of it on Tv and people would send them money and offer to adopt it. if we reported this poor snake they would come and get it and euthanize it. one more snake out of the way. all these snakes have is us and if people get a little ticked and appear rude when one is being tortured...so be it. they tried to help this snakegurl and her snake before anyone got rude. i dont even think the word rude should be used here...i think frusterated would be a better term.

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[louise]

snakegurl if you do come back and happen to look, this is chance, even her vet and he was a great vet did not have to much hope for her but with the help of the people on this site and her very good vet she lived. she had 5 layers of eyecaps and her spine had been broke in different spots. believe me the people on this site are half the reason she made it.

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[HERPHAPPY]

Originally Posted by Snakegurl13

well he did have a normal, large BM this evening after eating yesterday. no green.. so perhaps he just had an odd poo, i dont know weirder things have happened! BUT! i have found other similar cases of snakes who have the same appearance as mine (the spine) and they also were diagnosed with MBD. they have the same symptoms such as partial control of the tail, but still function. Its not common in snakes, as it is in lizards. But.. I know he is not the only one who has those spinal deformities, that has been diagnosed with MBD, at some point in the animals life. So i know not everyone was saying it cant be MBD cause it doesnt happen in snakes, but.. to those who did say that... my only comment is, just because its not all over the internet, and commonly known.. or you havent seen it yourself.. dont assume its not possible! Heck.. we all learn new things every day!

Total horse-hockey!!! (IMO)
I think we will sooner see the snake posting here than Snakegurl wising up!!!

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[Jdgonzo]

It pains me to say but I do believe our efforts to be for not. When you have someone who is trying to convince everyone else that what is going on is okay then their vision too becomes obscured with what they are trying to make everyone else believe. As here we have someone who is saying: Q. "look I have a sick animal, what should I do?" A. " do this..........and call me in the morning"
but when we say what is not wanted to be heard then we get the justification response on why it should be okay NOT to do what we have said. BUT at the end of the day we can only say so much and see how much of it falls on deaf ears.

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[M2788]

First off, to everyone who is not the OP:

I have always taken pride in the people of this forum for their friendliness and willingness to help others while keeping a level head, remembering that losing your temper will do no good besides making you feel better in the moment and will actually likely make things worse with the original poster. There is a fine line between firmly but cordially telling it like it is and being a complete jerk to someone, and I am extremely disappointed to see that several of you seriously crossed that line. Remember, we are complete strangers to her; she has no good reason to believe us in how we are asking her to take care of this very serious issue, and behaving in such a manner is certainly not going to sway her opinion towards our way of thinking. I know you guys are smart enough to take a step back from the keyboard and cool down for a few minutes before pressing that post button; I truly hope that in the future you will take into consideration how to word your message in a way that it will be best received in order to get the reptile the help it needs before submitting your reply.

To the OP:

I know that this may not be effective in changing your mind about the vet, but I have to try. Despite how we may come across, we truly care about this snake and its well-being. Part of being an exotic pet owner is searching down an experienced vet and being willing to take your pet there even if you don’t think it is an overly serious problem, no matter how much it will cost you, how far you have to drive, or what you have to do to get the animal to that vet. Sometimes it can be difficult, but it is so important that I firmly believe that any person who either doesn’t have an experienced reptile vet close to them or isn’t willing to drive however many hours in order to get to one should seriously reconsider adopting a reptile in the first place.

I spent $600 dollars in March trying to save the life of my snake that originally cost me about $50 dollars, driving over an hour in order to get him the care he needed. When you take on the responsibility of a pet, you are making a promise to it to make sure that it has the best life possible, whether that is with you or not. Part of that is that you must get your pet in to the vet if there is even the slightest sign whatsoever that something isn’t right, especially with animals like snakes that are so stoic that by the time they are showing there is anything wrong, it can sometimes be too late. I agree with the others; your boa is seriously ill, it doesn’t look like MBD to me, and he needs immediate medical attention. I won’t lie: from the looks of things, if it can’t be fixed in a way that allows him to live a healthy, normal life, he may very well need to be humanely euthanized.

If you do not believe that you have the time/money/ability needed to get your snake to the vet, I highly recommend finding him a home with someone who can before it is too late. If you go with that option, perhaps you could list your general location on this thread and we may be able to point you in the direction of someone willing to take him. I sincerely hope that you don’t let the few people on here who were overly harsh keep you from doing what is best for your pet. You are the only hope your snake has of living a healthy, pain-free life, I know that you as someone who cared enough about this snake to adopt him in the first place won’t want to let him down.

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[nitram]

i like icicle, i didnt see anything wrong with what he said. the OP might have been scared off before, when it was a 50 vs 1, that intimidates people, whether theyre being rude or not. Plus, icicle wasnt the only rude one, i can count at least 3 or 4, but some people just got some favoritism goin on, so it goes unoticed.
everyone should stop fighting, and now no one is saying anything that hasnt been said already.
i dunno how people keep snakes like that and just be like "oh i got the papers", its retarded, really... id take it to the vet just for the benefit of the doubt, but its not my snake. sucks but oh well what can you do?

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[Stargazer]

Originally Posted by louise

i offered to pay the vet bill.

Cool. Did you pm her and let her know? She has probably unsubscribed from the thread. I will pitch in a little too--I don't have too much, but I can do some.

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[RayRay]

Did the snake die yet?
Sorry, but I would have quit several pages ago.
It's sad for the animals when you can't get their caretakers to do what needs to be done to help them.
If she's dead at least she is no longer suffering.
Lock this POS thread. It's upsetting.

[Special K]

Good lord this thread makes my head (and heart) hurt...

Can we delete all the bickering that has nothing to do with the advice given to help the poor animal this whole thread is about anyways? Our opinions of the OP and the MODS can be discussed elsewhere. If the OP decides to re-visit this thread, she definitely won't sit here reading all the posts that have nothing to do with the care her animal needs.

Not going to lie, this thread makes a lot of us look like bigots.
MODS, please clean it up in interest of the animal instead of our opinions of each other.

[HERPHAPPY]

Originally Posted by Special K

....Can we delete all the bickering that has nothing to do with the advice given to help the poor animal this whole thread is about anyways? Our opinions of the OP and the MODS can be discussed elsewhere. If the OP decides to re-visit this thread, she definitely won't sit here reading all the posts that have nothing to do with the care her animal needs.
.....

Great idea! I second that!

[Icicle]

Originally Posted by Special K

Good lord this thread makes my head (and heart) hurt...

Can we delete all the bickering that has nothing to do with the advice given to help the poor animal this whole thread is about anyways? Our opinions of the OP and the MODS can be discussed elsewhere. If the OP decides to re-visit this thread, she definitely won't sit here reading all the posts that have nothing to do with the care her animal needs.

Not going to lie, this thread makes a lot of us look like bigots.
MODS, please clean it up in interest of the animal instead of our opinions of each other.

Done

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[louise]

just so everyone knows, she has been on the site every day. i been checking her profile. hopefully she will post again and let us help her and her snake.

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[Snakegurl13]

Originally Posted by louise

just so everyone knows, she has been on the site every day. i been checking her profile. hopefully she will post again and let us help her and her snake.

Well, of course i haven't been scared off! i just see no point in responding to pointless remarks (most of what has been posted, but not all) But, i contacted my local zoo, who knows pretty much nothing about reptiles, who has a veterinarian who comes in to check their reptiles once a month, who has agreed to see "rocky" as we have named him. i explained to her his symptoms, and she says that very well it could be a bacterial infection, but with the fact that previous owners have had him checked out, it was probably from years ago, and that could be what caused his back to be the way it is. as for his eyes, she says they might be cataracts but needs to see them to be sure. We see her next monday, she plans to do a fecal test, and blood test.. check his mouth and skin. and then go from there. other then that Rocky is doing good, we brought his temp up a little in his tank, he's been up moving around more at night, climbing on his stick, friendly and in your face flicking his tounge like my other sweet snakes do! So those of you who were able to give usable information thank you! i just wish we had more snake vets around here! living in a town of less then 25,000 puts limits on your resources! and not all of us have a car that will make it a couple hundred miles... But i will let anyone who is interested in Rocky know what his tests say when they come back, but i haven't a clue how long that can take.

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[Ophiophilia]

Oh wow. Good Job RTB.

I know you mean well but jeez, I'm a little embarrassed by the behaviour in this thread on both sides.

As for the OP:
I'd take the snake to a reptile vet. Find out what the snake REALLY has wrong with it and go from there. Vets for either exotics or domestics will always have conflicting opinions (and diagnosis's) so it's best to get a second and final opinion as well as a proper diagnosis.

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[louise]

Originally Posted by Snakegurl13

Well, of course i haven't been scared off! i just see no point in responding to pointless remarks (most of what has been posted, but not all) But, i contacted my local zoo, who knows pretty much nothing about reptiles, who has a veterinarian who comes in to check their reptiles once a month, who has agreed to see "rocky" as we have named him. i explained to her his symptoms, and she says that very well it could be a bacterial infection, but with the fact that previous owners have had him checked out, it was probably from years ago, and that could be what caused his back to be the way it is. as for his eyes, she says they might be cataracts but needs to see them to be sure. We see her next monday, she plans to do a fecal test, and blood test.. check his mouth and skin. and then go from there. other then that Rocky is doing good, we brought his temp up a little in his tank, he's been up moving around more at night, climbing on his stick, friendly and in your face flicking his tounge like my other sweet snakes do! So those of you who were able to give usable information thank you! i just wish we had more snake vets around here! living in a town of less then 25,000 puts limits on your resources! and not all of us have a car that will make it a couple hundred miles... But i will let anyone who is interested in Rocky know what his tests say when they come back, but i haven't a clue how long that can take.

that is great news and if you need anything at all let me know. sounds like you are gonna be a great snake mom to him. you can also PM me if you need anything. sorry if some of us seemed hard on you but we just want what is best for the snake. i hope you stick around and become an active member. trust me, you will begin to love the members on this site
oh, welcome to RTB!

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[Snakegurl13]

Originally Posted by louise

that is great news and if you need anything at all let me know. sounds like you are gonna be a great snake mom to him. you can also PM me if you need anything. sorry if some of us seemed hard on you but we just want what is best for the snake. i hope you stick around and become an active member. trust me, you will begin to love the members on this site
oh, welcome to RTB!

Well thanks! i know alot of people aren't friendly to new commers on forums. (been there done that!) but im typicaly just one who lurks and absorbs any true information. But of course, im not going to go do something extreme based off of something someone online says ( without finding other information that backs it up!) I just hope whatever is wrong with Rocky is not painful, and is from a past issue, not a current issue. He seems like a great snake... just a little slow, and odd looking LOL. But we'll see what this vet says. Any clue how much it is for a snake to be put to sleep? if it comes down to that? cause if she determines he is in pain, i wouldnt just let him suffer. But i wouldnt want to just walk in and ask them to put my snake to sleep if he is infact enjoying life. i just dont think there is a sure way to tell if a snake is in pain... or how much pain.. or if its all the time .. elect. cause my ball pythons are very reactive to pain, my female had an injury and sure as heck she would get very flinchy and aggressive if you bumped her boo boo! But every body (and snake) is diffrent!

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[louise]

Originally Posted by Snakegurl13

Well thanks! i know alot of people aren't friendly to new commers on forums. (been there done that!) but im typicaly just one who lurks and absorbs any true information. But of course, im not going to go do something extreme based off of something someone online says ( without finding other information that backs it up!) I just hope whatever is wrong with Rocky is not painful, and is from a past issue, not a current issue. He seems like a great snake... just a little slow, and odd looking LOL. But we'll see what this vet says. Any clue how much it is for a snake to be put to sleep? if it comes down to that? cause if she determines he is in pain, i wouldnt just let him suffer. But i wouldnt want to just walk in and ask them to put my snake to sleep if he is infact enjoying life. i just dont think there is a sure way to tell if a snake is in pain... or how much pain.. or if its all the time .. elect. cause my ball pythons are very reactive to pain, my female had an injury and sure as heck she would get very flinchy and aggressive if you bumped her boo boo! But every body (and snake) is diffrent!

it is hard to tell if they are in pain. but a vet should be able to tell. i dont know how much it would cost to put him to sleep but i agree, if he is suffering it is the right thing to do. but dont give up hope. i want you to see something. i made this thread with you in mind. click on the link.

she has come a long way!

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[louise]

whatever you and the vet decide and if it is to costly let us know. we will take up a donation and help in all ways possible even if it has to be euthanized.

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