Happy & pretty relieved!-wanted to share(not corn-related) :)

We had been seeing a ball python at the Petsmart we normally go to for crickets for our beardie for about a month & it had been getting gradually thinner with sagging skin. ----Let me say here-that is my favorite Petsmart in this area-not bashing them at all-they have employees who we have befriended that genuinely care about their reptiles----- Some of the guys who worked there kept us updated on her progress--they could not get her to eat. They are not allowed to force feed (in case they adopt out an animal that looks healthy,& the person gets it home & it won't eat) but one of the guys did once because he couldn't stand to see her starve herself....Well,we asked them to let us take her so we could give it a shot,she was close to death when we brought her home,& they agreed & told us 'good luck' without much hope in their voice...her skin was horribly sagging & her vertebrae clearly visible---so we assumed at this point her body would be eating its own muscle at this point..we offered her food,but she was so far gone we ended up force feeding her 2 pinkies because we didn't think her body could handle big food..had to help her swallow--it was so sad! anyway,we were soaking her in warm water every other day & force fed her once more then decided her body had at least some strength back so last night we just left a pinky outside her hide & after while my husband came back & asked did I move it..we were both shocked that she ate it! so we said ok,let's try a fuzzy..put it by her hide & left it,checked an hour later & she had eaten it!! We are really excited,her strength is definately coming back & I guess I can name her now--I told my husband I wouldn't name her until she ate on her own..was trying not to get too attached..didn't work.. lol so anyway,if you made it this far in this long paragraph thanks for reading & please keep your fingers crossed for this sweet girl. :crazy02:
This is a pic of her-she's soaking in the sink,I guess it's hard to tell from the pic how bad she looked--

Poor baby!! Thank you for trying! Her head/ top body area is simply skeletal. good luck!

Thanks! it's hard to see an animal in such a bad state-but she's looking better by the day--we will definately keep trying

She is almost as big as my Jade but half the girth, poor girl!

I am very glad she is turning around for you and kudos for saving her!

Best of luck in the near future with her.

Thank you for trying and not giving up! I hope you'll post pics as she gets fattened up.

Wow. If that's her "better"... she must have looked truly horrible when you took her home. Thankyou for caring for her!

MotleyMedusa7 said:

Well,we asked them to let us take her so we could give it a shot,she was close to death when we brought her home,& they agreed & told us 'good luck' without much hope in their voice...

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Do you have to take her back when she recovers? Or was their "good luck" them writing her off and giving her to you? (Hope you get to keep her after you did all the hard work!)

Yeah-she looked even worse when we first brought her home,but I was so nervous for her I forgot to take pics! lol

they adopted her to us for free-we don't have to give her back.

definitely a happy ending so far

I hope that she recovers to become a healthy snake for you!!

Glad you gave her a chance! I hope she continues to eat for you and gets nice and fat

Thanks for the encouragement,ya'll I hope to have good news & pics of her nice & plump soon--thinking of naming her 'Beyonce' for her song 'Survivor' lol

What a great story! You might need to update your banner soon.

I have a question--Beyonce has been in blue since the 4th,her eyes went back to normal about 5 days ago--her skin looks soo dry & we have been soaking her once a day since we saw that she was in blue,& she has a few rough surfaces in her tank to rub on,but she has not even started trying to shed yet. When should I be concerned? We figured she would have a bad shed this time with as bad off as she was,so we were prepared to help her finish shedding by soaking her & letting her slide through a wet towel,but she hasn't even started her head yet. She is my first Ball & my King & Corns have never had this kind of trouble with shedding,so I'm not sure when I should worry...

I don't know anything about balls, but I just wanted to say that my corn snake, Mango, had a few rough sheds with me from past husbandry issues (he is a rescue). He used to get horribly dry, crinkly skin before shedding. At one point, he had flakes of dry skin coming off everywhere. But he always shed in one piece. Now is is doing much, much better. He looks like a normal corn snake would prior to a shed. I think sometimes it takes a while for their skin issues to work themselves out once the husbandry has been taken care of. I'm hoping your ball will shed just fine when it's time. *fingers crossed*

Ok thanks Do you think I should quit soaking her? I've seen conflicting advice on this-some say don't soak some say soak for longer than we are doing-I'm confused. LOL ~~we are soaking her in warm water about 10 minutes in the morning & at night

Well, I'm a newbie so you probably want advice from someone with more experience. But my personal philosophy is not to soak unless they've shed badly (in pieces). Even then, I would prefer to put them in a container with a wet towel to slither through. The one time I tried to soak my corn (on my vet's advice), he was completely stressed out by it. Of course, some corns don't mind being soaked.

we started out soaking her when we first adopted her because she was so dehydrated & starved so she needed the extra water. we also figured with as limp as she was her muscles needed to work also( kind of how they tell people to exercise in a pool 'cuz it makes it easier on them)-she didn't seem to mind it too much,but she would just lay there.. we are happy to see her muscles beginning to get stronger now & she swims around pretty well I'm probably just worrying about her shed prematurely,but can't help it lol-we've watched her come back from the brink of death to being a pretty active Ball,just a worrying mommy lol

Well, I think it's great that you are taking care of her. I look forward to seeing pics when she's all shiny and new.

You might want to get a handful of moss (such as sphagnum moss from a garden store), soak it, then wring it out, fluff it up, and put it in a hide box with her. If she spends a fair amount of time in the hide, she should be ready to shed in several more days when it is time. With the moss and all of the soaking, hopefully she can shed ok. Dry and save the moss for future sheds, as balls need more humidity for proper sheds than corns do.

Normally a pink isn't even a snack for a hatchling BP. But because of her condition, you might want to stick with very small meals a few more times before moving up, a little at a time. If you progress too quickly, she probably won't be able to digest it. Then you will have a regurge to deal with.

So far, so good!