I'm having the worst luck!

[Neon Aurora]

Ugh, you guys. For those of you who didn't follow my thread, I recently had to take on my sister's corn snake who probably has cancer and have been taking her to the vet and trying to keep her comfortable.

And guess what? Now my yellow anaconda has an RI. I had been keeping an eye on him because it seemed like his breathing was more audible than usual. But he was still very active and looked good, so was just watching for now. Yesterday I fed him and I noticed he was blowing snot bubbles while he was eating. So almost definitely an RI. I'm surprised, sort of, because his feeding response is still awesome. I gave him two large rats and he ate them like his life depended on it. Yet he is sick.

So now I have to call my vet on Monday and see what to do... I don't think she will be able to examine him due to his size and biting potential. I still have antibiotics from the corn snake, so I'm going to ask her if I can use those. Then I just have to figure out how I'm going to give him injections without getting hurt. We are building a relationship of trust but I don't think he is going to tolerate being stabbed with needles.

Ugh.

[riddick07]

If you have an exotics vet they are usually excited to have giants come in. At least mine always was when I brought Lily (Retic). My vet just drags in a bunch of vet techs to help hold her still enough for a shot.

If your guy is a decent size it’s going to take a few people to help give shots. It took 3 people to give Lily her shots and she was around 10ft back then but thick. One to control the head, another to keep the bottom half from wrapping, and then the person giving the shot.

Your going to have to get a culture done to see which antibiotic will be effective and most likely you don’t have nearly enough antibiotics for the sheer size difference between an anaconda and corn.

[Neon Aurora]

I'm going to call tomorrow. We don't have great exotics vets out here. I like the one I use, but I don't know how they're going to feel about a large, aggressive snake.

He's not huge, only 6 feet and 12.4 lbs, but can be mean.

[Neon Aurora]

Well this actually worked out very well! I ended up calling around and found a place where the doctors were excited to see my snake instead of intimidated. Took him there today and they were very good with him. And he was surprisingly mellow, too, considering that they were squeezing his head and stuff. They did a full exam and gave him his first antibiotic injection. I just have to do the other 6 over the next 3 weeks. The injection didn't bother him at all, really, I was way overthinking that.

So I am pleased and I believe I found a better exotics vet than I was using. =)

[richardhind]

really glad that things are working out for you neon, fingers crossed this will sort your boa out

[kudzu]

That's wonderful. Well, not the infection, but the rest of this. Hopefully the rest of the injections aren't too much of a trial.

It's also very interesting how your relationship with your snake has developed. To think, I've bemoaned having chosen the wrong snake as my first snake and he's a totally non-aggressive kingsnake while you've been dealing with an anaconda. I'm such a wuss! And yet, I still love and am very much attached to my touch-me-not snake. Can only imagine what a great payoff it must be for you to actually be able to take your big guy (well, not so big for his species) to a vet and have it turn out not to be a horrible ordeal.

You know, between the cornsnake and now your anaconda, you've managed to find some real winners in the veterinary field.

[Neon Aurora]

Yeah! I'm really happy with the vets I found each time to help me with these situations. I'm not trying to knock the vets that helped me with the corn. They just didn't seem comfortable dealing with my conda and I'm happy with the vets I went with instead.

There was a guy with an iguana getting treatment there too, so that seems like the go-to place for exotics.

I'm just glad my big guy got the help he needed. Funny you say you feel like a wuss, because that's how I feel! I spent so much time being afraid of this snake and he's honestly fine. I also stopped handling my rosy boa because for some reason, at some point during handling every time, she would engage feeding response and try to eat my arm. So I started handling her again too. Now I just hold a pencil so when she starts trying to eat my arm, I can use the pencil to prevent it. Hopefully she will stop doing that.