(#*$ Help!

[SerpentLust]

Ugh I don't know what's going wrong here. As most of your corallus forum readers know, my female ATB died. And now it's looking like my male is now doing well...

Hot spot temp is at 88, Humidity is sitting at a nice 60%, I spray three times a day, his water bowl is more than large enough for him to soak if he ever did. He has enough folliage to perch on and feel secure and not out in the open. He has a ground hide.

He was perfectly fine, my female died and now all of a sudden, he looks so bad.

It looks to me like he's dehydrated. I've seen him drinking water from his bowl. He's off feed now too. His skin is wrinkling and he's getting dry, looking like he's going to shed. But he looks like he's losing weight (and he doesn't have much to lose as he's young). He hasn't eaten now since 06/18/2004.

I dont know what to do, the husbandry is perfect, well, it's good anyways. Nothing's perfect. I don't want to lose another Amazon, I adore them.

Should I start pedialite do you think? Regardless of the higher ambient humidity, it'll do no good if he's dehydrated. If I should do pedialite, how much do I give him? I'd have to syringe it as he's not eating so I can't fill a mouse with it.

Help would be greatly appreciated and needed. I'm at a loss. And not to sound pathetic and self pitying, but I feel like a crappy keeper, how can BOTH my Amazons become unhealthy? Urgh, well he's not dead and I don't want him to be. Help is good...

Jenn

[augerdvm]

Hey Jenn:
did you have a post mortem done one the first ATB????
were these 2 snakes housed together?
you should havea fecal run as salmonellosis can be common & devastating in tree boas......also amoebiasis
fecal culture can show if this ATB is a shedder & might need antibiotics...
Pedialyte doesnt make a tremendous difference in snakes....does this one have diarrhea??? any blood in it?
take the snake to your vet and have some bloodwork done too
Let me know

Daren Auger DVM
Blair Animal Hospital
Ottawa
Canada
613-746-2443

[marisa]

Not to offend you, but how often are you handling these snakes? You posted photos holding them like within a week of owning them.....They are barely big enough to be handled let alone very often. They are extremely delicate. So first thing first I would not handle it again. Period. If you aren't handling now, thats good.

Other than that, the corallus experts here can help you more. I owned one ATB much in the same condition as your own. Dehydrated, etc. I got him up to par by injecting his mice (that he would eat) with water, and putting him in a rubbermaid to keep humidity more stable as well as taking in a fecal and treating for parasites.

I would also make sure to purchase nothing but the best C.B. from the best breeders if you buy more ATB's. You want nothing but well established CB babies for your first ATB'S.

Marisa

[SerpentLust]

Marisa: I don't handle him. The only time I handle him is to take him out to clean his cage. Those pics were taken at those times. I know handling him at such a young age can be stressfull and it's not beneficial in the least for him.

I keep the humidity between 60-70...

Daren: There seems to be nothing wrong with his feces. No diarrhea, no blood.

And unfortunately they were housed together when initially purchased for about two weeks. That was my idiotic mistake.

I'm going to try contacting all the vets in North Bay again. If not, I do believe there's one in Sudbury, I'd rather find one here as I don't want to stress him out by driving the 2 hours to sudbury...

Jenn

[SerpentLust]

UPDATE: Go figure, I just called every vet I could find in North Bay, not ONE of them said they'll take on snakes. Two were closed, so I can try again tomorrow...

[bistrobob85]

For my part, i aint a corallus expert, but i just LOVE to read about them, and in my opinion, if your snake looks like he's loosing weight quickly, dehydrating in an healthy and not stressful environment ( otherwise, if the problem isnt outside the snake ), well the problem has to be inside the snake!!! Perhaps there are some chances that it has a disease or an increasing number of parasites... Get medical attention cause both internal parasites and diseases are pretty hard to get rid of when you're out on your own... I really dont beleive you're a bad keeper if you're able to reproduce a healthy and safe environment for your snakes, maybe you're just not the best snake custommer! Getting CBs from a breeder is a much safer financial investment anyways...

[SerpentLust]

bistrobob: Thank you :) And I have to agree with you there, I'm starting to question their source. And that's what I'm thinking, internal parasites. I'm calling the vet in the morning in Sudbury to see what she wants me to do.

[SerpentLust]

UPDATE: Just called the North Bay Animal Hospital, they said they don't usually do snakes but if I bring in a fecal they can certainly check for parasites for me. That's a step in the right direction :)

[SerpentLust]

UPDATE: Fecal came back neg for parasites

[Vengeance]

How old was the fecal matter? I'm not sure if most people know this because I didn't know this untill my vet told me. It's best to get a fecal sample to the vet within 24 hours of defication. I assume that is because once the fecal matter and parasites are no longer in the body the parasites begin to die off so any trace of their existance might be gone as well. Then again I'm not a Vet so who knows, but might be something to consider if it came back negative.

[SerpentLust]

Yeah, it was new poop no worries. He actually seems to be slowly recovering. I don't know what could have caused this though and I'd like to. It's like he got the Flu or a Fever for two weeks and now he's on the mend lol