New wild caught rescue???

[drewlowe]

I don't know to many details, but here's what i know.

i get this call from my man (i'm at home sick today), so anyway he calls me from work after lunch break. Usually during his lunch break him and a couple of coworkers go and play frisbie golf and where they play it's kinda woodsy. Well as usually he always looks for herps while he's playing and today he came across a juvi snake. My man is not good at identifing herps so he calls me and say he caught an injured corn snake and want's to bring it home for me to nurse back to health (which i have no problem attempting to do.

I think the snake he caught is most likely going to be a great plains rat snake, seeing as the last time i went and played with him we seen and handled a baby great plains snake that he swore was a corn. LOL silly boy, until i proved to him it was a great plains.

Anyway, i'm going to be setting up a nursing/quarintine cage for my new arrival this afternoon, and just wanted to make sure i'm going to be doing it right.

The cage will be either a 10 or 20 gallon. I'm thinking a 10 because it is so young and i don't want it stress out anymore than the poor thing already is. Then i was of course going to be using paper towel for substrate and an old shoe box for a hide and a water dish (keeping it as plain and simple as possible). And if it seems to be thriving i would take a fecal sample in to be tested for parasites as soon as i can.

I'm going to try to get the temps---- 70-75 cool side and 85-90 basking or hot side. I will not attempt to feed for at least 1 week.

Does all of this sound right???? any input would be appreciated.

As a disclaimer i told my man he should release it and let it try and make it on it's own, you know let nature take it's course. But he insisted that he can not do that (normally my mans not like that but i guess i'm making him have a sore spot for sick animals over the years.) He begged me to please try and help him so i can't say no to him when he's like that.


Thanks for any help or imput!!!

Jamie

[rwg]

Out of curiosity, how do you prove a GPR is not a corn?

Roy

[drewlowe]

In the area i live in GPRs are more common so i go on the specs my missouri native herp book that i have i compare scales, color and pattern. I can't always be 100% with the 2 but as i said in the first sentence GPRS are way more common that corns in my area.

Jamie

Edit---- I'll put pics up as soon as i can.

[drewlowe]

After seeing the snake myself and comparing it to my Missouri native species of reptiles and amphians, i belive this snake to be a black rat snake.

He does have some wounds on both sides of his body near his vent. One about a 1/4 inch up on the right side and one about 1/2 inch up on the left side. They look like they are starting to heal but still don't look all that good. He's not a juvi but a very young baby, IMO no older than a month or so old. He/she was not agressive but that could be due to being cold. I placed him in a cage with a heat lamp and temps stable around 90 on the hot side and around 75-77 on the cool side. As of right now he/she doesn't want to budge from the warm side.

I'll post up a couple of pics to see what you guys and gals think. The first pic shows him/her having reddish tints but that is just from the light. The second pic is much better.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1695frisbie-snake.jpg

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/1695frisbie-snake-2.jpg

He/she is grey with nice dark brown/black saddles.

Thanks

Jamie

[drewlowe]

Even though i said i wouldn't feed him/her until at least a week, i lied. LOL

I went to the pet store to pick up some day old pinkies and when i got home i took them out of the bag so i could humanly kill them and place them in the freezer to use at a later time. But as i was taking them out and wacking them i looked over to see him/her cruising the cage like a fiend. So i said "what the heck why not at least try". As soon as the pink touched the ground he/she was all over it gobbled it up like it was nothing then went to the back corner of the hot side to chill. I was happy to see a nice strong appetite from this little one.


Jamie

[paulsreef]

Good stuff, looks like the start of a beautiful friendship.

Paul.

[drewlowe]

After having this beautiful girl for almost 8 months i had to have her put to sleep.

Even though i never posted about it i had struggled with her the whole time i had her. She went to the vet numerous times for problems associated with her "attack" from the wild. She was not able to deficate on her own at all. The vet had to teach me how to make her poop (very stressful on her and myself). I was able to talk my vet into doing an x-ray, even though he was reluctant to do so. He thought we wouldn't be able to see anything because she was still very small. She ended up have a break in her spine near her vent that prevented her from passing any fecal matter on her own.

After long consultations and much debate between me and my boyfriend we decieded to put her down about 2 weeks ago. RIP Venom you will be greatly missed and never forgotten.

jamie