I went to an expo a few weeks ago and got a 1yr old female rosy boa for my cousin. Ever since, the boa started exhibiting strange signs, such as striking & missing, refusing meals, turning her head upside down, coiling backwards upside down, no "righting" herself if she was turned over, and stargazing. I'd been e-mailing back and forth with the breeder, who didn't seem to be too concerned about it. I decided to google the breeder and look on Fauna Classifieds, and I find out that I'm far from being the only one with bad experiences with this breeder. Turns out he has sold a whole bunch of people sick snakes with similar problems or diseases. It hadn't occurred to me that a breeder with such a bad rep would be at a big expo like the one I was at. His snakes looked fine when I was there. So out of concern for the snake, I decided I'd take her to the vet this afternoon to have her checked out. When I told the breeder that I was going to take her to the vet, he told me it probably wasn't necessary. When I told the breeder the symptoms the snake was experiencing, he said that I was stressing her out and that she just needed more time to settle. I haven't handled her since I got her, she's in a quiet room, her set up is perfect (right temps, low humidity, etc), and the only time I opened the cage was to attempt to feed. By the way she was acting, it seemed like something more than just "stress" was going on.
So I took her to the vet, because I care about the animal and it seemed like she was in need of medical attention. I made the long drive out and took her to the see a reptile vet. The vet determined that she had about 8 layers of eye caps retained. EIGHT! He managed to get some off, but not all of them. Her nostrils were equally as covered and stuck. He thinks this might have been the reason she was striking and missing her prey (because she couldn't see or smell it right). He also determined that she has a lot of parasites in her system (he did a fecal test etc). He performed a series of tests to see how she would respond if flipped upside down, on the side, and in other positions, to check for neurological symptoms. She passed some of those "tests", but failed some as well. He concluded that she does have some sort of neurological problem, but that he's not able to say what is causing them as of right now. He gave her a dose of antibiotics, and gave me a few instructions of what to do this week to make sure she's well. I'm taking her back on Friday to do a check up and try feeding her. She's also lost weight (15g) since I got her 2 weeks ago.
For obvious reasons, I will not be giving this snake to my cousin. She is not equipped to handle a snake that is not 100% healthy (and she's quite disheartened as you can imagine). I'm going to give the snake the care I can while she is with me, but I'm hoping the breeder will take her back and give me a refund. I'm certainly hoping I don't get "stuck" with this sick rosy boa and her vet bills. As of right now I have her quarantined in order to protect my other snakes. It goes without saying that I'm quite disappointed. Such bad luck
Sick Rosy Boa
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