snake rescue question, please respond

crocsnhots · 04-05-04, 06:24 PM

5 days ago I recieved a ball python that had been kept in terrible conditions, it's body was caked in dried feces and the smell made me gag. It looks to be a female, probably wild caught as it was loaded with ticks, it is also a little underweight and dehydrated. The eye scale has large dents in it and there were pieces of unshed skin on it's body. I don't know the whole story on it or how long it's been living in these conditions but apparently the owner got bored with it and left it to die.

I have removed all visible ticks and given the snake a bath to remove all the caked on feces and stuck skin, it looks like the end of her tail is developing necrosis. She is now in a nice warm and humid cage away from activity in my home and is hiding in her hide box.

Onto the questions...

This snake stinks like feces, pretty bad, even after this long. I only washed 'her' down with room-temp water tho. I didn't wanna use anything that could hurt her. What could I use to bathe 'her' to get rid of the smell?

pikachu · 04-05-04, 06:43 PM

are there any absesses on her belly or rest of her body?
its rarely caked on poop that will smell if its dried however a badly infected absess absolutely stinks! enough to make you gag for sure.
ive taken care of a few cast offs that had scale rot on their bellies seemingly from burns that were all severely infected. the wet conditions i recieved certainly didnt help. after cleaning up the wounds the animals, with dampish sphagnum moss under their hide spot and the rest newspaper, they healed very well with regular care. hope this isnt the case, if it is just poop, a little very mild soap and water should help.
the eye may be a retained cap or results from low humidity
goodluck!

Smilts · 04-06-04, 01:47 PM

prob it is scale rot other wise water will clean fecis smell right off. to help with its dehydrated state put non flavored pedialight in its water

crocsnhots · 04-06-04, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pikachu
are there any absesses on her belly or rest of her body?
its rarely caked on poop that will smell if its dried however a badly infected absess absolutely stinks! enough to make you gag for sure.
ive taken care of a few cast offs that had scale rot on their bellies seemingly from burns that were all severely infected. the wet conditions i recieved certainly didnt help. after cleaning up the wounds the animals, with dampish sphagnum moss under their hide spot and the rest newspaper, they healed very well with regular care. hope this isnt the case, if it is just poop, a little very mild soap and water should help.
the eye may be a retained cap or results from low humidity
goodluck!

Other than being a little underweight and really dry I can't see anything wrong with the skin. She just really stinks like, well poop. What type of soap could I use? Could it be anti-bacterial? She came out of the hide box today, crawled around a bit and then went and hid again.

But at least she's more active.

Coy, what does pedialight do?

condabroad · 04-06-04, 04:41 PM

Pedialight helps to rehydrate your animals, you can get it a drugstore usually in the kids section. (sorry for answering when I wasn't asked). Good luck with the bp.

ScreamingMisfit · 04-06-04, 05:02 PM

Dove is a good soap to use it has no purfumes in it just use a tine bit though

Linds · 04-06-04, 05:22 PM

Stay away from the antibacterial soaps. They have *poisons* added. Regular soap gets rid of enough germs. I also don't use handsoaps or anything since they leave residue. If I absolutely have to bathe a snake, I use a little bit of Ivory dishsoap in some tepid water to wash, and rinse well.

Smilts · 04-07-04, 01:55 AM

yep thats waht it does

crocsnhots · 04-07-04, 11:19 AM

Thanks everyone.

gonesnakee · 04-07-04, 06:10 PM

A bath with "NO SOAP" would be better. A bath with betadine will clean all wounds properly & it can be used topically on them as well. Polysporin works good on healing wounds also. Have you looked in its mouth yet. If you haven't get on it as the smell could very well be a bad case of mouthrot. Glad to here its with someone who gives a ____ now. Good Luck & a vet trip if possible. Mark
P.S. SHOTS FOR THE PREVIOIUS OWNER!!!

pikachu · 04-08-04, 05:59 PM

true, betadine and polysporin work wonders, real life savers for me.
with the soap aspect, its really only for poop. baby shampoo is the mildest you can get and then you'd only need a drop.
mouthrot is a good thought. if ya havent seen it before, it looks like cheesy chunks along the gumline, you just have to roll the lip down a little with your finger. be careful! vet trips are always a good idea, providing its a vet with herp exp. they can give you the heavy duty version of polysporin.
goodluck!