Olive with problems HELP PLEASE!

[snakelady96]

Hey guys,
My friend has recently bought a 100% het albino olive and she keeps telling me somethings worng with it so i went over last night and there is definetly something up with his rib cage. It is sort of like they are breaking/shattering inside him! She is a single mum and spent $1000 on him which is ALOT of money for her. We've booked him in for the vet on Monday to have an x-ray but out vets here dont specialise in reptiles so we wont be able to go much further than an x-ray... I have my own thoughts on what this may be but I'd like to hear everyone elses opinion first. Any info on what it could be would be greatly appreciated as i said before our vet doesn't specialise in reptiles so if anything is majorly wrong with him we will need to take him to Townsville.

 

[cactus2u]

any chance of posting a pic?

 

[snakelady96]

Probably not till tonight if that sorry ive described it as best i can, i honestly think it may be heriditory problems because its a 100% het albino but i may be worng but that seems to be the only explanation, he has just shed, kids do not touch him, he never gets out of his enclosure...

 

[snakehandler]

is it the ribs or the backbone? There has been a number of cases where the bones in the spine fuse at weird angles......I have seen it in snakes a fair bit lately and our vet has seen a large number of cases like it!!

 

[reptilian1924]

Sorry to hear whats happend to your friends 100% het Albino Olive Python, l to cannot say what the problem is without seeing it, l hope its not to serious and it makes a full recovery ASAP best of luck for when you take it to the Vet on Monday.

 

[snakelady96]

The problem is in the ribs like all through certain spots of rib but not the backbone..

 

[junglepython2]

Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with it being 100% het for albino...

 

[wokka]

Probably not till tonight if that sorry ive described it as best i can, i honestly think it may be heriditory problems because its a 100% het albino but i may be worng but that seems to be the only explanation, he has just shed, kids do not touch him, he never gets out of his enclosure...

What makes you say "It must be a Hereditary problem"? I believe being Het for Albino should not predispose the animal to any spinal or rib problems. Have you raised the issue with whoever you got it from?

 

[snakelady96]

Well i say it must be hereditary because normally morphs of any sort get some problems (dont abuse me for saying this i have lots of morphs of my own but luckily havent had any problems just heard of other people having troubles). Theres a bit of a problem with raising the issue as she bought him from Tim Mensforth from Ultimate Reptiles but he is not allowed to say who sold it to him. Also when the snake got to her it was in good health just the past 2-3 weeks shes been saying somethings wrong with it and i only got a chance to see it yet.

 

[junglepython2]

Well i say it must be hereditary because normally morphs of any sort get some problems (dont abuse me for saying this i have lots of morphs of my own but luckily havent had any problems just heard of other people having troubles).

I'd dispute that, but regardless it is only a Het not homozygous anyway.

 

[benjaffa]

My coastal has about 8 broken ribs got no idea how it happened, the breaks are about the 3/4 mark closest to the tail the scales in the area above the breaks are really dry and also has a bit of a kink in the area of the broken ribs. she was x rayed to be certain. the vet gave me a pain killer, anti inflamatory injection to give/ inject to her every second day sucetaneously ( just under the skin ) the pain killer is called meloxicam 5mg/20ml. it helped alot gave to her for 2 weeks she is now in about the fourth or fifth week since diagnosis the area is alot less painful. she has stopped trying to bite me when i touch the area. the vet told me it would take six weeks maybe some more for the bones to heal. hope this helps. hope all turns out for the best good luck​

 

[starr9]

any news yet?!?!

 

[Morgan_dragon]

yes please update us....

 

[Londos1990]

my Albino Darwin has this kind of a problem, i brought her like that, fully aware of the issue, not overly noticeable, but the reason i got, was she shed two layers at once which somehow cause it? now sure about it, but she has never had a problem, always eats and does everything a python could do..

 

[snakelady-viper]

How old are the kids I know you said they dont touch him but kids will be kids. Has he been dropped or fallen from a branch? How long has she had him for?

Probably not till tonight if that sorry ive described it as best i can, i honestly think it may be heriditory problems because its a 100% het albino but i may be worng but that seems to be the only explanation, he has just shed, kids do not touch him, he never gets out of his enclosure...

 

[Justdragons]

shesh, That sucks for them, my best wishes are with you, i know what its like having a sick animal and having to fear losing them..

 

[Wally]

Why are there two versions of this thread floating around?

http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/general-reptile-discussion-42/het-albino-olive-got-rib-169788/

 

[Bluetongue1]

If the problem is what you think it is, only the X-rays can confirm it. Get the vet to assess the bone density of its skeleton while he is at it. If he is not competent in doing so for a snake, send the x-rays by post to a vet who is.

If it is broken ribs and bone density is normal, then the likely cause is a physical impact from a fall or being struck by something. Other possible causes of broken ribs, such as abnormally low bone density, malformed vertebrae, loss of mobility at inter-vertebral joints (can be caused by different forms of arthritis) etc would need to be discussed with the vet.

In the meantime, I would be tempted to remove anything it can climb on to reduce the possibility of it further hurting itself and maybe place a small foam mattress covered with plastic under its normal substrate, if that is appropriate.

Blue

PS Some lines of morphs have been inbred to the point where there are inherited health problems associated with them. However, from my limited experience, they seem very much in the minority in Australia. Unfortunately you hear heaps about the crook ones and almost nothing about the healthy ones – jaguars being a classic example – and people draw the wrong conclusions.

 

[davies.ads]

I like how on your latest post you said this snake was stood on by the owner or her kids. Yet in this post you said the kids weren't anywhere near the snake.
I think you need to either start finding out more info before posting or stop trolling...

 

[snakelady96]

Yeah sorry about that :/ I really didn't think it would be the kids- they are normally so gentle but i guess looks can be deceiving. About the trolling also, sorry about that is there a way i can delete one of the posts? Didn't mean to cause such a disturbance i mean its just the internet and they're really just posts...