Very sick Olive Python hatchling :( any ideas?

[Sarita]

OK Here are a couple of the different enclosures she was in. She has been changed 5 times in total and also had a house move as we bought a place and had to move over there so she has been moved around a big lately.

Now both these set ups we approved for our olive with no changes required apparently they look good but obviously something is wrong. Ill try find more but im at work so limited to the files atm

 

[CodeRed]

Are you saying that you changed enclosures 5 times over 5 1/2 months? That would be quite stressful even for a well adapted snake. How long has it been in the current enclosure and current position?

It might be best to find someone who lives close by to have a look or even try to feed the snake.

 

[Sarita]

It has been changed 5 times in 9 months plus moving houise plus getting sent back to SR Plus about 6 trips to the vet, plus we had to take her on hols with us last week as we had to give her the baths and injections etc, so yes it has been very stressfull for her so she has not been in one place in the one enclosure for more than 6 weeks. and on top of all of that we know we should not handle her until she is settled and feeding confindently but we have had no choice recently as she is ill. We never used to handle her at all as we were told to let her settle and offer food around 1 week later and if she knocked it back leave her another week and try again

 

[DanTheMan]

Sorry to here this
But as said above, all the environment changes, constant vet checks, needles, baths etc. must be extremely stressfull for the snake, and definatley wont eat with all this going on constantly.

 

[CodeRed]

Id leave her alone for at least 2 weeks before offering food again.

is she still dehydrated?

 

[tenacres1100]

in the photos is the temp showing 40.7c? in the click clack is the heat only on 1/3 the floor space?

 

[Sarita]

I know she needs to settle but how is this possible when she needs all these meds daily, I am hoping for not much longer but definately everyday this week. This week her daily schedule is

Every Morning
Have betadine put on her cuts
Put aneseptic cream on cuts

Every Afternoon
Have a betadine bath
Have betadine put on her cuts
Put aneseptic cream on cuts

Every third day
Give her injection of meds

She is still dehydrated however is drinking on her own again thank god, she even drinks when you are holding her to put her back in enclosure. She originally was having the baths for rehydration so it was just warm water but now the baths have betadine and warm water so she rehydrates and disinfects her wounds at the same time. NO more fluid injections at moment and hopefully not needed again.

I dot know when I will be able to leave her alone as no one knows how long this will take

 

[DanTheMan]

I know she needs to settle but how is this possible when she needs all these meds daily, I am hoping for not much longer but definately everyday this week. This week her daily schedule is

Every Morning
Have betadine put on her cuts
Put aneseptic cream on cuts

Every Afternoon
Have a betadine bath
Have betadine put on her cuts
Put aneseptic cream on cuts

Every third day
Give her injection of meds

She is still dehydrated however is drinking on her own again thank god, she even drinks when you are holding her to put her back in enclosure. She originally was having the baths for rehydration so it was just warm water but now the baths have betadine and warm water so she rehydrates and disinfects her wounds at the same time. NO more fluid injections at moment and hopefully not needed again.

I dot know when I will be able to leave her alone as no one knows how long this will take

Yea I reckon once all that stops she'll eat, hopefully!
Good luck!

 

[Crazy_Snake08]

It has been changed 5 times in 9 months plus moving houise plus getting sent back to SR Plus about 6 trips to the vet, plus we had to take her on hols with us last week as we had to give her the baths and injections etc, so yes it has been very stressfull for her so she has not been in one place in the one enclosure for more than 6 weeks.

i've read every post in this thread and it seems to me that all this STRESS could be a contributing factor not the EXACT/PRIMARY factor!!!

Not having a go at you, so don't take this the wrong way, but every post you have submitted alerts me to stress of the snake!!! I understand it has to go to the vet and back to SR, get medication, etc, etc, etc, but a snake is not going to eat if it's in a 1000 places at once and being probed and bathed and injected, it's exhausted enough by all that and then it has to expand energy to consume and digest a food item. Once the snake settles I reckon it'll be right to feed...after this week as you say!! Make sure you keep us posted on things as well.

 

[Wild~Touch]

in the photos is the temp showing 40.7c? in the click clack is the heat only on 1/3 the floor space?

possible clue

??????????? irrepairable damage after being kept in temps over 37????????????????????

 

[Sarita]

in the photos is the temp showing 40.7c? in the click clack is the heat only on 1/3 the floor space?

Yes it was 40.7c - This is because SR put me onto a guy out at narellan who used to do research on olives and he said most people have no clue with this breed and they need their cool end to be a min of 30c Ill post the notes he told me that we were working from so you can have a look

click clack is the heat only on 1/3 the floor space? - Heatmat always at least 1/2 - 2/3 of floor space otherwise not very warm

 

[Sarita]

list of things to do for Olive
-Have cool end temps at 30c and hot end don’t even worry about it
-Have thermostat probe at cool end
-If temps are not hitting the mark in cool end put on Heat mat (not connected to thermostat usually will need during winter)
-We have a 75w heat light for heat source at hot end (Outside of enclosure)
-Close up any large ventilation areas to stop heat from escaping (so now we have a piece of timber over the top of vent but not covering the whole lot.
-Once I had set all this up temps were still apparently too low so we have to insulate the out side of enclosure, so now we have cardboard stuck all around the outside of glass enclosure to prevent heat escaping (looks great)
[/quote]

This is the list we were given to work from and this is the list which made the temps to 40c as you can imagine more money spent because we tried something else as advised

 

[snakelover]

Sarah,

I know you've been working with Kane on this, and I'd get Kane to ring you today, except he drives a semi-trailer every Tuesday. You can ring him though, as he has a hands-free number in the truck: 0449 528 004. Personally, I think you should wait til tomorrow and let him ring you back. He tried to get you on the phone yesterday, his first day back after receiving your email, but you did not answer. We were both disappointed to hear that you are still having such problems, and continue to invite you to work with us towards a resolution to an obviously very upsetting problem.

In any event, since you do live in the Sydney area, please feel welcome to arrange to come up to ARP (leave the snake behind) and maybe combine a visit to the Park with a chat with both Kane and I about the continued problems and potential solutions. Make sure you work out a date and time first, and bring lots of photos of your caging setup, and loads of temperature data. In the mean time, until you speak to Kane, I highly recommend you keep the snake quiet and and ensure that it is occupying a darkened position (eg hide box) in the enclosure that is a consistent temp of 30-31C [Not as low as 28C, Not as high as 33].

I'll but out of this public discussion, but am confident that you will find a continuing backstop in Kane.

Sincerely,
John Weigel

 

[Sarita]

John

I do appreciate this and would be most willing to do this and I feel it will be a great help, I only emailed kane so he was aware that she does have an illness which has not been caused by an environmental problem even though there is obviously a prob with set up as well. I was disapointed in the fact that we felt there was no one to go to as we are not experience reptile owner as you are well aware and for us to be told SR out of ideas and SR were the only people we knew who were experienced and new what they were talking about. I will talk to Kane tomorrow.

 

[CodeRed]

How on earth can you say she had an illness that was not caused by an environmental problem? Form what you have posted here it's quite apparent that the problems HAVE been caused by environmental conditions.

 

[Sarita]

Well we originally had that thought in our heads as well, however we asked the question the first day of treatment at vet and they have assured us that this illness is not been caused from environment but an illness that has been underlying for a while. We have been informed that a possible liver disease is something she has been born with and has become worse over time.

I personally do not know what to beleive, we know we have had environmental issues and we are not deniging that. We were concerned this health prob was because of that and thats why we have done all we cann to find the source. and so far tests are prooving it is not environmental but an underlying problem which she was most likley born with.

As your all aware I dont know a whole lot but I am extremely commitet to learn other wise I would not be asking for this advise online as well as to vets and paying alot of money to run tests and get her healthy again.

If I am doing something I need to know what and I will not stop trying until I find out the problems including her housing issues.

 

[Vixen]

Sarita vets do sometimes get things wrong. To me its clearly something on your end that is going wrong.

The snake was eating when it was sold - once it gets to you it stops. Goes back to SR and is eating, comes back to you once again and stops. You still havent posted your exact setup details, go back and read CodeReds post and do that for us, it might help.

 

[Sarita]

I understand that and that is why I am hear asking for help. If I didnt want to know about it I would never have posted anything. My gut instinct in the beginning was environmental but when you dont know a whole lot and you need help of course I am going to listen and try anything that is offered to me. If it doesn;t work then I find something else.

We do not have any friends that are interested in reptiles so we do not have a whole lot of resources to go to other than our breeder, here and the vet.

 

[Vixen]

You still havent posted your exact setup details, go back and read CodeReds post and do that for us, it might help.

Once again.

 

[tenacres1100]

hi Sarita, it sounds like you may have had a miscommunication with the people from SR as I don't think that anyone would want to have a baby kept at 40c! the hottest area at the basking site should be 32 max. I think this is why it is always drinking, please don't have the heatmat in more that 1/3 of a click clack or it will be to hot and you risk doing more damage, it will stay on the hot spot if it wants to and will have room to get away from it, if it is to hot.