Before he gets here I am looking for advice on what I can do to try and save his life. That is assuming he even arrives back home alive. My adults are usually n the small side because I never power feed and let them grow at their own rate. I sold him as a pet only after doing some test breeding to see if he produced kinks since he was a lone kink out of his clutch…after 3 years of breeding he produce 1 kink so I sold him pet only. The listing stated he was a bit of a picky eater and ate when he felt like it. I took a photo of him and listed him on October 18th, 2021 and here is the photo of him
He was purchased and shipped November 10th. The buyer received and complained he was too small…He had eaten 2 weeks before shipping and was healthy when he left. Here ist is December 25th, Christmas Day and over a month later and they message me cussing me up one end and down the other for sending her a sick snake. They avoided sending me any proof that he was sick upon arrival and said they have over 200 snakes and know better than I do what a sick snake was and that I was just playing the innocent. I just decided my reputatioin was more important than an argument and told them to ship the snake back and I will refund the price of the snake. They then sent me these pictures
I am really sick at the way he looks. This doesn’t look skinny from lack of food; to me he looks very dehydrated. I hope he survives the return shipping and then I am not even sure I can save him…I certainly can’t afford a vet right now.
I’m sorry for what happened, this must be scary. I suggest taking him to an exotics vet, and if you can’t afford that then try to do exactly what they would do( or close) if possible. Try to get fluids and heat available as soon as possible and moniter him constantly to make sure that if anything, his vitals are going up. if you are really stumped, or try to see if he/she is taking water… I haven’t had many sick snakes so there is only so much advice I can give, but I just suggest trying to get them on heat as soon as you get them back, and try to get water into here system what ever way you can, although it may just be a internal injury,and in that case there is not much You can do, by the way he looks in the second picture, I may first think he hadn’t eaten for a while, or maybe he was not getting enough nutrients and protein he needs. but keep trying until he’s ok or the poor guy is resting! I believe in you and him! You got this, again, I’m sorry if this advice wasn’t helpful and. Hope you can figure something out
Oh Good Idea on the Pedalyte! I’ll go out and get some tomorrow just in case he makes it back alive. I usually do warm soaks for those not drinking enough and that always works since they do take in some water while soaking. But I like the idea of trying some pedalyte.
That is not the look of a snake who simply hasn’t eaten for a month. An adult corn can go several months without food before you’d start noticing them looking thin. That looks like impaction to me, or possibly some sort of viral, bacterial, or parasitic infection. Crypto and impaction are the two main things that cause stomach swelling. I would make sure he is seriously quarantined away from your other animals and be extremely wary of cross contamination.
I hope he arrives alive and you’re able to help him!
Not to raise an alarm off of what if’s but a colubrid that hasn’t eaten and has a swollen belly, crypto is the first thing that comes to mind. I would run fecals as soon as you get the opportunity.
That’s not necessarily to say you sent it out and it got crypto, many animals have it and are asymptomatic when husbandry is good, but will begin to show symptoms when stressed (shipping, bad husbandry, etc).
Hope you have good luck in saving your corn snake. Make sure when you soak him it’s shallow he will be to weak to hold his head out of the water. Don’t want him to drown.
Also it’s hard for me to see in the pictures but you should know what his patter looks like better than me. To me the sick looking one has a slightly different pattern than the first one. So maybe it not the same snake.
I have had people in the past try and scam me out of boas by trying to send me a boa back that is not one of mine. I keep very detailed pictures of ever boa I sell for this reason. I also had someone email me a picture of a boa he was selling. It was a picture from my website of one of my Suriname boas that I still owned.
That has happened to me before, the nerve of people. Well I agree that you need to make sure that it is shallow and warm when you bath him. The warmth will keep him from the cold, and a bath is a good way to soak and hydrate an animal.
Nope. Buyer (fairly new to MM and very unprofessioinal) never shipped then contacted me today and said it died. I raised that snake from a baby. They are still swearing left and right at me and accusing me of selling a sick snake. Nothing else here is sick and all my adults are currently brumating. I do have one 2-year old I am going to warm up and feed because he’s looking a bit thinner than I like but not even he’s looking sick. I have asked for photos for proof of passing but so far nothing. I am going to refund the price of the snake only (not shipping) for my reputation sake, but want to write up a document for them to sign (ie I am not admitting wrongdoing and they will not go after PayPal to refund the shipping costs too). I just want this buyer off my back. I will not sell to them again. Thanks for asking and thank you everyone for the suggestions and help.
If you have them sign something you may need to have an attorney verify it is legally binding and also will likely require a notary. Otherwise it is not going to hold up if they decide to be huge pains in the butt further.
When you refund it be sure to take and save plenty of screenshots. The last thing you need is for them to sue you saying you never refunded them the price (I don’t believe that the snake was ever sick or died).
I know I’m late, but had to say how sorry I am that this has happened to you.
I hate to say it, but I thought the same.
I don’t either, based on what we’ve seen. It takes much longer for one to get into that condition than the time elapsed from your shipping.
Did they come across with proof yet?
Again, I’m so sorry that you have had this happen to you and to your snake. Even if yours didn’t die, thinking of him with this buyer can’t be happy. ((Hugs))
Looking at the pattern on the back of the snake, even with the smaller photo you provided of him in your care, there’s no way the animal you were sent pictures of is the same animal that died.
My guess is they had an already ailing animal in their apparently massive collection, and either mistook the two, or, and I hate to think this of anyone, possibly saw a chance to use your male as a replacement for their own animal, intending to demand a refund all along. A lot of red flags everywhere.
My question is why they never noticed or got treatment for the snake before it got to that point? No animal gets like that overnight, even with severe issues.
A couple people have mentioned it looks like a different snake and I’ve now relooked at the photos closely and I disagree. You can see the head pattern is the exact same, as well as the little piece of the stripe that comes off the head, then breaks, then starts again, continuing main stripe, are identical. Some of the other areas of the pattern will be harder to identify due to the extremely poor condition of the snake. That being said, I definitely think the buyer is at fault, but I don’t think they’re trying to pull a snake swap scam.
Nope. Buyer (fairly new to MM and very unprofessioinal) never shipped then contacted me today and said it died. I raised that snake from a baby. They are still swearing left and right at me and accusing me of selling a sick snake. Nothing else here is sick and all my adults are currently brumating. I do have one 2-year old I am going to warm up and feed because he’s looking a bit thinner than I like but not even he’s looking sick. I have asked for photos for proof of passing but so far nothing. I am going to refund the price of the snake only (not shipping) for my reputation sake, but want to write up a document for them to sign (ie I am not admitting wrongdoing and they will not go after PayPal to refund the shipping costs too). I just want this buyer off my back. I will not sell to them again. Thanks for asking and thank you everyone for the suggestions and help.