At a Loss at What to Do! (Injured snake, icky photos)

[akmorphs]

@thecrawdfather

Very sad. I don’t see that animal making it. I am a very cut and dried blunt midwestern boy. They can choose to give up the animal or I’m calling animal services. I don’t need a friendship with people that would willingly subject an animal to that kind of treatment. Maybe harsh, but I gotta sleep at night.

Couldn’t have said it better. Offer to take it from them, and then if they still won’t budge - report.

@stewart_reptiles

Sadly this animal is past homemade remedy or care, the burn is so severe it will require Silver sulfadiazine and antibiotics which are often required in the most severe cases.

They need take the animal to a vet, or surrender it or have it euthanized.

I sent these pictures to my mom, who happens to be a vet, and she agrees. The animal needs to go in. Risking secondary infections.

[nocturne_reptiles]

If they get back to me by this evening I’m going to make an immediate appointment with the local exotic vet, but they’ve ignored my messages before. If not, guess I’m calling in services.

[thecrawdfather]

Good luck hopefully the best can be made of a crappy situation

[scosta56]

Omg this has my heart bleeding right now. Oh god just seeing that open flesh under her scales exposed is gut wrenching. The amount of pain that animal is in makes me sick. Shame on them for allowing this to get this bad. I wouldn’t even trust them with a rock at this point. That poor animal.

[nikkip]

Needs to get to a vet. It’s too bad of a case to self treat. Poor thing

[drocha616]

That snake needs to be rescued ASAP and taken to a vet. It looks like a rat chewed the hell out of it.

[samurai_pythons]

Not trying to change the subject or say anything bad about petco’s or PetSmart’s or etc. But seeing those pics make them look like not such a bad place to be right now. Doesn’t matter if its a burn or chewing rats. Fact is, either way, its piss poor ownership practices, and they should have it taken away from them. Just the fact they want to try to fix it at home instead of taking it to the vet, already shows they can’t even afford the proper care for it. Maybe I’m reading it wrong, cuz those pics pissed me off so much. Was really trying to keep quiet, and just let everybody else say what they want. But the more I keep looking at it, the more mad I get. So being quiet just ended.

[westridge]

That’s possibly the worst thermal burn I’ve ever seen. I feel that the animal’s chance of survival would have been very slim. She probably should have been euthanized rather than being allowed to slowly die, most likely in terrible pain. Personally, I would report it to the authorities, but with the animal being already dead and the body very likely thrown away, prosecution is unlikely. The pictures prove an injured snake existed, but not who owned it, that the the injury was the result of neglect, or whether or not it received veterinary care. Plus, as someone has said, it is rare for cases of neglect or cruelty towards an individual reptile to be prosecuted. And those convicted of cruelty or neglect usually receive a slap on the wrist.

[honeybee]

Listen, I used to work in animal welfare, don’t wait to call, this animal is suffering and time is of the essence. Try to see if you can do a “good cop - bad cop” thing with the cruelty officers, the owners need not know you called or are working together and/or just the humiliation of having a cruelty investigator visit might be enough to get themto relinquish the animal.

[akmorphs]

@nocturne_reptiles any update on the snake?

[westridge]

The OP already said that it died without being taken to the vet.

[snakehandler]

I don’t see where the OP said the snake died yet? Did I miss something?

[westridge]

The OP added this to the initial post:

EDIT: Thanks for the suggestions, the last message I got was “Nah, she’s fine now” and then when they got home they found she had passed away before I could really get any outside help. Heat mats and glass just don’t mix.

[snakehandler]

@westridge Thanks for pointing that out. I was following along from the beginning but only reading the new post. I didn’t notice that edit. That sucks! I was hoping for a better outcome.

[westridge]

Unfortunately, with a burn that severe, survival is unlikely, and certain without vet care.

[thecrawdfather]

Makes me a little sick to my stomach. People need to do better.

[spacecoastreptiles]

That’s truly awful. Thanks for trying to step in and do something about it, even though it turned out to be too late.

[nocturne_reptiles]

Oh, so sorry for the delay @akirby91! I’ve been busy! She did pass away, unfortunately. I really dislike humans sometimes

[kevin_ksk_royals]

With all the information on proper care literally at are fingertips its unreal poeple can be so lazy they can’t watch or read one of a thousand vidoes or articles on how to properly care for these animals…so sad.

[groje25]

Honestly, many online care sheets and “informational” videos have inaccuracies.
Whether it’s temperature, bedding, feeding or aomething else, many reptile enthusiasts don’t know enough to keep the animals healthy.
In my experience, most novices won’t spend the time researching many sources of care information (many seem to either believe what the pet store employee guessed about care, what their friend who sold them said, or what they learned from 5 minutes online in one care sheet or youtube video).