A few weeks ago i had to take this girl in to the vet for what i assumed was a prolapse. She is about 19 years old, and ive owned her for 6 years.
During that visit the vet noticed a large, enflamed mass at the base of her cloaca. A needle aspiration test was done and she had some signs that pointed towards cancer. She started pain medication and antibiotics for the inflammation and had surgery scheduled for yesterday.
After i dropped her off, i had recieved a call from the vet(second set of eyes on her) saying that what i thought was an impacted scent gland, could be a gland that was also impacted by the initial growth as it isnt responding to measures to get it to express, and they said it didnt feel like an impacted scent gland. While also leaning strongly to the masses being cancerous. They also said that if i proceeded with the surgery, they wouldnt be able to remove both masses entirely due to location and that treatment options were very limited, so i decided to not go through with the surgery and put her through a hard healing process that likely wouldnt change any prognosis anyway, and opted for comfort care and monitoring QOL.
Until a few weeks ago, i never thought about cancer in captive snakes. And realistically, 19 isnt “old” for a ball.
Awww, I’m sorry your girl is going through this. It really sucks.
Unfortunately cancer is something that can affect any age. Humans have been diagnosed with cancer at birth. Obviously rare, but there is record of a girl born with stage 4 melanoma.
I lost a 4 year old cat to an extremely aggressive nasal cancer last year. It was only a month from the obvious something was wrong with his nose to his brain being affected. We don’t know when things started and I think we all know how easily animals can hide things.
I also have a 26yo BP right now with a mass on his ‘torso’. I haven’t gone through with testing with him. It’s been the same size for a couple years now and is not in an area that is immediately concerning. If it does start growing again the vet and I have discussed testing and surgery. For now it’s just letting him be a snake.
I hope your girl also has some more snakey days before having to move to the next stages. Thank you for wanting to do good by her.
Aw man that’s a kick in the teeth for both you and her! That being said I am glad she is going to be with you during her final time, however long that may be.
Cancer doesn’t care about age, animals, or humans. It strikes indiscriminately. By keeping her comfortable/well cared for, is probably the best medicine you can provide her now. Quality of life, imho, is way more important than quantity of life……
God bless the both of you in this difficult situation….
I had an alterna girl that developed kidney cancer in 2018. Got surgery on her (pretty sure the pics are posted here on the forum somewhere) and had it removed. She lived a pretty normal life for another six years when the second kidney got it as well. Really rough for me because she was the first of my “trinity” species that I got when I started keeping seriously
My heart goes out to you and your sweet snake. I’m so sorry that you’re going through this. Cancer really is awful. It’s awful at any age. It is a difficult choice, but I believe that you chose the kindest option. Her days will be as good as they can possibly be. She doesn’t worry about the future the way we humans do. She’ll just keep on enjoying life as well as she can. When she isn’t able to enjoy life any more, you’ll know. You and your snakey friend are in my prayers.
