So a lady contacted me today asking for feeder rats for her daughters newly acquired ball python. She came and got a rat and was telling me how the snakes eyes and mouth were dry and her skin was wrinkly. I suspected some stuck shed. When she got home she called me and said the snake was holding her mouth open. She sent pictures and I was shocked to say the least. She said she just purchased this snake from someone on Saturday and she did not look like this. Looks like mouth rot to me but how can a snakes body condition deteriorate that much in less than a week?!
Any help would be greatly appreciated, her daughter is very upset. The first and second picture is of her on Sunday the day after they got her and the rest are today. Thank you for any help.
Veterinarian. Now. This snake is not at all healthy and needs medical intervention immediately.
Any advice here can be a danger if being performed by someone who thought this animal looked ‘fine’ last week.
It is dying
That snake looks like it’s on death’s door and needs a vet appointment ASAP. I think this well beyond the standard “increase the humidity/provide a humid hide” advice that usually can solve mild dehydration. This isn’t a DIY sitiuation, it needs immediate medical care
I personally find it very hard to believe that a snake could decline this quickly over the span of a week unless they literally had in a desiccator that entire time, so I’m wondering if there is something missing from this story
Have you seen the setup this animal is in? Tbh I doubt this all happened in a week, it looks like it lost body condition as well. As everyone else said, this animal is dying and needs a vet asap. I’d also be wondering what temps they’ve got the poor thing in and what kind of water access, but that’s secondary and only needing to be questioned if the animal survives.
This is definitely a serious emergency and no time should be wasted. The animal is in awful shape and body contion nothing about it looks healthy and it looks like it is suffering. It needs a vet
Yeah that’s what I was wondering too…
Even if there was a water source, it looks like it was cooked under a heat lamp for a while. Probably evaporating the water before there’s a chance to drink enough.
As others have said, vet care immediately. I’m not sure how possible it would be to lose that much body mass in 5 days, so that seems a little unreasonable.
It looks like it’s being cooked without water, and is in dire need of care.
I advised a vet, and they are insisting the happened in a week. I also was questioning the likelihood that this happened to her in less than a week. She said her ac went out and her home got really hot. The temps have been almost 100 here. I was just wondering what everyone’s thoughts were because this whole thing seems very bizarre. She absolutely does look like she has been cooked under a heat lamp.
This is so heartbreaking! Needs water and a vet right away
It definitely doesnt add up and there seems to be something they are hiding for the full picture. Im just hoping this snake gets the right care.
You can see from one of the pics they are in a trailer not sure if they live in it but if ac went out it’s probably extra hot and with this snake under a heat lamp on top of it all is very dangerous
It doest make sense how this happens in a few days and why they would take this long to do something. Surely there would have been signs previously of the snakes deterioration before it got this extreme.
I can almost bet the AC is true but also a lie to cover what actually happened, because if the AC really went out, why did they not turn off the animal’s heat and move it to a cooler area or provide more water? They’d have also had to have purchased the animal in shed for it to already have such bad skin.
My guess on what actually happened is that this animal has been kept in an enclosure with uncontrolled and unmonitored heat and humidity, and has essentially been cooked alive. If they tell you they cannot access a vet, I suggest asking that they relinquish the animal to someone who can. Bare minimum, this snake needs subcutaneous fluids and antibiotics, that’s if the organs aren’t already shutting down from the severe dehydration. There is a very good chance, based on these photos, that this animal may not survive even with aggressive treatment.
The condition of this snake looks beyond recovery and I do hope and pray that it is taken to a vet IMMEDIATELY if not sooner to be treated at least with painkillers to make it comfortable and euthanized. It may not be intentional but this is a case of animal abuse/cruelty pure and simple. Just plain disgusting and disturbing. And imho these “people” do not need another anything except maybe a rubber snake toy to melt.
If you guys want to flag this post I apologize in advance for the rant. I’m done with this thread because this kind of thing makes me sick! 
It really is disappointing that someone can bring a snake or any animal into this sort of condition. Its honestly heartbreaking and disgusting.
Normally, I would agree.
Yes, the animal needs to be relinquished to a veterinarian for emergency or palliative care.
Yes, this is terrible and qualifies as abuse.
But I have a feeling that the family wanted to get the pet the child wanted and may just be absolutely uninformed of what a reptile needs for care. It happened quite a lot when I worked a big box shop and talking the parents into what was actually needed was always frustrating. (Money may be a factor in habitat, but unsure.) So they probably didn’t realize that the heat lamp aren’t recommended for a BP and needed to be disconnected when the heat gets that high.
At the very least, they will need A LOT of hand holding if they want to try again. Hopefully with someone who doesn’t just assume they know BP care or just gave some cheap advice for a sale.
Yes @armiyana you do make some good points. I just feel so badly for the snake. It’s just that there is so much information available on the internet that it seems these people could have done a little more research along with the bad advice maybe given. And then there is just plain old common sense……. maybe 
But thank you for sharing your aspect with me! 
They live in a 5th wheel and got advice from a Petco employee… they told her to use sand for substrate, a heat mat without a thermostat and heat lamp. And the AC went out. I told her it needed at vet ASAP. I sure hope it will make it.
I said I was done with this conversation but THANK YOU @noodlehaus! I just hope that God created animals not to feel intense pain as this poor helpless snake looks to be in.
Ugh … That sucks. I was wondering if it was one of the ‘they come from Africa. It’s hot’ sort of things.
There’s a lot of people who are not trained well enough to deal with the animals sadly. And they’re given out of date sheets to parrot info from.
I was lucky that my particular big box had a number of people who actively kept reptiles and they would listen and try to keep things as nice as we could but within store regulations… Which is another story. Ugh