Poisoned1":f15ce said:
I know you say your husbandry is perfect, I just want to check with some things please.
What exactly were you feeding him?
How long is he?
How far is he from the MVB?
What size tank is it?
Do you know the breeder? Sadly enough there are alot of back door breeders who think they can just breed and send them out without any proper care.
Was this person a professional or just a person trying to make a quick buck?
The tank I have for him is 50" long (48"x18x13"h) that is split in half by bricks. Right now he only uses about 25 gallons. I have a long basking rock that is tilted with bricks. The basking area or hottest spot is about 105-110 and it tapers down to about 90. The cool side of the tank is about 84. I use a temp gun to measure the temps. He is on paper towels for his substrate and has a hide made of small bricks. all the bricks i got from a pet store and both the brick and stone I soaked in mild bleach solution, scrubbed with soap and water then baked in an oven at 400 degrees for over an hour.
I use a 160W mvb bulb and a 60 watt regular bulb for added heat. the MVB bulb is about 18" above the highest point of his rock.
He is now 5 months old and has just reached 9". The vet said that was deffinitely small for his age. When I got him (a month ago) he was under 7 inches and for the first two and a half weeks did not grow. It was not until I began syringe feeding him that he grew and shed his tail.
When he first arrived, he was eating on his own. I fed him mostly crickets and phoenix worms. I would hold a cup with the worms in front of him and he would gobble them up. I left fresh veg with him every day that consisted mostly of cactus, cooked squash, and collard greens. He has never eaten any of it though. About 11/2 weeks after he arrived he stopped eating, although he would eat the worms if I opened his mouth and dropped them in. I mostly fed him phoenix worms and silk worms at that time. Crickets were too hard to get into his mouth. We continued that for about 3-4 days until he started refusing the worms and spitting them out. I thought he might be getting frustrated with me trying to shove the worms in his mouth, so I stopped for almost 48 hours and went back to offering them to him by hand. i also left a bowl of worms in his cage. I found him watching the worms all day but would not eat any (I counted them) so I started syringe feeding him a slurry of chicken and squash baby food mixed with juv beardie pellets and water with his calcium and multivitamins. He was doing well with this and seemed to enjoy the mixture. Basically I would try and coax him to eat his worms during the day and not syringe feed him until the night. On Thursday, he didn't seem to be all that energetic and was actually sleeping in his basking area. When I went near his cage he seemed to perk up though. Friday when I got up and turned the lights on for him, he was absolutely lethargic. I also noticed that he had thrown up twice that night. His eyes stayed closed and he just layed there lifeless.
I took him to the vet (Stahl exotics) it was highly recommended by the website I got from this forum and from a lady I was talking to at a pet store who had snakes. When the vet first examined him, she said he had MBD and from the sounds of it that his kidneys were failing. I asked how could he possibly have MBD, since I put calcium on and in everything he ate. I mean everything, every worm, cricket, veg that he ate was dusted with calcium. So, we went over my set up, lights, heat, substrate, feeding, etc. She actually said that I was dusting with too much calcium and that they only need it about every second day but that it was a good thing because of the MDB. Then she took him to another room, where i am not sure what they did. They told me but I was in such a shock that everything is a total blurr. i just sat there are cried. I felt so bad for him. A little while later a vet tech came in and we went over my set up and his feeding and pooping schedule again. They then went and ran everything by Dr. Stahl (the reptile expert) He said that it was most likely because Perry was not getting proper care before I got him. He was deffinitely not getting any calcium/mineral supplementation and that he probably was not kept under proper lighting. Later I was thinkinging about this and it makes sense. Shortly after I brought him home, Perry hated being under the heat and would always hang out in the cool side of the cage. I thought it was because of relocation stress, but now know that he had probably never been kept at proper temperatures. They also explained that because of this improper care and the fact that he was shipped to me (not to mention that he was impacted when he arrived.) that it has been too big of a shock and that his kidneys are slowly shutting down. they said that there is a good chance that he will not make it.
As for the antibiotics. The sample I brought in was too dry for them to do a fecal, but they did do some sort of float test. This is not always conclusive, but gave them a pretty strong indication that he does have worms or coccidia(sp?).
Anyway they told me to start the antibiotics and to bring in another fecal (in moist paper towel) as soon as he goes. I am still waiting for him to poop. They also gave him liquid calcium .01ml x2/day and carnivore care.
He seemed a little more active today but has become lethargic this evening. I am just praying that he will pull through.
