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Rocky's radiographs

AbsoluteApril

AbsoluteApril

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This is my ball Rocky Dennis. She has a funky neck, you can feel some spinal kink issues. Breeder advised she was born like this. She doesn't have any issues shedding or feeding. I wanted to see what was going on in there so off to the vet we go!
:D

Vet took some x-rays which were really interesting looking and figured I would share.
 

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Here are the two x-rays!
 

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I feel as if this were a human, they would be in increasing amounts of pain as they aged. Unfortunately testing that in non-human animals is tough, and it's definitely a judgement call. I know you're not asking for advice, but personally I'd euthanize it.
 
Speaking as someone who cracked my L1 vertebra 20 years ago... that looks painful.
 
She was born like this, it's not an injury. She doesn't show any signs of being in pain and the vet said she's fine.
 
AbsoluteApril said:
She was born like this, it's not an injury. She doesn't show any signs of being in pain and the vet said she's fine.
Click to expand...
Good point, as picky as BP's are, if yours were in pain it likely wouldn't eat. Goodness knows when my back was jacked up, eating was one of the last things on my mind.
 
For what it's worth, I've handled hundreds of snakes that have just been run over on the road, and with the exception of about a dozen that are seared in my mind, none have shown signs of pain, even when the organs are trailing behind the animal. Snakes are good at hiding it.

A human with that many fused, ill fitting deformed vertebrae would certainly be in chronic pain. Humans are bipedal though, so it may be different. Hard to say really. I guess I'm not attached to the animal at all so the decision for me would be easy. Definitely keep a close eye out for problems - anything really, since the compression point for the spinal nerves is so high. Regardless, good luck with him!
 
A snake spine isn't under the same kind of stresses as a biped's spine. I'm sure she wouldn't feed and thrive if this was very painful.

It's wild to see, thanks for sharing!
 
I'm glad some have found this interesting to see, I was really surprised by the extent of it compared to what is felt and seen from the outside, which was why I wanted to share.

Helenthereef said:
When she feeds, does she constrict? I mean can she exert force at that point, or is she a more passive "swallower"?
Click to expand...

She lunges, grabs and constricts with ferocity! Uses such exuberant force she will throw her whole body around it sometimes. Swallows at the same pace as all the others.
:)
 
Quick updated pic of Rocky, getting bigger and doing well.
Looks like I forgot to mention earlier that the vet wasn't sure what caused it, he was leaning towards a salmonella or other bacterial infection when in the egg, but it could have been a few different things.
 

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