Help! I think my snake is dying!

I have a six foot female redtail that has been off feed for almost four months while we were cooling and breeding. She never ovulated or anything, so we were going to start feeding her again. Now she is acting very sluggish and disoriented and she kind of flips her head upside down on the floor of the enclosure. When we reach in to mess with her, she does her head from side to side like Stevie Wonder, then flips her head back upside down. We think she is dying- we don't know what is going on. This is not her typical behavior; she has always been very healthy. Any thoughts or suggestions are really appreciated. Email us at artvandalai@msn.com.

Lance,
It's difficult to diagnose animals over the internet, but it sounds like she has a neurological problem. This could be due to either chemical exposure or underlying neurological problems.

My best advice is to get her checked out by a "qualified" reptile vet.

Good luck with her.

If it dies, take it to the vet for a necropsy and be SURE to have samples sent off for pathology. Have your vet use ZooPath labs, they are cheap and good. You don't want a nasty little bug wiping out your collection.

Can you tell how old the snake is excactly? When did he/she started to show this behaviour?
You have to keep in mind that when you are making the step between not feeding for four months and feeding again, that you'll have do this very carefully. It's best you feed the snake bit by bit more, cause too suddenly too much food sometimes results in deadly stress. I would advice for now to keep her a bit issolated from the surroundings, hang a towel in front of the enclosure or something like that and check her from time to time, also stop feeding as well, try to observe her behaviour and if it doesn't get better we'll have to think of something else. First try the simple things, it might be the best sometimes.

good luck and keep us updated!

Grtz
Jonah

Jonah: While you gave great information on getting a snake to start feeding again, did you not read the entire first post? That snake is not going to eat. It sounds as if it's dying. It needs to see a vet ASAP.

thanks for the info guys.
lance

Hi Karen,

Yes ofcourse it needs to be examined by a vet as well, but I think that every herp keeper allready knows that when any kind of symptomes are seen. My intention was to give a bit information about the feeding, just as support, I didn't say it would heal the snake.

So indeed if you haven't done this yet, grab the car-keys and hurry to your vet if its condition is really that bad as I'm starting to think, maybe she can still be saved.

Grtz
Jonah

Agreed, snake needs to get to a vet NOW...if you want to have any chance of saving her.

This behavior is not necessarily a death sentence!

When I was working at a local shop, this woman found her roomate's son's ball python after a number of months that it had been missing. It showed the same symptoms. I told her to get it to the vet. She didn't want to pay for the visit and did not want her roomate to have the snake back. It was covered in severe burns from being in the back of a gas stove, as well as the dissorientation.

The woman released the snake to the vet's office and the vet tech there took it upon herself to work on the snake. She tube fed it science diet A/D food and then force-fed it until it was strong enough to eat on it's own again. I saw the snake a few months later, never believing for a moment that it was going to survive....and what a gorgeous snake it was!!! Alive and thriving to this day.

So please do get it to a vet immediately. You might just be able to save her.