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Corn Snake Rescue

ChristineMarie94

ChristineMarie94

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Well, today was a long day. This morning my boyfriend's mom texted us asking if we happened to want another corn snake. Apparently, her friend had just moved into a house, walked into what used to be the son's room, and found a corn snake sitting on top of a dresser in it's tank. Her friend's had absolutely NO desire for a snake, let alone a snake that they knew nothing about, so they were going to release it. Luckily, she heard about it and knew that we were suckers for snakes and for sob stories, haha.

We really had no idea the condition, so we told her that us taking it would be very dependent on what we saw. We didn't want to risk infecting our snakes at home, or prolonging this snakes misery if it were really sick. The folks who moved in were amazed that the snake was even still alive, as the folks had moved out at the beginning of February, and the snake likely hadn't eaten since then.

We showed up to take a look, and brought a few hoppers (we had no idea how big this thing was going to be). Amazingly, we found this beautiful albino blizzard corn snake. The snake was about 3.5 feet long, no mites, only a slight wheeze (it hasn't had any heat in the house since the beginning of February, so that's not a surprise), and this snake is seriously the most friendly dude in the world. He came right up to us when we tore the lid open. The lid was duct taped shut and the snake had no hide and only a tiny empty water dish. There were about 5 sheds in the tank, and the snake is seriously skinny. It's spine is sticking waaay out.

We fed him a hopper, just to see if he'd 1, go for it, and 2, be able to keep it down, and he's in quarantine with the temp up for him. We're hoping he's gonna fatten up and be a real nice pet for someone, because he's certainly a loving dude. He crawled right down my shirt in fact when we were changing out the gross bedding!

Does anyone have any tips for the wheezing? I have a vet appointment set up, and the temps are raised in his tank, but I want to try to make him comfy! Poor guy has suffered enough!!
 
Edit: If it had been really sick, we would have taken it to the vet and had it put down. We're real happy we didn't have to do that. I realized I skipped that and made it sound like we would have just left it, and didn't want anyone to think that!!
 
ChristineMarie94 said:
Does anyone have any tips for the wheezing? I have a vet appointment set up, and the temps are raised in his tank, but I want to try to make him comfy! Poor guy has suffered enough!!
Click to expand...
Good on you for taking in the little guy!

My vet has recommended increased temps to help fight off the infection, increased humidity to keep the mucous moist so it can be expelled easily, and keep the enclosure very clean.
 
Thanks so much! The first one and the last one will be easy. We have him on an actual UTH with a temp controller and all of that, so it's definitely warm enough for him, and currently we're just using paper towels to make sure that we don't spot any mites or anything weird on the paper towel. The humidity I'm a little worried about. I live in a place without a lot of natural humidity, and the tank that this guy is in is a fish tank, with a fish tank top, so I can't mist it like I do with my other snakes without totally dismantling the top of this stupid thing. If I had the money I'd just buy him a new tank, but with the totally unexpected nature of taking him on, we weren't expecting to have to buy any tanks, you know?

So far he's still not bubbling or keeping his mouth open at all, and no regurge on what we fed him, so I'm hoping that we got to him in time so that he just needs some time to warm up and fatten back up. He's gonna be a real sweetie once he's back to 100%. It'll be hard to not fall in love with him, lol.
 
It's rather ghetto but I've found that an inexpensive way to increase humidity without turning your enclosure into a sopping wet mess is to take a small synthetic sponge (like a cheap kitchen sponge), lay it into a small plastic container without a lid, and fill the container just enough so the sponge is damp and there's a thin layer of water in the bottom of the container. The water will evaporate more quickly off the sponge due to the increased surface area than if you just added a second bowl of water, and there's not enough water in it to make a mess if your snake dumps it.

If your UTH is big enough you could put both the warm side hide and the container with the sponge on it. Then instead of spraying you just add a little water to the container every day, to replace what evaporated. To clean the sponge just put it in the dishwasher, if the snake has RI you could also replace the container and sponge daily so bacteria doesn't build up on it.
 
I use cypress mulch to maintain humidity for my boas and carpet python. The corn snakes enclosure has aspen, since he doesn't require the humidity as high, and I wet it down daily when he's in shed. Sphagnum moss is also great for a mist hide, my everglades rat snake (also with cypress mulch bedding) stays buried in the damp moss (small open topped tub) quite a bit.
 
You don't have to keep the entire cage damp. Just put the equivalent of an egg laying container in there (tupperware style container with adequately sized hole cut in the lid for the snake to get in there) with dampened peat moss and that will do the trick. That way the snake can choose whether or not it wants a damp place to hang out in or not.
 
The people who left the snake behind should be liable for animal cruelty charges. Not sure about the laws in your state, but in MD there have been several cases of people leaving dogs behind when they moved out that were charged and convicted in court. There's simply no excuse for that, if they couldn't take the snake with them they could have rehomed it first.
 
I've gone ahead and made him a moist hide using some moss, and he's mostly ignored it. He's actually ignored both of the hides that I put in there for him. He didn't have a hide before we got him, so I'm not sure if he really knows what to do with one? He did enjoy lying on top of the hide?

He's definitely got a little bit of an RI, although the vet seemed confident that we caught it just in time. I also found a good reptile rescue that I'm going to be taking him to on Wednesday. It'll be sad to see him go, but he's such a sweet boy that I know he'll get a loving home as soon as he's well enough too. The rescue is a lot more equipped to handle the situation if he goes downhill, and my land lord would absolutely kick us out if they knew we were harboring a fugitive!

Unfortunately, local law enforcement didn't seem to really care to much about him. The homeowners called and they were basically told "Well, you could try the pound, but I don't think they take those things." Super helpful answer, right? I'm just happy that we got to him in time and are able to help him out. It sickens me that someone could have this snake and then just leave it inside of a cage that's duct taped shut with no heat or food or anything. It's just mind boggling to me. We've had him for all of 5 days and I'm already in love with him!
 
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