moosenoose
Legendary
I've been away for a few weeks up north at a regular haunt of mine. Before leaving I fed all of my animals the night before, made sure they all had freshly cleaned and full water bowls (preferably out of crapping distance :lol
, checked on them the morning before leaving and set off for my Chrissy holidays.
Upon return I’m always anxious that everything has gone well with them all, and proceed to get around immediately checking and cleaning every enclosure ensuring everyone is fine (which over the last umpteen years hasn’t ever been a problem). I’m sure the snakes enjoy a nice quiet home, free of kids storming through from time to time and making a raucous anyway.
However this time, out of all of my animals, my hardiest one (I would have thought) is my Brown Tree Snake (Monkey) who when removed from the enclosure appeared to have some limitations in moving properly. Upon closer inspection it became apparent that he had a substantial hardened bump on his back (like a small bone protrusion underneath the skin). The scales had almost shrivelled to half of their size and it was clear I/and he, had a problem on our hands. Nothing can move in his enclosure, so a branch slipping was ruled out of the equation.
Last night I took him to a quite respected reptile vet in Canterbury, where it was hypothesized that we were dealing with an underlying problem that he’s probably had for awhile and sadly only reared its ugly head while I was away. Should it be terminal (as the vet suspects) and due to its locality, an xray scan was only throwing cash at what appears to be a useless situation – as it would be inoperable. As a last ditch effort he’s now being treated that “miraculously” it’s only a bacterial infection of some kind and the snake has merely developed an inflamed vertebrae, so he is now undertaking a course of antibiotic injections that I have to do every 24hrs. Sadly I’m not holding my breath on this, as much as I’d love to believe it’s the latter problem I’ve got a horrible feeling I’ll be back into the vet over the next week or so and returning without him.
I keep you all posted.
, checked on them the morning before leaving and set off for my Chrissy holidays. Upon return I’m always anxious that everything has gone well with them all, and proceed to get around immediately checking and cleaning every enclosure ensuring everyone is fine (which over the last umpteen years hasn’t ever been a problem). I’m sure the snakes enjoy a nice quiet home, free of kids storming through from time to time and making a raucous anyway.
However this time, out of all of my animals, my hardiest one (I would have thought) is my Brown Tree Snake (Monkey) who when removed from the enclosure appeared to have some limitations in moving properly. Upon closer inspection it became apparent that he had a substantial hardened bump on his back (like a small bone protrusion underneath the skin). The scales had almost shrivelled to half of their size and it was clear I/and he, had a problem on our hands. Nothing can move in his enclosure, so a branch slipping was ruled out of the equation.
Last night I took him to a quite respected reptile vet in Canterbury, where it was hypothesized that we were dealing with an underlying problem that he’s probably had for awhile and sadly only reared its ugly head while I was away. Should it be terminal (as the vet suspects) and due to its locality, an xray scan was only throwing cash at what appears to be a useless situation – as it would be inoperable. As a last ditch effort he’s now being treated that “miraculously” it’s only a bacterial infection of some kind and the snake has merely developed an inflamed vertebrae, so he is now undertaking a course of antibiotic injections that I have to do every 24hrs. Sadly I’m not holding my breath on this, as much as I’d love to believe it’s the latter problem I’ve got a horrible feeling I’ll be back into the vet over the next week or so and returning without him.
I keep you all posted.
