Possible reasons for Windsors Inability to survive the RI symptoms and possible underlying causes...
1. The length of time Elle took from initially noticing Windors RI symptoms to taking him to the vets for a check up.... this could have been 5 to 7 days sooner dependant on the day of the week she noticed the symptoms if we include weekend days... the vet practice she took windsor to does not hold herp surgeries on a saturday or sunday. IN fact they only have herp surgeries at Cumbernauld on 2 to 3 days out the remaining 5.
2. The fact that he had been a very intermittent eater , (he was around 18 to 20 weeks old when he went initially from Elle to reside with Toyah and ate defrost every 5 to 7 days before that. ) during the next 9 months he did indeed feed sporadically as toyah has mentioned...
however only one feed was voluntary...
here are the records for windsor for that time which i asked elle if i could have to discuss with the vet so that in future if any of my animals seem to be feeding intermittently i have some idea of when is appropriate to get them for a vest visit... the vet explained an animal doesnt not eat for no reason... theres always underlying reasons that can actually be NO fault of anyones...
7-Jan-2007 Acquired
8-Jan-2007 Shed
10-Jan-2007Refused
24-Jan-2007 346g
31-Jan-2007 Fed 2 large mice
3-Feb-2007 Fed 1 weaner rat
16-Feb-2007 366g
18-Mar-2007 354g
7-Apr-2007 338g
15-Apr-2007 330g
27-Apr-2007 320g
4-May-2007 Fed 1 34g mouse
27-May-2007 328g
4-Jun-2007 Fed 1 40g rat
15-Jun-2007 Shed 320g
26-Jun-2007 Fed 1 40g rat
4-Jul-2007 330g
12/07/2007 X large mouse/multi
18/07/2007 50g rat
03/08/2007 340g
06/08/2007 50g rat
For whatever reason windsor did not eat as any keeper would have hoped a young royal would... perhaps due to being a snake that may have been weaker from birth naturally or simply unhappy in his environment through no fault of anyones... this is my personal opinion and not anyone elses... why is it not possible that a sporadic feeder would not have a lower immune system ???
( in fact the vet explained to me this would be the case .. we cant compare to the wild here.. they ARE NOT wild snakes they are captive.. and captive breds are not the same... this was also explained to me by a herp specialist from england over the last few weeks during a telephone call she gave me helping to explain answers to worries i had)
Windsor may even have been less able to fight off any natural bacteria ( and the herp vet also explained they are born with a multitude of this and when they go downhill with their eating the bacteria sees its chance and can take over) but we dont even know if it WAS bacteria.... it could have been a virus or infectious bacteria not natural to the snake or fungal infection... no matter WHY he died he certainly MAY have had a better chance if he had been a good feeder..
this doesnt reflect in any way on the person who had him in her care during this time... windsor may just not have ate because that was the way windsor was... maybe he was oversensitive to the type of box he was in.. or temps or noise who knows??????... goodness we all know theres many snakes we try EVERYTHING possible with to get feeding and they just dont... we could change their environment, change temps for them.. change vivs , boxes, the way we feed them the times we feed them and they STILL wont eat.. so if we do ALL this and we still have a non-feeder its likely its time for a VETS visit.. sooo.. the question is.. how long is an appropriate time to leave a sporadic eating royal python before a keeper thinks.. hmmm... maybe we have an underlying issue here.. maybe i need to take my snake to a specialist..
when do we stop guessing what might be wrong... thinking we KNOW.. and actually start to find out.. thats the issue here.... timescales and realisation... along with my own realistation of personal mistakes this is what i have gained from this sad and stressful time....
I would have taken my own snake ( if windsor had been mine) to the vets as soon as I saw RI symtoms... although a week later according to MANY peoples standards isnt massively long to wait... i would also have taken a sporadic eating young unhappy seeming royal to the vets too... I know many wouldnt and i accpet that.. but i am a worrier by nature and would have to for my peace of mind know what was wrong.. i wouldnt just say..
OH its a non-eater.. if it just wont eat then tough...
Why elle and toyah together did NOT decide windsor should go to the vets during this time I simply do not know.... Im not sure actually who the snake belonged to at the time he was feeding inconsistently... I could be mistaken but I THINK elle had gifted the snake to toyah... ANYWAY... whoevers repsonsibility is was.. joint or singular... i feel strongly a vets visit before his initial one after RI symtoms were noticed would have been a good idea... only my opinion of course... and im not sure it counts for much as i have not been keeping pythons for a long time...
I do have 2 1/2 years experience with corns from when i lived in London years back.. but they are simply not alike enough to pythons to count that experience in this situation...
Im not having a go at Elle or Toyah ... I just feel there were steps along the way.. BEFORE elle took windsor back where a different course of action or intervention COULD have made all the difference... we will never know now... its too late...
Ive made mistakes and freely admitted them...
its the only way to learn...
My point here is... can we learn anything from this situation... if we cant its been in vain...
I have learned this...
IF i have a non-eater the timescale i wait before a vets visit would be sooner than in windsors case
IF i have a snake showing ANY unusual symtoms I make the first appointment I can and get there come hell or high water..
IF that saves any of m snakes in the future or givs them a better chance of pulling through any future illness then at least i feel I have learned from this.
I have also learned the hard way from my own stupid mistakes I made during the apparent transferral of this infection from windors my carpet python and then from my carpet ot my royal..
Mistakes i made and problems i caused...
It would be nice to think there could at least be something to learn from all this...
None of us are perfect... far from it...
and when it comes to reps there is so much more even the experts don’t know than they DO know