wodesorel
Stanley & Peach's Mom
I'm trying to learn as much as I can about her condition, but since it seems most breeders choose to cull snakes who end up like this, it's not been easy to find information! I don't think these would be called kinks?
This is Peach, she's a 3 year old Corn that we adopted last month from a reptile rescue. I don't know much about her history - only that she was a class pet. We do not know if she was born this way, if it developed over time, or if it was a result of an injury. The rescue kept her until it was obvious she could eat, poop and shed without problems. We took her home since it's just my husband and me, and we had an empty 55 gallon available where she could be retired to live out her life in peace.
Yes, she does look similar to the tiger snake from Tasmania who has Charcot's. We do not have a reptile specialist around us who can diagnose that, and she's doing so well and obviously has been living like this for so long that our vet doesn't see the need to really dive into it further when there is so little medical information out there about snakes with this kind of deformity.
We had a mite problem with her, which I didn't notice for a few weeks and was causing her to act sickly and me to freak out about whether we made the right choice. However, she's been on mite treatment for two weeks and they seem to be gone. (Still treating though!) The change in her has been dramatic since recovering from the mites, and she acts almost like a normal snake. Well, as normal as our other snake, Stanley, who is a Florida King.
Peach has some mobility problems, but not as much as you'd think by the lumps in the photos. She loves to explore, and if I'm doing something near her cage she has to come over and check me out. When we do the cleaning for the mites she has to snoop around at the new surroundings. She's very active, very outgoing. Never shows any signs of being in pain when handled, which I'm only doing because of the mites. She has a better food response and has an easier time eating then Stanley! By the time that dumb bunny figures out he can't swallow a chick from the side, Peach has her medium mouse down and is cruising around the tank again - she is not an eat and then hide snake, she is always out. I think it's really obvious she's used to being a class pet and she has no fear of anything.
She's shed once with us and it was a rough one, but I didn't know she had mites at the time, and I also wasn't expecting her to shed that fast after getting home so she didn't have a moist hide. 20 minutes in a bin with a wet towel and what was stuck slid right off. I expect her upcoming molt to be much more pleasant!
I do realize this is not going to be a long term situation, and we are prepared for that. The goal is to keep her as comfortable as possible for as long as she has, and we will put her to sleep if she ever starts to suffer. Since we don't know what the underlying cause of her lumps are, we aren't sure how long she'll have. If it is Charcot's her spine will eventually fuse and we'll have our answer, but if it's not that then... ??
So - has anyone encountered an adult corn like this before?
Would really love to hear any information that anyone has! I spoke with the rescue who had the tiger snake and they confirmed that an enclosure where she's not able to climb and injure herself further would be best. She will obviously never have tank mates. Our vet is also looking into B12 supplementation in case it is Charcot's.
The lumps are hard. Her scales have deformed around them, which is why I missed seeing the mites for so long. We have to keep her on the warm end of the recommended range, because if she gets too cool (below 80) she's like an old person with arthritis and has extreme difficulty moving around. So long as she is warm she has fairly decent mobility, but it's obviously that the last 2/3 of her doesn't move properly. She's really good about knowing how to move her body so she can get where she wants to be without it taking extra effort. I'm not seeing anything right now that would be a red flag that she's going downhill or is in pain.
Stats: Approximately 3 years, female, guesstimate of 2.25 feet, and 324 grams.
I'm assuming she's just a normal Amelanistic Corn?
Photos!
This is her streched out, that is as smooth as she gets:
She has a stubby tail, not sure if it's from a bad molt or if it's part of her condition since everything else on her spine is like a smooshed slinky.
Lumpity-bump-bumps:
She can still reach up and wants to climb:
The knobs about 1/3 down from her head are the most pronounced. We almost called her Nessie:
A few more:
With flash:
This is Peach, she's a 3 year old Corn that we adopted last month from a reptile rescue. I don't know much about her history - only that she was a class pet. We do not know if she was born this way, if it developed over time, or if it was a result of an injury. The rescue kept her until it was obvious she could eat, poop and shed without problems. We took her home since it's just my husband and me, and we had an empty 55 gallon available where she could be retired to live out her life in peace.
Yes, she does look similar to the tiger snake from Tasmania who has Charcot's. We do not have a reptile specialist around us who can diagnose that, and she's doing so well and obviously has been living like this for so long that our vet doesn't see the need to really dive into it further when there is so little medical information out there about snakes with this kind of deformity.
We had a mite problem with her, which I didn't notice for a few weeks and was causing her to act sickly and me to freak out about whether we made the right choice. However, she's been on mite treatment for two weeks and they seem to be gone. (Still treating though!) The change in her has been dramatic since recovering from the mites, and she acts almost like a normal snake. Well, as normal as our other snake, Stanley, who is a Florida King.
Peach has some mobility problems, but not as much as you'd think by the lumps in the photos. She loves to explore, and if I'm doing something near her cage she has to come over and check me out. When we do the cleaning for the mites she has to snoop around at the new surroundings. She's very active, very outgoing. Never shows any signs of being in pain when handled, which I'm only doing because of the mites. She has a better food response and has an easier time eating then Stanley! By the time that dumb bunny figures out he can't swallow a chick from the side, Peach has her medium mouse down and is cruising around the tank again - she is not an eat and then hide snake, she is always out. I think it's really obvious she's used to being a class pet and she has no fear of anything.
She's shed once with us and it was a rough one, but I didn't know she had mites at the time, and I also wasn't expecting her to shed that fast after getting home so she didn't have a moist hide. 20 minutes in a bin with a wet towel and what was stuck slid right off. I expect her upcoming molt to be much more pleasant!
I do realize this is not going to be a long term situation, and we are prepared for that. The goal is to keep her as comfortable as possible for as long as she has, and we will put her to sleep if she ever starts to suffer. Since we don't know what the underlying cause of her lumps are, we aren't sure how long she'll have. If it is Charcot's her spine will eventually fuse and we'll have our answer, but if it's not that then... ??
So - has anyone encountered an adult corn like this before?
Would really love to hear any information that anyone has! I spoke with the rescue who had the tiger snake and they confirmed that an enclosure where she's not able to climb and injure herself further would be best. She will obviously never have tank mates. Our vet is also looking into B12 supplementation in case it is Charcot's. The lumps are hard. Her scales have deformed around them, which is why I missed seeing the mites for so long. We have to keep her on the warm end of the recommended range, because if she gets too cool (below 80) she's like an old person with arthritis and has extreme difficulty moving around. So long as she is warm she has fairly decent mobility, but it's obviously that the last 2/3 of her doesn't move properly. She's really good about knowing how to move her body so she can get where she wants to be without it taking extra effort. I'm not seeing anything right now that would be a red flag that she's going downhill or is in pain.
Stats: Approximately 3 years, female, guesstimate of 2.25 feet, and 324 grams.
I'm assuming she's just a normal Amelanistic Corn?
Photos!
This is her streched out, that is as smooth as she gets:
She has a stubby tail, not sure if it's from a bad molt or if it's part of her condition since everything else on her spine is like a smooshed slinky.
Lumpity-bump-bumps:
She can still reach up and wants to climb:
The knobs about 1/3 down from her head are the most pronounced. We almost called her Nessie:
A few more:
With flash:
