Partial Paralysis

[Miqote]

Hi everyone!

I haven't posted in awhile. In July I acquired a little lavender corn named Lilly. When she was sent to me, the breeder informed me that she had "granules" that he hadn't noticed until he handled her and shipped her to me. I was okay with that, since I am not very interested in breeding and was happy to give a special snake a home.

Because Lilly was small, I didn't handle her much because I like the baby snakes to use their calories for growing. I could definitely feel her lumps though, like tiny coarse nodules inside her body. The previous owner said often times the lumps dissolve as the snake gets older.

Over the past month or so, when I held Lilly to feed her, she seem to flop about and roll onto her back a lot. She seemed a bit clumsy, but I'd seen videos of stargazers and knew it wasn't that, although it reminded me. Last night, while holding her briefly to show my husband the strange before, he asked to see her slither on the floor. Lo and behold, Lilly seems to be paralyzed from about 1/2 - 2/3rd of the way down her body to her tail. The starting point of the paralysis is her largest nodule. She has enough movement in the top of her body to crawl around quite well, albeit a little awkwardly.

I was perplexed because Lilly eats hungrily, poops just fine, sheds perfectly, and otherwise seems like a normal snake. I asked the people at work today, and they said in humans, a lot of times if the spine is injured, the organs can still work properly, just the ability to move is lost.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experience with partial snake paralysis, or any special care suggestions for Lilly.

Thanks for reading,
Miqo~

 

[Nanci]

Weird- I've never heard of that. They aren't kinks on her spine, are they?? I have a badly kinked snake. She has some degree of maybe paralysis for the lower third or so. She looks like she moves normally, but when she swims she rolls side to side instead of swimming in an S shape. The only thing I am doing differently is trying to keep her weight at a moderate level- I think she will be more able to cope with her disability at 400 grams than 700 grams. And I exercise her to keep her muscles strong.