42 Hex Update, Decorator Crab Antics, Nano Algae Battle

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by BCOrchidGuy

Using well cured live rock is a huge bonus and frankly I think adding the livestock isn't such a risk with the live rock... if it were not well cured then I would say.. .risky..... but obviously you have a good handle on things.

Thanks for the support. I won't consider this reef out of the woods until another couple of weeks pass. Then somewhere down the line, something like cyano will rear its ugly head and I'll have to deal with it :-( Ah, the joys of reefkeeping ;-)

But on a totally off-topic topic, where I have almost no handle on the subject at all: our ball python Sid had not been eating over the last several weeks. Took him to the vet for a checkup and found out he had a mouth infection and had also retained eyecaps from his last shed. (They shed a few times a year, and the eyecaps can be troublesome to shed.) Treatment for the infection meant I had to give daily injections of antibiotic for 10 days. Ouch, poor little snake :-( Once the injections started he became lethargic and just layed all curled in a ball under the heat lamp. Poor little guy :-(((

The injections went easily for the first 8 days, then he began to balk whenever the needle touched his body. He even bent the needle on the 9th day, though I was able to inject him finally, bent needle and all. The last day, it took two of us to hold him down. But all the while during the injections, he stayed curled up under the heat lamp moving only to drink, which was very uncharacteristic of him.

Treatment for the retained eyecaps was to use q-tips and saline solution and gently rub around the eye sockets to loosen the dead skin. Then I was to apply a dab of medicated goo on the eye to help the process along if the eyecap did not come off easily.

Sid was so wiped out by the injections, I stopped the eyecap removal part of the treatment to give the poor guy a break from all the handling. Instead I applied the eye goo, which is not very stressful to snake, or human.

Two days after the injections had finished Sid still lay curled up in a ball. Usually, he'd be climbing all over the driftwood in his house during the day, flicking his cute little tongue out everywhere he went. A quick talk with the vet's office told me that antibiotics sometimes knock a snake off its feet, so to speak, and to call early next week if things don't improve.

Lo and behold, Friday night, he begins to shed. It looked like he was in extreme discomfort as he rubbed his face and head all over the towel substrate. Feeling totally helpless in yet another of Sid's problems, I went to bed feeling pretty bad. Next morning he was curled in a tight little ball, a sign of stress, and dead skin was still all over his face. It looked like he hadn't gotten very far in his shed.

Remembering the saline solution treatment, I took him out of his house and put him on a towel on my lap and began washing his body with a warm wet cloth. Once he uncurled from his tight ball position, I soaked a q-tip with saline and began pushing the dead skin from his nose toward the back of he head Sid wasn't too thrilled with this type of handling, but I gently persisted and was able to remove all the skin from his face, including both eyecaps! Wow!! I felt sooooooo good!

DH put warm water in his water dish and I persisted in bathing him to help the skin come off more easily, though he wasn't very interested in this either. Once out of the water he hid under the towel substrate to get the heck away from us prying humans.

Hours later, I gently pulled him out from under the towel and placed him on one of his known hiding places. Hours after that I noticed dead skin in huge chunks laying all over the towel. And he was beginning to move around his house like he usually does, sort of like he's hunting for food (well, live mice in his case). Late last evening, I even noticed that he'd pooped, poop which I can take to the vet for parasite analysis :-)

Yippeeee!! I helped our sick snake get better! He even pooped, which is an excellent sign. I think I'll go the the lps and get him something to eat today if he continues to look like he's hunting. I hope he eats, which he hasn't done in about two months. If he does eat, then I know he's back in the saddle and on his way to being his old lovely snakey self.

I'll even left him climb up the sleeve of my sweatshirt if he wants. He climbs in only so far, then turns around and lets his head poke out. He's so cute and gentle, and I love his little snake self a whole lot. BCOrchidGuy, you should get to know a snake like Sid and you'll change your mind about being afraid of snakes forever :-))))))