My snake threw up

[fredyfidget]

I have a white water Rosey boa. And we were making an appointent for him to go see the vet cuz he wasn't looking so good. And we as soon as we put him back into his cage he threw up! I told my wife to take a taxi to go to the vet cuz right now i'm at work. He hasn't eatin since I got him which is about a week and a 1/2. His skin tward his tail looks lumpy and dry, scaly but in a bad way like as if they were falling off. My wife hasn't called me yet. Does anybody have an idea what he might have?

[kevyn]

It's no big deal if it hasen't eaten in a week, but with the other symptoms you describe, I am a bit concerned. If it regured, and it hasen't eaten in a week then I would say the temp isn't high enough.
As to the other symptoms I would say that it sounds like there is some retained shed on the tail and has been left there for a long time. It could have parasites too, but without seeing it I'm only guessing. Why did you buy an animal in such bad shape?

[fredyfidget]

I t look fine when i got him but now he just came back from the vet and she said that he burnt his tail w/ a heating pad. And that he probably has a neurological dis order that is extremly contagious. Don't what that is but I got him i a seperate housing now and we are gonna return him to LLL Reptile. The vet called them and told them that they had to.

[kevyn]

Chances are that neurological disorder is IBD. It is extremely dangerous and has wiped out entire collections. If you have any other snakes, I suggest you watch for symptoms and keep the Rosy away from them. That's not good at all. How did the Rosy burn it's tail? Seems really odd for a heat pad to be that hot.

[HeatherK]

A reptile can burn themselves from a heat pad if it is set too hot, or there is not enough airflow underneath the tank, allowing too much heat to build up. The temps can sometimes appear fine, but underneath the substrate right against the bottom where the pad is can be a different story.

That's good on the vet that he called the place himself about it. Poor snake :(

[Linds]

Originally posted by kevyn
Chances are that neurological disorder is IBD. It is extremely dangerous and has wiped out entire collections.

Actually this disease is fairly rare, but everyone always jumps to that conclusion first thing. In fact, I can only recall one verified case in the past 5 years, and it was in the states. Someone had claimed to have had it in their collection this year in Canada, however no paperwork, etc. had been provided to backup the claim, so I cannot say for certain it was. The vet can also not diagnose the snake with this disorder without doing a liver biopsy (on the dead animal). There is an available blood test that can aid in diagnosing live snakes, but it has yet to be recognized by most vets, and does not test for the virus itself, just fat in the blood, so it isn't a 100% positive way to ID it.