acovert
05-05-2013, 02:21 AM
I decided that Scar needs his own thread now that we have had him for a while. I'll push my boyfriend to take some photos for me so that I can post those up here as well.
Scar was caught along the Lewiston River in Washington, at my Uncle's house. He has a lot of scarring around the vent area of his tail and it appears that part of the tip of his tail was lost as well. As of now he is doing very well, though he gave us quite a scare today. He lives at my boyfriend's house because my parents won't let me have another snake besides Cuddles. I don't trust my boyfriend to take proper care of him, and today was a good example of why.
I've been asking for weeks if Scar has been showing any signs of shedding, and I get a no every time. Tonight when I asked he said he hadn't noticed because he hadn't checked recently. When we pulled scar out to check him we found that he had indeed been attempting to shed, and if we hadn't checked when we did he could have died with how bad the retained shed was. It covered all of his tail and vent, plus more. It looked like the shed was caught around the scarring and he had clearly been having a tough time getting it off. It was torn up around the edges. The humidity in the tank is also low, which was another result of my boyfriend forgetting to check on the snake regularly.
We took quick action and, after about an hour, managed to get the rest of the shed off. We used a shed box and a damp cloth to help loosen the shed, then had to help him pull it off. The last part, which was attached to the area with the worst scarring, was the hardest to get off.
Everything is fine now. Here's all of what we pulled off of him:
8745
It doesn't look like much in the picture, but it's actually quite a bit when compared to the rest of the shed. Thankfully we got it off without any problems.
This is, however, the reason why I don't want the snake to stay with my boyfriend if we break up. I don't think he can take good care of Scar. But if he decides to keep him there's not much I can do...
Scar was caught along the Lewiston River in Washington, at my Uncle's house. He has a lot of scarring around the vent area of his tail and it appears that part of the tip of his tail was lost as well. As of now he is doing very well, though he gave us quite a scare today. He lives at my boyfriend's house because my parents won't let me have another snake besides Cuddles. I don't trust my boyfriend to take proper care of him, and today was a good example of why.
I've been asking for weeks if Scar has been showing any signs of shedding, and I get a no every time. Tonight when I asked he said he hadn't noticed because he hadn't checked recently. When we pulled scar out to check him we found that he had indeed been attempting to shed, and if we hadn't checked when we did he could have died with how bad the retained shed was. It covered all of his tail and vent, plus more. It looked like the shed was caught around the scarring and he had clearly been having a tough time getting it off. It was torn up around the edges. The humidity in the tank is also low, which was another result of my boyfriend forgetting to check on the snake regularly.
We took quick action and, after about an hour, managed to get the rest of the shed off. We used a shed box and a damp cloth to help loosen the shed, then had to help him pull it off. The last part, which was attached to the area with the worst scarring, was the hardest to get off.
Everything is fine now. Here's all of what we pulled off of him:
8745
It doesn't look like much in the picture, but it's actually quite a bit when compared to the rest of the shed. Thankfully we got it off without any problems.
This is, however, the reason why I don't want the snake to stay with my boyfriend if we break up. I don't think he can take good care of Scar. But if he decides to keep him there's not much I can do...