Tourette's syndrome

[Snake lover 3-25]

poor thing.... hope you can find out what's wrong...

[guidofatherof5]

Thanks for all your concern. This thing comes and goes. She'll be fine for a few days then tic of a hour or so. Changing her diet and supps. Still planning on a Vet visit this week. Lots happening here. Busy time. Now, some new baby radixes. YES!

[guidofatherof5]

Just got back from the Vet. Little Tourette has Epilepsy, suffers from petit mal seizures. Vet. wants episodes documented (frequency and duration) for a month or two. At this point he doesn't want to medicate. She may need to go on phenobarb, later. He's not sure medication is the way to go at this point. He also wants to see if the seizures are getting worse. His concerns are that she may need to be euthanized if her condition worsens. Not something I want to think about. She's been with us since birth and has worked her way into my heart. I did question him about a possible B1 deficiency. He wasn't concerned about that as a possible cause of her problem.
I did ask him about a facial abnormality I see in her. Compared to her siblings, her snout is shorter and more blunt. I compared this feature to the facial abnormalities in children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. I'm thinking her disability is a developmental one. He said he also noticed this in her but had never thought about it in that way but that it could be a good explanation to her condition.
Time will tell what the future holds for Tourette. I'm just thankful that she's with us. She will have to live a celibate life, no reason to pass this problem on to the next generation.

[drache]

epilepsy, huh? no fun at all - poor baby

[Snake lover 3-25]

ooo that's sad.... but look at the bright side! if she stay's where she's at now there is a treatment! good luck!

[gregmonsta]

She's in the best hands tho you're seeing her right

[guidofatherof5]

It's been almost 4 months since I last posted about this snake. First, this snake is not alone. One of her brother has the same problem.
Tourette as I call her still suffers from this illness(?) The good news is the frequency of these incidents are far and few in between. Hopefully this was a developmental problem and will not deter from a somewhat normal life.
Her brother is having the same amount of seizures(head noding). I hope he grows out of it also.
For both these snakes I've increased the amount of times they get a suppliment. Not sure if that helped but I hope so.

[guidofatherof5]

7 months have passed since my last post about these snakes. Both are doing well. I haven't seen any on the head nodding from either snake. They both appear to be operating normally.
Here are a couple of photos of Tourette. She's a joy to have around and is a great eater. It makes me laugh to think back to her baby days when she had uncontrollable head nodding. Things sure have improved for her as she's matured.

[gregmonsta]

She's lovely good to see her doing well.

[ConcinusMan]

I have seen similar tremors, twisting, etc. in a few misfortunate concinnus offspring. None of them made it. Some were fine at birth, but a little underdeveloped, then later developed the neurological issues.

I guess it's just like any other animal including humans. There are birth defects. It could be a mutated or damaged gene responsible for instructing the body how to make proteins. If one or more proteins consistently folds incorrectly, the symptoms will develop and get worse over time. (this is what causes Parkinsons and similar disorders) It doesn't look good for this snake.

If it were me, I wouldn't waste money on a vet, and I would probably euthanize the poor thing. Finding a cause is unlikely even with a vet's expertise but if I know you, you won't do that.