Rescue Files: The Eviction of Holyfield

Holyfield, the new rescue intake to Small Scale Reptile Rescue

It started with a text when I was at AEW All Out Backyard BBQ
"We have a boa that came in that has some bites, can you come look?"
Naturally my answer was yes, I will come in when I get back. The day I was coming in the shelter called in the morning to confirm because the vet wasn't sure if the snake was a candidate for euthanasia from the bites. I told them I would be there to assess the animal and now I was seriously worried. Typically when this shelter gets health cases in, I get asked make the call right away if the animal is in distress.

When I arrive, I check in and scoot past the overfilled rooms of dogs and cats to the exotics room just off police holding. This is my local municipal shelter and they are overcrowded and overworked so I am usually left to my own devices. There are two tanks set up in the exotics holding. One has the tiniest ball python with a retained eye cap. This clearly is not the one I am here to see. As I start removing the water bowl and hide from the cage, "Holyfield" is revealed.

The name was easy. I mean he was literally munched on. What was revealed is a ball python (I never fault my shelters for misidentifications, they are not the reptile people, I am) that was used for a rat's dinner. The entire spine from head to tail has rodent bites. The vet and I looked over each bite. None show necrosis and all appear to be mostly superficial only down to the fat layers. We set up a plan of treatment and I will be following up with another vet outside.

This is the reality of live feeding. I have seen this so often over the years, and the reality is one rat can kill a snake. This snake is not out of the woods and could still pass from infection because we do not know. In all my years of rescue animals, I have never had to feed anything larger than a hopper live and i have managed to get everything feeding frozen before it leaves my house successfully. If you must feed live, please monitor it. This is a sad reality and a practice that could be deadly for your snake. Always watch closely when live feeding, or better yet get on the F/T bandwagon. It's so easy!

Holyfield came in as a confiscation from an eviction. When his owner was evicted, rather than reaching out and trying to rehome his pets, he walked out of his apartment and dumped his animals, the ball python and a pet Mantis (unknown species) outside. Thankfully this was done in view of the sheriffs there to evict him and it was cold. Holyfield was recovered easily and taken in. Despite all the media when I found the snake in the engine, despite all our pleas telling people if you can not care for your pets to reach out, this man felt dumping his ball python in the grass outside his apartment building was a great idea. Thankfully someone saw it. Again, if you are having problems and can not care for your pets, reach out to your local humane society, reptile rescue or herpetological society. PLEASE do not let your animal loose.

Let's see whatcha got kid! See if you can live up to your namesake and heal up. More photos of the wounds after the bump.

I wanted to save these photos for after the main page. Much of what you see is fatty tissue. From neck to tail tip, there is not an inch along the spine that does not contain a part that was not nibbled on. Bites, although not to this extent, can occur as rapidly as overnight because a rat's metabolism is very high and they will need to eat within that 8 hours. The snake will only eat when hungry.

You can see bites of all sizes and ages along the spine. This one appears potentially infected. We are watching a variety of red spots like this on some of the bites.

Here you can again see that they are a variety of ages and depths. This poor snake survived a lot of pain.

This is one of the concerning spots. We are not sure if this is potentially some bone showing through. This is one of the areas we will monitor closely. Any time the spine is exposed, we tend to lose the snake due to systemic infections if it is too far up on the body in these situations. This one is on the top 1/3 of the body. HOPING it is a tendon or muscle.

Both the image above and below show areas that had fresh blood. Potentially newer spots indicating this was a prolonged situation. When I wiped the snake down with just water initially and a white cloth, these few spots wiped off with dried blood.

That is it. Every single one of the bites. Now starts the healing hopefully. Wish us luck.