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Ef me. Wow. Why is it that these people are not prosecuted? If we let a furry thing take that kind of neglect and abuse, there would be criminal consequences. I feel sick. :(

F*** 

+1000000 Julie... they should be prosecuted...

holy. sh--crap. Ridiculous :(

Oh, geez thats freakin horrible....where the gun for the person who did this! Thats just aweful.

I hate stupid people

That first picture is brutal. I'm amazed she lived through that kind of pain. This just breaks my heart. Poor thing... :[

Oh my.  My heart just sank at the first picture. :(

OMG I just want to cry, what kind of moronic person would do that. Let me leave him in a cage with a damn Tiger and see how he likes it. Jerk off!

That is so sad I HATE seeing that. I only feed f/t to my balls, but that is NOT just from a live feeding, that is what happens when a rat is thrown into a cage for DAYS without food. Responsible people feed live with zero incident all the time. This doesn't happen in a short period of time...it's complete neglect and irresponsibility.

Heartbreaking! :-(

Whoever this person is should give you all of their animals now to find good homes.

Thanks for your efforts to educate others!

Jeebus... they need some major education, and definitely should not own animals, period.

What!? *sobbing* There is no excuse for this! Really. Oh, my heart breaks! Poor poor critter! What in the hell is wrong with people? I am a relatively new Mama myself, and although I admit I came into this a bit unprepared... I do and have done a lot of research to assure my animal is taken care of to the best of my ability... COMMON SENSE should tell someone this is not okay! They had to have left that baby alone for longer than "a little while"! How do you allow this to happen to your animal and not seek immediate vet assistance? They should never be allowed to have any other snakes/animals.. period! This is abuse!  I am so angry right now I can hardly type! "Things are kinda tight" for everyone right now, that is NO excuse to neglect and abuse your animals! If you are in such a situation that you are not able to give them adequate care, then you should not be caring for them! These are living creatures! They are not toys you take out of a box every now and then to play with or look cool for your friends!  This is just senseless! *bangs head on desk*

sucks.

wow  that picture  made my heart drob a few inches !!!!  thats  horrible !! I commend your effort to save  her  but I think she has suffered enough

wow I cant believe that... especially with a ball python there already reluctant eaters. my boas even when they refuse they usually still kill the rat and leave it. but a ball python is a lot more timid of a snake in my opinion. thats crazy

I can't believe this poor ball was still alive with all that damage. How could you allow yourself to be an animal owner after doing something so horrible. Should be fined for animal abuse or something done...

omg If this was a furry critter they would have been prosectuted and probably jailed, but there is little justice for our scaly friends. Poor thing!

Understandable from a newbie who wouldn't know this could happen but from an owner who already knew this was a bad idea and left it alone? C'mon now. I'd be surprised if this snake survives. If it does it's going to be one uncomfortable battle for it.

As much as you wouldn't think so, if those wounds are flushed a few times a day with sterile saline, that snake will probably survive this nightmare. The exposed tissue itself does not look unhealthy, the trick will be to keep it that way. Open wound care with saline flushes a few times a day should keep that tissue healthy as long as the animal stays on paper towel substrate.

I still feel sick.

Poor thing.

I think I'm going to be sick... That is the worst case I've ever seen.  It's unbelievable to think that people could be so ignorant and careless.  This was so preventable... The poor thing.  I agree that this is a case of animal cruelty and should be prosecuted.  There is just no excuse for this to happen.  MAKES ME SICK!

Julie, I am going to give it my very best. Folks, if my efforts don't seem to be cutting it I will take her to the vet at my expence. I have seen snakes survive much worse than this, look at Torch...I am having a real struggle at this point with her owner. He was devastated, rightly so, yet I have made some pretty awful mistakes myself that resulted in an animals death. None quite so brutal as this, mine were more mistakes from ignorance but still felt awful and like I should have known better. I feel like I should NOT let him have her back but how do you tell some one that. I am a pretty blunt person and I just tell it like it is. I feel like in this case all it would do is make the owner mad and not impart the information and learning that needs to happen here. 

Poor thing! Makes me want 2 shred that idiot owner!

You tell her that you've take on the responsibility to care for her when he would not or could not, she's your snake now. If his stupid decision and the resulting horrific injuries did not teach him a lesson, no words are going to.

Can I share this post on other forums? I imagine you would want anyone who keeps snakes to see something like this as a warning but I just want to be sure.

Kudo's to you for putting this out there and trying to help this snake if it educates one dumbass like the one that did this it's helping. There is no excuse for this type of neglect......I agree with Leah 100% feeding live is not a problem but not paying attention to your snake while its feeding is. I would never let this snake go back to him you can't fix stupid but I understand where you are coming from it puts you in a bad position.

I have no problem with sharing, I'm sure you have noticed that I have kept her owner pretty anonymous. I wish that this were the last story like this we would ever see...

I will post updates on her progress about once a week. I am going to do my best to keep a kind of photo/procedure journal. Sucks this happened smack in the middle of breeding season. That's life eh?

So far she seems to have full function of the muscles below the worst wound but I am pretty confident that as the scar forms and tissue builds she will lose a portion of movement there.

VERY VERY SAD INDEED!!!!! Some people should not be allowed to keep herps. I took in a female BP about 9yrs ago, that was in worse shape than that one. Took about 8mths to get her healed up good. Funny thing though, through all the treatements and stuff, she never offered to bite and she never refused a meal. She was one of my all time favorite snakes.

I would say never give that person their snake back, but thats just me. There is ignorance...and then there is outright neglect. 

I feed frozen 90% of the time but when I HAVE to feed live its never truly live it is always paralized or fresh killed and I watch the snake just in case the animal was not fully paralized or killed because I have seen a  "dead" rat come back when feeding.

My question is how much pain will she have to go through and will she have chronic pain throughout her life? If so should she have to suffer for the rest of her life? I think that euthanasia in some occasions  serves a proper and good role in husbandry of these animals.

Angie - I agree, if it seems like undo stress and suffering for her then I will make the right choice. I hate the idea of not giving her a chance because often they can heal and live a comfortable life. If she makes it she will not leave my care.

Poor poor girl. :(I've only ever fed frozen and I'm glad. I can't stand to see either side suffer.

That's sad. Would a chlorhexidine irrigation be in order? Julie?      -p-

What a sad situation.  If only people would supervise a live feeding and not leave an animal unattended fopr days like that with a live prey item.  I have seen many grotesque photos of this online, but this one really truly does sadden me. 

It is so shocking to see something like this. To think someone would be so lazy and stupid to leave live prey in with something that can't defend itself or get out of the way.

The pain had to be incredible. That is the worst I have seen.  I am so thankful you were there to rescue her and fix her up.

Posters need to be made up from the pictures and plastered everywhere!

Oh my lord. There is no way that happened over night. That poor thing. They should be prosocuted. At the very least they should not be allowed to won pets of any kind.

Yea, that took atleast a day of a hungry rat to get that kind of damage. A rat is not going to consume that much tissue in "a little while". Unnacceptable. Hope she makes it! In my early days I left a mouse in with my boy Randal, and he got munched, but only about the size of a pencil eraser tip was gone. I felt horrible and learned that was a stupid thing to do. 

It has to just be all around bad husbandry. I am guessing the snake didn't try to get away from the rodent, or couldnt... Im betting the enclosure was too small and there was to little or no heat provided for the poor thing. It makes me so angry that this happened. I am sure it happens more often than we are even aware of because I think most people would try to hide this. Let the snake die and get rid of it some other way... Ugh..... I guess I give them credit for attempting to get help but the attempt was made much too late. To let it get that bad... I am just baffled, Really.

Here is the reply I got from consulting my vet... 

Well, the wounds are life threatening, due to bone exposure, but we have cured some of these. Unfortunately, treatment to date has not been aggressive enough to yield a high success rate, and the odor you noted suggests dead tissue.  IF this is soft tissue only, the patient might be salvagable.  However, if the vertebral bones have died off, the patient will eventually die as well.   Several things are needed:  1) systemic (injected) antibiotics are mandatory; you have little chance of success w/o them.  This would be needed for many weeks, until the wounds heal totally.  2) The bones must be kept moist at all times; the wounds here cannot be allowed to dry out and scab as one might do with a shallow soft tissue wound.  Betadine should probably be avoided, as it tends to dry out tissues and would be somewhat detrimental to the exposed bones.  Dilute chlorhexidene or saline can be used, and then the entire wound surfaces must be kept constantly covered with antibiotic cream such as silvadene, to prevent any of the tissues from drying and scabbing.  This snake needs to regrow tissue to fill in all of the defects and cover the bones. Drying will stop tissue growth, and create permanent defects which won't fill in.  Any dead tissue would need to be removed, and we must cross our fingers and hope that bone is still viable.  Constant coverage and keeping air off the tissues is vital.  If it's not been treated aggressively and properly until now, then the odds of success are sadly much less.  That's the best I can tell you w/o seeing the snake.  Good luck with this one,   call if you have questions.....  best regards,   Mark Burgess DVM

I know people that still insist on feeding live. And I can sit there and tell them until I'm blue in the face that it's a bad idea, but as long as they can sit back and tell me "She's fine! Nothing has ever happened!" they think they're safe. I've told them time and time again that it's only a matter of time.... I'm going to use this thread as a reference. Thank you SO MUCH (as heartbreaking as it is) for sharing this and scaring the PANTS off of owners that want to play with a ticking time bomb...

It's kinda like drinking and driving. You might get home just fine 100+ times but it only takes that ONE TIME to change your life...

I am sorry her life can't be saved. At least you gave her a fighting chance. Now she's headed over the rainbow bridge to fine soft burrows with fluffy warm and fat mice to eat (that don't bite back!) and safe and warm sunny grass to lie in and sun herself.

OMFG!!!Such things effff up our hobby in public big time!

Really,really sad.....poor animal!

As a Vet Tech in an emergency practice with an exotics department I would love permission to be able to use this story and photos to help educate clients on the dangers of feeding live prey to snakes.

Can we please clarify that the issue isn't feeding live... it's unattended live feeding (as was the case here). Many responsible keepers feed live with no issues, because they supervise the process and remove the prey item if the snake isn't interested.

Sorry for the sad ending, I wish she could have beaten the odds, but they were pretty stacked. Better she's let go before she starts to suffer. I'm sorry for your heartache, that is certainly the darkest part of doing rescue.

If you must feed live, feed something that can't bite back or stun the hell out of it and for Efs sake, don't leave live or even stunned prey alone with your snake!

I agree Anthony, I feed my 60+ ball pythons live. But I NEVER just leave them in with a rat for any length of time. My animals have suffered a scratch or a nip here and there but never a life threatening injury like this. Also I do not feed large rodents, I will feed two or even three smaller rats to a large female rather than toss a medium sized rat in. Anything that can take a large rat only gets it pre killed or frozen/thawed.

Again, please use the story or pictures or both in any manner you see that will spread the word and educate people on why any live rodent should not be left in with any snake. 

The owner needs to be left in a cage with Jumbo rats. In water.

Well I can't really say anything that hasn't already been said - poor thing much be in agony, can you imagine being literally eaten alive and suffering an injury like that.

The sort of a**hole who'll just throw a live rat in with a snake as docile as a Royal and just leave it it exactly the sort of idiot who shouldn't be allowed to keep animals.  (There should be a species-specific exam you have to sit to gain a licence to own any type of exotic animal - stop idiots like this ever getting their hands on such amazing creatures).

Everyone knows frozen/thawed food is better for the snake as any parasites/pathogens are killed off by the freezing process and there's no risk whatsoever to the snake when feeding.

I know that some keepers for whatever reason prefer to live feed, but I have to question how much these people actually care about animals when they are happy to kill rodents, rabbits etc. in such a brutal way and risk their snake's health, when there's a perfectly humane alternative.

Everyone else has said it all. How cruel to just throw something capable of harming her into a TANK that she CANNOT escape and just allow it to munch on her like she's a freakin twinkie. People are disgusting.

For anyone who ever has to question why leaving live prey (even the smallest ) is a bad idea...go swim with alligators.