Hypo Common boa
This handsome guy’s story almost ended in tragedy. When Nicky arrived on location to purchase some snake enclosures she discovered they were not empty. One enclosure contained a very large but dead Columbian boa. The other enclosure contained a cold and stiff hypo boa. The person selling these enclosure said “Oh, hang on, let me get those dead animals out of there for you”. Nicky was of course horrified, but as she looked closer at the hypo she realized he was still alive, but just barely.
She took him home that day and then brought him to the Snohomish Snake Haus location the next week for long term care. Leonidas had pneumonia, mites, and one of the most severe retained sheds we’ve seen. It took him many months of intensive care in the Snake Haus ICU to recover, but he made it, and is now thriving. Leo is a bit shy, but is slowly getting used to be around people, and is eating and growing very well.
As a HYPO morph Leo has less black in his coloring and smaller saddlers. You can see in these photos how beautiful his pale coloring is. Compare Leo’s color to the dark beauty Marion, who is extremely dark.
Mites and Dyseccdysis:
These pictures show what some of the most common illnesses look like. A snake that spends all of it’s time in water should be checked for mites. They will often soak themselves as a way to drowned the mites that are bothering them. Soaking also helps them to shed. In Leo’s case he had both problems and spent a full two weeks in his water when we first took him in. He was on injections for his mites but had several layers of retained shed that they were stuck under. We had to wait for him to go through another shed cycle and them help remove the layers of retained she and all the dead mites with it. You can see here how thick his shed was once it finally came off – that is estimated to be 5 or 6 separate layers. The picture on the rights shows mites debris around the spectacle that came off with the shed. This day was a major triumph for Leo and marked the start of his true recovery.
Beware this position: Pneumonia
A snake will posture as seen on the left when they are struggling to breath. Leo had fairly severe pneumonia and had to keep his head elevated in order to successfully move air into his lungs. This photo shows how Leo used to sleep while he still had pneumonia. He would rest his chin up on the wall of his enclosure so he could sleep with his head still elevated. This behavior stopped after being on antibiotics and in a warm and humid ICU enclosure for a few months. Now he is usually found resting as seen in the picture on the right.
