I started following Herps Alive - which is a reptile rescue and education service out of Cleveland, Ohio - on Facebook a few months ago. They posted a somewhat fuzzy picture of a small corn snake named Lumpy that they said had a spinal deformity right before Thanksgiving.
We've been wanting a second snake for a while now, so I asked if they were planning to adopt her out. They wanted to keep her through a few meals to make sure there were no issues, and around mid-December I heard back that she was available and our application to adopt was approved 15 minutes after I emailed it! We were trying to figure out when we could drive the two hours to pick her up.
In the meantime, the founder and I started talking about his rescue, and I started talking to my husband who works for Angels for Animals animal shelter in Canfield, OH. Hubby talked about the group at work and everyone was really interested in having them down. So, I arranged an adoption day at the shelter for them! Much to my happiness he held Lumpy for another month until the event and brought her with them.
The adoption day was a huge success, and both parties want to do another one in July.
They were accepting surrenders and they took in as many reptiles as they adopted out, but we had hundreds of people wander through and all three local news channels showed up and ran a small feature that night. The goal was to spread awareness as well as adopt. The local pet store Pure Pet also came with a table full of supplies and had told a bunch of their customers about the event. News Coverage: http://wkbn.com/2015/01/24/all-things-s ... -canfield/
(Incidentally, if I can find people to help since I'll be manning the front door, we can have an HCA table at the next one!
) They brought tortoises! Who at one point started working in unison and managed to drag the pen a few feet before anyone noticed.
At the start:
They also had ambassador animals that were friendly and could be handled freely by the public. I think that's a volunteer. The photos are public on the shelter's page.
(By the way, that's me in the very back setting up the front of Pure Pet's table. I thought I managed to keep out of all the pictures!)
So, back to my little Lumpy.
We weren't really sure what we were looking at as far as her deformity. By all luck, a few days after bringing her home a snake from Australia hit the news, and the mystery of Lumpy's lumps was solved. It's Charcot's Disease, which is causing her spine to fuse together as she ages. I spoke with Reptile Rescue Tasmania who is keeping that snake, and they said that supplementing B12 in her food may help slow things. They also gave me advice about housing and life expectancy. They had only heard from one other owner who had a snake like this, and that one lived a happy 12 years before having to be put to sleep. Because Lumpy is so severely lumped at three years old, it's likely she may only have a few more years before too much of her back fuses.
Rocky, the lumpy Tiger Snake:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-02/2 ... l-/6061952
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -back.html
Surprisingly enough, our little Lumpy was a classroom pet before she was surrendered. She's incredibly comfortable with being handled, although I'm staying as hands off as possible so as not to hurt her.
She had a bit of a bad molt, which was my fault. My back locked up last week and I haven't been able to do much. I let her moist hide dry out and honestly I never expected her to shed this fast!
She eats better then my King Snake, and she seems interested in her surroundings even though she has a lot of trouble getting around. I have high hopes she'll be okay, but it's hard to tell pain in snakes and I'm honestly not sure who to listen to. The rescue swears she's okay and I'm going with that for now, but ultimately it'll be up to us to decide when it'll be time to euthanize her. She's not going to have a normal life span, and the goal is to keep her happy and comfortable until then.
There's a video here that shows how she moves. I know how stubborn she is so I don't see it as being sad, but she has a lot of difficulties getting where she wants to go. She kept attacking the glass because she was hungry and the drawstrings on my pants kept moving: http://youtu.be/zTuj9WTwYXI
