How old age affects snakes - Neglected 23 year old boa

More videos with Rosie: Picking her up usmuchs.info/call/video/hqeliZyasobJmH4.html Building her enclosure usmuchs.info/call/video/m7ihrJ24lZrYsX4.html What it's like owning big snakes usmuchs.info/call/video/e7CefGXEq5nNn5w.html Do snakes get bored? usmuchs.info/call/video/q5Z3iX6Wp3bRgn4.html 1 year update usmuchs.info/call/video/hM2VZ4ussKSlhqg.html

Neglected for 20 years, and instead of doing the responsible thing and consider getting someone to save her first and foremost, they considered euthanization. That is absolutely abhorrent. Breaks my heart to think about how many reptiles must be living out similar lives out in the world.

I feel the same way, even if I don't want an animal it's my duty to save them

Why am I crying over snake videos on yt right now..I'm just glad she found her way to you and knowing that she'll spend the last part of her life in a loving home makes it easier

I literally hate ppl tht get “pets” to jus get rid of them when there bored of them ..burn in hell to those people

My Central American boa is atleast 15.. just thought to put my two cents

I love boas.

Just remember man it's not your fault when she passes, you did excellent with her. You were a blessing in Rosie's life

I have to know, what shirt is this?

Is there something bad about feeding snakes live mice?

I have a very old male crested gecko, he's about 16 years old now. He's recently started showing all these same symptoms. Old age in reptiles is morbidly fascinating since its so often that you don't see them make it to old age.

I love snakes but dead snakes scare/gross me out which is why I don’t have one. Also shed creeps me a tiny bit too

Animals (and people) are often pretty good at getting old and frail wothout dying for a long time even if they previously had terrible care, as long as they have good care at the time. She might only have a few months left in her, but she could also have a few years more in her too. Trying to keep them a bit active and making sure all needs are well met becomes more important as animals get older. Any health issue an older animal has can get much worse much more quickly so it's more important to check on them regularly and know them well enough to be able to recognize off behaviors. It's also more important to know how to treat the sick animals. I've had a number of pets, and also have raised sheep and had an older sister who raised sheep as well. My grandma also, at one point, had a huge flock of sheep and still has a flock of over 50 goats. We've all kept our favorites around and have watched them age and eventually pass away. I'm confident you have the knowledge and ability to maintain the care Rosie needs, but something else to remember is that sometimes the nicest thing you can do for an animal is to make their last days (or months or years) comfortable for them even if they don't live long, and to know when to let go and either euthanize them or let them pass away. If an animal has no quality of life and no way to gain or regain quality of life, that's not a life worth forcing them to live.

My local pet crematory refused to cremate a snake when ours has died and when we contacted the local authorities to ask what to do with the body, they told us not to burry it in the city because that's illegal (and we dont have a car so getting out of the city with a slowly decomposing animal body was not an option) and they told us to just throw the body in the trash. Super respectful, I fucking loved it (sarcasm). Same thing happened when our hamster died (he was 4! A hamster!!! Super old.). So now I'm terrified about my other animals old age and death. Except for our dog who can be cremated in the pet crematory, we will either need to have a way to get out of the city with a dead animal to burry them or bury them illegaly because I can't dump another animal I love in the trash.

Is Rosie still alive now?

Actually, you can do all kinds of stuff to preserve a snake. My grandpa has some preserved reptiles and the like. You can get her stuffed and preserved like she was still alive (basically only the skin remains, everything else is being replaced) or put her into an alcohol solution in a huge jar. Even small lambs and other animals are being preserved in alcohol.

do you have a intacked snake skeleton. could send the body to someone and have that done.

God bless you for taking care of Rosie she's beautiful

nothing lives longer than a cat or a dog

Hey I mean you could get it taxidermied! (probably not your personal pets tho)

When she passes will you he getting another boa? I am very attached to rosie!! I want a boa but alas i am about to go to college and cannot get one, but i have loved your videos with her!

Hehe! Reverted... "I'm older than you whippersnapper... and set in my ways!" "Newfangled 'radical' tongs and whatnot"

3:28 oh god, that sounds like the villain from Shikibane Hime... maybe a dash of elfen leid...

My older snakes love hammocks I think it helps with arthritis and joint troubles. I have smaller breeds like corn snakes so I buy washable ferret hammocks. But its pretty easy to make your own.

Very sad video for me. I love Rosie. I hate people and the way we mistret animals. We do not deserve them.

Old animals are nice. They deserve the best care until the end.

This poor baby! I love her 😭

U can always put the snake down an harvest the meat. Its very good when cooked up an seasoned its also good for virility an good for cancer prevention. U can sell the meat for a great price.

Have you done fecal or culture for parasite or virus/bacteria

Rosie

Love Rosie

I need help with my boa Rosemary PLEASE, she hasn't eaten anything for 3 months, she is 9yrs old.

If rosie ever dies i think you should really consider getting a younger animal of her breed or something similar! She's a beautiful creature and i feel like it would be a interesting pet

Aww poor Rosie! ❤️ I remember watching your video from when you got her, those conditions were awful! 😢

I know how she feels

Dislike

this topic was beautiful somehow

You're doing a wonderful job caring for her. Shes my favorite animal of yours.

Prediction next Rosie update Rosie’s dead

I had a Florida King that died of old age in the mid 90s. I'm not sure exactly how old she was but she was a bit over 5 feet long when she passed (i think she was around 4 foot when I got her but that's a guess from memory almost 30 years later), I'd had her for close to 5 years at the point she died but she was already a pretty good sized adult when I got her. I didn't really connect it as old age at the time because I didn't know how big they usually got or an estimated life span/growth rate. I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with her for a while, then she died and I pieced together over time that it was most likely old age based on her size and their average size the general life span of kingsnakes. We couldn't find a vet that was willing to look at her locally back then so I spent the last several months of her life wondering what was wrong and trying to find info on what could be wrong years before I had internet access which wasn't at all successful. Several years later I found some books on diseases in snakes but at the time I had no real resources for finding that kind of info. I don't think it ever even occurred to me at the time it was likely just old age and her life coming to it's natural end. I assumed she was sick but the local vets didn't do snakes and my mom wasn't able to drive hours away trying to find one that would work with snakes. So I basically just kept a closer eye on her and hoped whatever it was would pass. Looking back I feel like old age should have occurred to me but for whatever reason it didn't at the time. (probably I was in denial that she was dying because I was very attached to her.) She just kind of faded away over a period of about 6 months. Probably longer really but animals hide weakness instinctually. I only noticed about 6 months of her condition slowly worsening. At first she was just loosing some muscle mass and looking a bit thinner. I tried feeding her a bit more but she didn't have intrest in more food than normal. A few months later she seemed to lose interest in food all together. Pretty similar to what you've talked about with Rosey. She was just less active as time passed than she had been previously and seemed more bothered by the mice than interested in them. I was feeding live at the time because back in the early to mid 90s I didn't even know you could get frozen mice or that snakes would eat pre-killed. (I had been told they would only eat live prey for years which clearly was bad information but at the time I assumed that was just the way it was.) I tried killing the mice for her out of desperation and she ate pre-killed for a few more months (This is literally how i found out eating pre-killed mice was something snakes would actually do). One day I woke up and she had passed away during the night and was already in rigor mortis when I checked on her before school. Anyways sorry for the novel of a comment but I'm bad at telling stories and being brief. Long story short what Rosey is going through sounds a lot like my experience with snakes and old age. Boas have a longer life span than king snakes generally so hopefully she'll still be around a bit and have some good comfortable life ahead of her.

Go herping do you have a chameleon???

Yeah chief I need to know what tshirt is that.

Rosie probably when being rescued: Why do we live... just to suffer....

つつつき 　　　　　宇宙旅行

as someone who works with elderly humans swallowing issues are common in the elderly, perhaps you could downsize her meals into 2 smaller rats in order to make it a smaller size to swallow. this is common in humans, they go from normal food, to soft and cut up right down to puree, whatever their swallowing function can handle.

Is rosy a motley?

Is there ever a time to euthanize a snake? If it ever feels like their quality of life is going down? Having just gotten my first two snakes- bci's-this year, I can't even imagine them not making it to their full lifespan😭 they're such great animals

You can mummify a snake, Ancient Egyptians did it and I know because I study Egyptology besides zoology, so yes, it is possible to embalm a snake but I don't necessarily see a particular reason to do so unless you're actually embracing some sort of culture. All of my pets were buried and honestly, I wish I could have given them a proper resting place although bodies truly are temporary and disposable, I think it's hypocritical that some people respect others more after they're dead than while they're alive, so I'd rather treat another person (human or other animal) properly and give them the nourishment, enclosure, treatment, exercise and entertainment they need while they're alive than be occupied with what happens to their body after they had passed.

I had a corn snake from about 3 months old and she died at almost 23 years old, and it was very similar- she had trouble eating and even threw up some times and so I went back to feeding her hoppers and pinkys and her muscle tine went and she was very gaunt, similar to some starving snakes I'd rescued and rehomed. She was a lovely girl.

I can't believe they let an animal like that WOW

I really want to see her get a head pat🥺

ive been keeping boas awhile and ive seen this same behavior and i was givin some advice concerning diet that actually seemed to make a difference. I had large female boa i had been feeding large rats and went through this and was told by a vet to switch her to rabbits because boas struggle with large fat content food like huge rats which are not very nutritious mostly fat. so i switched to rabbits and increased my hot spot a couple degrees to help with digestion and had major improvements in QOL

I had a snake that passed away recently. I believe she was old, although how old I'm not sure. She was an adult when I rescued her and then I kept her for about fifteen years. She had a bulge on her tail below her cloaca that I didn't notice until she stopped eating and started to lose weight, and I'm wondering if it was a cancerous mass.

My grandfather just died caused by COVID. We're cremating him. When my snakes die, I'll probably bury them in the yard, since they don't have life savings account to use for the cremation and burial costs. Death is interesting, I am having a hard time with this concept.

Trust in Jesus he died for your sins, believe the gospel. Repent!!! If you do sin confess your sins, ask him to help you overcome your sins he will. Obey Jesus, live by his teachings, be led by the Holy Spirit. The Lord is coming soon you must live by his teachings. The love of God is beyond our understanding///....

I paid £380 (504$) to get a rat cremated. That was my discounted price. Animal cremation isn’t cheap by any means but a loved one is a loved one. And they always will be so sometimes you got to bite the money bullet

Stop it she loves you 😭❤️ they’re all so thankful for you

I have a juvenile BCI named Drogo. He's one of my favourites. The guy we got her is a friend and he's a breeder. He was terrified to pick him up when we went to get him. We got him home, and he was a puppy dog. He moves a lot, but that's normal for baby snakes. He's so sweet and handsome ☺

Poor Rosie. I love her!

putting out your feelings on this might be a tad difficult in a public forum; despite dealing with non-familiar / non-personal reptiles is one thing; it's another if/when you're invested. Thanks for broaching this topic.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is your girl's symptoms are not consistent with old age. In old age you see a decline over 3-7 years not a matter of months. The bad news is, her symptoms are consistent with several other conditions and you will need the help of a vet to figure out which it is. Some are treatable, some are not. Here is the list I most frequently see: 1) Don't dismissing too fast, but internal parasites. Although most people only recognise internal parasites in stressed animals in the middle of crashing, a slower progressing version can be seen in healthier animals and is frequently mistaken for aging. 2) Internal walled off abscess. Unlikely, but I have seen this a couple of times in different species with the same slow wasting and energy loss, this is different from a raging infection and can be present for years without killing the animal, it is easily treated and cured with antibiotics. I've gotten an extra 7 and 3 years out of elderly animals with these, but usually eventually you see a lump. Easy misdiagnosed as cancer but responds to antibiotics. 3) Cancer. More than anything else, I see the sudden muscle loss over a few weeks to a few months from cancers, especially retrovirus cancers as are common in birds and other reptiles. Unless there is an isolated tumor to have removed, prognosis is grim and quality of life is the goal. 4) Diabetes. Common in animals that were overweight or had bad diets and frequently mistaken for natural aging. I have no idea how common it is in boas and I know of no known treatments for them, however you could pioneer something potentially. Someone has to be the first to try. 5) Kidney Failure. Also frequently mistaken for normal aging, kidney failure is also common in animals with poor diets, overweight histories and a history of neglect regarding fluid access. Sometimes you can remove the one faulty kidney and the animal can recover as the second one takes over. Other times nothing can be done. I do not know of boa kidney treatment, but again someone has to be the first. (Side note, in case you see this and not my other posts, when you get an emaciated animal in, give it subdermal fluids for a few days before you ever try to feed it, your mortality rate will go way down. A vet can show you how to do this and then it is easy to do on your own.) I know you aren't a fan of vets. but they can give you access to imaging which may show what is going on. Cancer, even if not visible external usually shows up clearly on an x-ray. I'm sure you already know about the places you can send stool samples to for parasite testing for around $30. Remember to test the stool for 3 months if negative, or until positive. I wish you the best of luck.

I'm glad you found Rosie, she'll die peacefully with you except in a box full of feces. Poor girl 😥 can't believe the school let that happen.

You saved her and have given her a home with proper care to spend her golden years in.

I'm dealing with 4 older snakes; 2 cornsnakes, a rosy boa and a western hognose... all over 20 years, so this is so interesting. I have no idea what to expect really. They have all slowed down a lot, they eat a lot less too - if I stayed on weekly feeds they put on too much weight, so I work on 2 weekly feeds. It's weird watching for deterioration - maybe they will live many more years yet, maybe their time(s) are coming, it's just so hard to know. I've only lost 3 snakes, one was a baby who never started eating, one was a 20 yearold Cornsnake who seemed to have a kidney problem, and one was a common boa that was very sick when we rescued her, and constantly had respiratory problems which eventually got the better of her. So yeah... thanks for this video, elderly snakes are not a common topic for videos. Best to Rosie x

One of the 1st video's of yours I watched was one of a snake that ended up dying. It was my first time crying for a snake which was weird because I hated snakes. I now have my own snake name Ruby and she's a sweetheart, some animal's need love.

Hey man it does my heart good to know she got out of the school.

A very sad topic, and so painful the poor life she had before, but it's wonderful that you managed to give her a warm and comfortable home for her to spend her twilight years. It's good what you've done for Rosie, and so many other reptiles.

Brumation is a possibility.

She's gorgeous and she deserved so much better than two decades of neglect. I'm glad she got two years somewhere better and will be able to pass in comfort with a keeper who attends to her needs. You are doing princely work taking in animals like her.

I have a 15ish year old dog that's similar in behavior. Have to check on him when he's napping because he often looks dead lol. Into his old age he's also lost muscle mass and needed more care than usual, with the vet diagnosing him with diabetes, requiring a daily insulin shot.

I guess Rosie was born in 1997. That is a long life for a snake.

cats and repitles video!!

We would feed our snakes frozen thawed mice and rats. The mice were for the smaller of the snakes. Rat pups for the ball pythons

We had a California King Snake. His name was Chris Brown. We used to breed him with Rhianna, another California King Snake. Chris Brown was a chocolate colored King Snake and Rhianna was a banana coloration King Snake. Chris Brown was so old that we called him "Chocolate Noodle". He eventually passed away a couple years after I graduated. Ps. This was at my high school.

Can you do a box turtle care video I think that would be pretty cook

I preserve my pets when I can, heck the snake in my pfp my beloved ramen I desire to turn into a wet specimen because it’s just my way

You should try to reach out to a taxidermist so they can preserve animals and use them for educational purposes

never forget that alex supports alt right extremist and sponsors the likes of Dave Rubin 😷🙅🏻‍♂️

My snakes have all gone through a period of being lethargic and refusing to eat from tongs. X-X but they have all come back from it. Except my disabled snake. . . Hes special . . . But he's like you're snake that hasn't ate in a year. But they have all done the lazy head thing and I always took it as them being super chilled in their environment where they're comfortable enough to just flop. But I've also checked on them because it definitely looks like they might have passed. All but one is a rescue from an awful environment so I'm curious now to see how that affects all their lifespans

Damn bro. How much longer do you honestly thinks she has?? I have a corn snake going on 10 years!

to the homie brah do u actually goherping? or just buy them?

Alex: “seeing the this happen in person is..” Me: 😞 sad Alex: 💫 interesting 💫

do u still live in chapel hill?

It takes a truly horrible person to get a pet then toss it aside when they get bored of it. It’s a living creature that needs love and care. Poor rosey

i'd agree with other commenters that she could potentially have several years left with you! fingers crossed. many of those who work with preserving animal remains offer memorials for pets, including wet specimens as well as pendants and such.

If you have an animal pass away, you can easily preserve them with formalin in a jar. That way you can still honour the animal after death and even use it to teach as well.

I found two freshly-dead snakes (equatorial spitting cobra and kukri snake) while herping and turned them into wet specimens. You could do that or get them articulated by someone who has taxidermy experience (snakes have rly fragile rib bones so I wouldn't suggest doing it if you've never articulated a skeleton before).

I’ve had a lot of pets, even now I have a lot, we’ve only ever had two of our pets die from old age, a cat and a bearded dragon. Three dogs and two cats we’ve had have died from other reasons, one from internal problems, one from getting hit by a car, one from a tumor we didn’t know about, one with a respiratory infection, and one passed from an infection after being bit

I feed my snakes just by holding the tail without tongs, my ball python is verry secific about the wiggling rat and with tongs i just cant wiggle enough... (edit i hold the rat by its tail not the snake)

oh well shes just grandma

When I got my ball python I always did tong feeding, and then she started getting food shy out of no where. She is socialized but acts very different when she knows its feeding time. If I move, she hides again which she doesn't do normally. So I stopped tong feeding and leave my bed room and she seems to like it better. I dunno why she decided to switch but reptiles can be like that I guess. I think I may have accidentally scared her by losing my grip and accidentally dropping a frozen thawed rat on her face once or twice because my arm got tired waiting for her

Thought would mention you can also do a wet specimen Thanks for sharing this Best wishes to Rosie, know you are caring for her the best you can

She's always been my favorite because I keep boa constrictors myself. Hopefully she has a couple more years in her

For some reason this video was super chill and relaxing I almost fell asleep. Very informative video by the way!

I just gotta say. This kids attitude is amazing. If this was high school I’d totally kick the bullies ass for the smart snake kid any time . Your demeanor is awesome when some snake people all wanna be hard and doin it all for the wrong reason . I feel you found your calling..and your context is exactly what the snake keepers world needs

At least her last years were good.

A taxidermist here. Dead bodies can also be used for educational purposes or I try to make jewelry from the different body parts :) not suitable for everyones mentality of course

Class room pets should be banned... Teachers barely have enough time to check my work on time, and throwing a pet in the the mix that obviously needs care makes everything worse...

Thank you for caring so much for her and all the animals you've taken in. It does my heart good to see so much compassion for creatures who often fall through the cracks. Mad Respect!

Do snakes get dementia or similar things? I guess there's little to no research into that but might be something like that