Rocky The Tiger Snake With Charcot’s Disease Is A Media Sensation

February 1, 2015

The herping world has been shocked and awed by Rocky, a female Tiger snake with a disease that causes lumps to form inside her body. 

The degenerative condition is known as Spinal osteoarthropathy, or Charcot’s disease, and according to Bruce Press of Reptile Rescue Tasmania, the man who removed the snake from a woman’s property, there are only 16 known cases of the disease in snakes in the world.

According to The Mercury, Rocky is the first snake afflicted with the condition to be found in Australia. Although the disease doesn’t cause her any pain, Press said that the capability of her to survive in the wild is limited as she can’t move about as easily as other snakes and her deformed spine would limit the type of prey she could capture and eat. An x-ray confirmed that she had the disease, and that she had just eaten a small rodent. 

Rocky is 70cm long and will live out her life in the care of Reptile Rescue Tasmania, which has so far fed her several frozen thawed rodents. 

John B. Virata keeps a western hognose snake, a ball python, two corn snakes, a king snake, and two leopard geckos. His first snake, a California kingsnake, was purchased at the Pet Place in Westminster, CA for $5. His first pet reptile was a green anole that arrived in a small box via mail order. Follow him on Twitter @johnvirata