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When to worry??

CornCrazy

CornCrazy

What's one more???
I have a weird egg-laying situation that I would like some advice on. I have a snake that had her pre-laying shed on 3-25. On 3-28 she laid 1 slug. Then yesterday (3-31), she laid one large fertile egg and 3 more slugs. She has not laid any eggs since, but she still has 6-8 more to go. The rest of the eggs that I can feel are pretty large. The next egg is about 3-4 inches above her vent.

I am wanting to know if this is sometimes normal. In the past, all of my snakes have laid their eggs within 24 hours (with the exception of a very large clutch last year. It took the mother an extra 24 hours to lay the last egg). What is the longest any of your snakes have taken to lay their eggs?

I almost forgot...this is a first-timer female. She is a 2002 corn that weighs over 300 grams.
 
I would be worrying now if it were me. All three of my females last year laid their whole clutch within 10 hours but that was my first year breeding and mine haven't begun to lay yet this year. SHe may be stressed b/c she is so young or is there alot of activity around her cage. maybe try giving her another nest box so she can choose or uping the heat and humidity of the cage. Good Luck and I hope she finishes laying soon or else i would be very concerned about eggbinding. Read up on treatment of egg binding just to be safe :) Let us know how she does
 
Thanks Siva,

I know all about egg-binding. Luckily, I work for a vet and have easy access to some of the stuff I will need to treat her with if she is indeed egg-bound. If she hasn't laid anymore eggs by the time I go to work tomorrow, she will probably get a dose of oxytocin. I would like to try it first since it is non-invasive. Maybe she just isn't having strong enough contractions to push the eggs along. Hopefully I won't have to do any of the more invasive procedures!

I will keep you posted. I'm going to check on her this morning to see if she has laid anymore overnight.

Well, I just checked on her and she still hasn't laid anymore of her eggs. I guess I'll take her with me to work today instead of tomorrow!
 
what happened Terri? Even though it's non-invasive in a physical sense, oxytocin is a pretty severe drug. I hope you didn't have to use it. Let us know an update,

Skye
 
Well, I took her with me today. We gave her calcium injections to start with. I spoke with Don Soderburg and he said that oxytocin rarely works in reptiles. Well, the calcium didn't seem to be helping so we x-rayed her. The two eggs that were closest to the vent were huge. We ended up having to aspirate most of the contents of both of those eggs. We drew 10 mls out of EACH egg! After that we gave her another calcium injection. We also decided to go ahead and give her a lose dose oxytocin injection along with the calcium in hopes that she would be one of the few that it helps. Since then, she has passed one of the almost deflated eggs. Hopefully the rest of the eggs will follow soon.
 
I hope she lays the rest of her eggs ok and that they are fertile, keep us updated... How is the egg she already laid doing?
 
Thanks Siva!

Well, she passed the other "deflated" egg overnight. She still hasn't laid any of the other retained eggs. They are moving, though. At least it looks as if she may be able to go ahead and lay them even if none of them are still viable.

The one egg that she laid is still looking good.

By the way, here is one of the x-rays we took:
MVC-824F.JPG

It is hard to see the end of the egg closest to the vent. It is larger than the second egg, though.
 
I've got her out exercising. She still hasn't passed anymore eggs. There is one right at her vent now. It seems pretty big, too. If she hasn't gotten it out by this afternoon, then I will aspirate it, too. I'd rather lose all of the eggs (which probably aren't viable now, anyway), than to lose the mother.
 
Good luck. I lost a female many years ago, when she formed two huge eggs inside her, instead of a clutch of normal- sized eggs. Unfortunately this was at a time when reptile vet care was in its infancy; the vet operated to remove the eggs rather than aspirate and my snake was killed by the anaesthetic.

I do think that aspirating is the right approach but only if you can keep her strength up. If she starts to appear distressed or become less active, she may have trouble passing any more eggs even if they've been aspirated.
 
I decided to go ahead and aspirate the next egg now (instead of waiting until this afternoon. I only reduced the size of the egg so that it will be easier for her to pass it.

Kel...she is still VERY active! She was quite preturbed at me trying to stick her with the needle! She musked me and even tried to bite! I managed to get her top half going into her nest box in order to help me to restrain her. This made it MUCH easier to aspirate the egg!

Thanks for everyone's concern. I will keep you all posted on how she does. She may come out of it better than me! The whole situation is stressing me out!
 
Terri,

it would stress me out too. I fully agree that losing all the eggs is preferable to losing the mother. Poor girl.

My thoughts are with you and your snake, keep up the updates please,

Skye
 
Hey Terri, that's great news! If she's still lively enough to give you a hard time, then that has to be a good sign! Keep us posted, fingers crossed.
 
She passed the egg I deflated, and the others have moved some more. The next egg is at her vent. It doesn't look like it is quite as big so I am going to give her a little while to see if she can pass it on her own. If not, then I will continue on with the aspiration technique.
 
That's good that she passed the deflated eggs so hopefully she can pass the next one with aspiration. That's true that it is better to lose the clutch than the mother, she is one of the 2002s right? she has plenty of clutching years ahead of her so i hope she can get through this ok. Good Luck!


BTW that x-ray is so neat! it's interesting to see how much space the eggs take up, no wonder some females stop eating LOL
 
She passed the next egg! I am glad she is moving them along. I think she has 3 left to go. I am going to take her to school with me today to take another x-ray. I'm sure she will be glad when this is over. I am sure she is getting tired!
 
Glad to hear the situation seems to be improving!

I have a question though, where can I get syringes and needles for aspiration? I have a first time female and another who has laid good eggs before but is a smaller size. Where can I get these supplies, I have never delt with egg binding before and I would like to have the tools around for the "just in case" situation.

Thanks!
 
Aspiration

Obviuosly this is nothing for a novice to attempt, but what did you do to aspirate the eggs.
 
I am sure this advice is too late, but I'd avoid taking her anywhere at all costs. Even though she already layed the majority of her clutch, she is still nesting. If she feels her conditions are less than perfect she may retain them even if these last ones are small enough to pass. The best thing to do is to aspirate or just make her comfortable and leave her alone except for a breif exercising period. Anything is possible, but it is unlikely she will want to lay eggs while in new surroundings during the aggitation travel creates for them. It could be a setback. There is a good chance that she will pop them out when she sheds, but your time to aspirate is probably running out too. It is a hard situation, but I'd keep her in her "comfort zone" as much as possible. Good Luck!
 
Re: Aspiration

rspier said:
Obviuosly this is nothing for a novice to attempt, but what did you do to aspirate the eggs.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but I do not feel comfortable with explaining how to do this. I would not want to feel responsible for any problems that might arise if someone followed my direction.

Carol, I did take her with me to school today. She passed two more of the eggs. There is only one left now. Hopefully, she will pass it soon. By the way, I am already past the time to be able to aspirate the eggs. The contents are too thick already.
 
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