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Girl is eggbound - Please describe the probe method!

Any update? I've done this a fair number of times, PM me and I'll give you my number. If they're still in there, it's time to act!
 
Updates: 2 more poos and a post lay shed, then yesterday we fed her a fuzzy, cut to ease digestion. It seemed to give her an energy boost. The second (non-aspirated) egg has moved closer to the vent, the center of the egg is even with the mark on her belly from where the first was aspirated (the mark is easy to see because she is a snow). She did pass the deflated egg in her lay box sometime between the meal and today. We are planning to aspirate the second if she doesn't pass it by the time she is done digesting her meal. Any thoughts?
 
Kels88 said:
Updates: 2 more poos and a post lay shed, then yesterday we fed her a fuzzy, cut to ease digestion. It seemed to give her an energy boost. The second (non-aspirated) egg has moved closer to the vent, the center of the egg is even with the mark on her belly from where the first was aspirated (the mark is easy to see because she is a snow). She did pass the deflated egg in her lay box sometime between the meal and today. We are planning to aspirate the second if she doesn't pass it by the time she is done digesting her meal. Any thoughts?
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Personally I'd expect her to pass the egg without any intervention (unless it is huge) within the next couple of weeks if you just feed her and let her do it herself
 
I agree with J9 on this one, I had a snake here that had trouble with two eggs. After a post lay shed and feeding she passed them on her own.
 
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Right on J9, just give her time now to shed, I'm pretty sure her body will do thre rest if given time. The blocking egg is smaller now, they are close to the cloaca and there are only 2 or 3 eggs left, her shed is due, all positive factors. Only intervene if she starts to look weak/lethargic/very skinny. Normally a snake won't get weak from not eatign for 3 - 4 weeks.

I had a female pass an egg that was closer to her stomach than her cloaca, after about 6 weeks. I had done nothing more than a bit of pushing the egg up and down to loosen it every couple of days. She did eat though; I fed smaller items first, than larger, eventually mice thicker than her girth.
 
Crotalis and snakearound, she already had her post lay shed about 3 days ago. And there is only 1 egg remaining, close to the vent.

My concern is that it's been 9-10 days since she started laying and I don't want the egg to harden or fuse to her insides.
The deflated egg was hard but maybe because it sat in her, empty, for about a week before she laid it. Or maybe it hardened after she laid it? It could've been in the vermiculite all day.
 
It would not harden in a day in vermiculite I think. Why would it?

From my experiences with egg bound females, I still recommend to just wait patiently, how difficult it might be to do so. As long as she is not lethargic or gets very skinny or anything else changes in a negative way, just try to feed her a small item every couple of days and maybe massage the egg area a bit when you take her out for that. Pushing the egg up and down a bit, as far as possible without using force, might keep it from fusing to the egg tube.

Still, it is hard to make a decision in cases like this, because you never know how things would have went if you took another road. I strongly feel the less bothering the female, the better chances she has to pass it herself. If she is able to, you might keep her from doing it by bothering her. Than you need to interfere after all which is always more risky than the female doing it herself. Of course there is always a chance she suddenly gets worse or dies when you do not do anything, but so far I have not had that happen. The ones that died, I bothered a lot, though one of those had only 2 or 3 eggs left. The ones I did not interfere with, with 2-3 eggs left, eventually all passed the eggs. Only egg boudn females with a lot of eggs are in need of quick help usually.
 
Two weeks past lay date and 8 days since the post lay shed and she still hasn't passed that last egg. :/
If she gets through this whole thing fine, she's grounded for all the worry she's caused!

Also, no veins yet in the eggs...and today I saw tiny white worms on a couple of them, which I wiped off with a q-tip and listerine.

This isn't going very well...
 
Have you been feeding her now? I'd resume normal feeding. I'm sorry this is such a sucky experience...
 
Oh and if you can find food-grade diamatous earth, that will kill off the flies that are causing the worms. You sprinkle it in the lay box.
 
Nanci said:
Oh and if you can find food-grade diamatous earth, that will kill off the flies that are causing the worms. You sprinkle it in the lay box.
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I can confirm this works really well, as I had those 'worms' or fungus gnat larvae attacking my eggs and DE dealt with them efficiently. You can get DE from gardening sites but also in the gardening sections of some Lowes and other stores, and in animal feed stores
 
Ooh thank you, I'll look for it. I used brand new vermiculite and had heard of creepy crawlies in moss but thought I would be safe..

We have fed her one small meal a few days back and she digested it with no trouble. Shes probably due for another snack soon.
 
Kels88 said:
Two weeks past lay date and 8 days since the post lay shed and she still hasn't passed that last egg. :/
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Seriously, I would try to apply some pressure & see if it gives. Lube the cloaca w/ water based lubricant first and just lightly squeeze. That egg is rotting inside her at this point.
 
I don't think you CAN from the top and bottom. There's nothing but bone up top!

It's gonna be pretty intuitive. The egg will move when you apply pressure "right" and it will go the wrong direction when you goof up. Your thumb and foorefinger are going to be at each side, the other thumb will actually go on the bottom of the snake. That thumb just keeps tissue pressed down to keep the egg from coming back. It really will be a piece of cake 80% of the time. I PMed you my number.
 
The egg is going septic inside of her. If she doesn't pass it, you have to pass it for her. Or she dies. Unfortunately those are the only options. It's probably a horrible smelling hard yellow ball by now. It has to come out. I have only lost females from waiting too long, never from acting "too fast."
 
My experiences are the opposite, same goes for many other people over here. I must admit though that the egg that came out after 6 weeks this year smelled quite a bit and felt like rubber.
 
We're past two weeks from laying, and a meal, shed and poop hasn't helped. I'm not optimistic it's coming on it's own and manipulating an egg out is way too easy not to try. But hey, it's not my animal -I'd be worried if she was mine.
 
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