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Our young corn snake has stopped eating and is losing a lot of weight

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Praetorian27

New member
Hi, we have a corn snake that we are very concerned about. It all started when she had an incomplete shed. She regurgitated shortly after that. We soaked her a lot and got the rest of the shed off and we were confident that was the problem. We offered her another pinkie and she kept it down. Then, about a week later, we gave her another pinkie and she regurgitated it again. She has been very inactive as well. Now, she is showing absolutely no interest in eating at all. It has been three weeks since she last fed (which she didn't keep down) and she actually flinches away from a pinkie when I try to feed her. She has a bulge around her stomach as well as distinct ridges down her sides. We brought her to the reptile vet twice in the last two weeks. The vet said the bulge was soft and not hard. He is afraid that the snake has Crypto, but he said the bulge is usually hard with Crypto. She has lost 10 grams in two weeks and only weighs 39 grams now. He said the ridges were from the weight loss. We tried cutting a pinkie in half and offering her a small amount to see if she can keep it down...but she won't eat anything. This snake is my 8 year old daughter's first snake and she is terrified for it. There haven't been any changes in her enclosure or changes in how we are handling her. I am praying that it isn't Crypto. The vet said he can check her stool sample for Crypto...but she hasn't had a stool sample for awhile since she is not eating. Does anyone have any advice at all? We are very worried.

Thank you,
Ben
 
How long have you had the snake? how many successful feeds have you had? how hot is your hot spot?? are you using a light or under the tank heater?? I am really sorry to hear this and I am sure your daughter is petrified I would be too.
 
Ravenessa said:
How long have you had the snake? how many successful feeds have you had? how hot is your hot spot?? are you using a light or under the tank heater?? I am really sorry to hear this and I am sure your daughter is petrified I would be too.
Click to expand...

We got her last Christmas, so we have had her for about 15 months. She was a hatchling when we got her. She has eaten weekly pinkies without issue since we bought her. She was up to eating three pinkies without a problem and we were just ready to jump to fuzzies when this all started. She has an under tank heating pad and a Zoo Med heat lamp on her warm side which is about 82 degrees. She has always had complete sheds except for that last one that was partial when this all began. I increased the size of her water bowl to help with humidity. I see a lot of people stating their snake doesn't eat in late winter / early spring...but this snake would eat, and then regurgitate. Only recently has she shown no interest in the pinkie at all. We're afraid she is going to starve to death. Losing 10 grams in two weeks seems like a lot to me. It was 1/5 of her body weight.
 
yeah it is a lot... I would remove the heat light, the above light might make the tank too hot, but her hot spot should be 85. If the light from above is too strong (its not a uvb right? because that can harm her) she may not be resting enough on the hot spot for belly heat and thus regurge. How often have you tried to offer her food? because if you offer too fast in between that can stress the snake out as well. Is she having enough hides? She might be stressed after feeling sick and refuse because of that. And yes 10 grams is a lot, I had a regurge because I feed too fast after a bigger meal(I upped the size and you were then supposed to feed every 6 days I fed on the 5th and bam it came back), but my female didn't eat for two weeks before i offered another meal and she still gained weight. So I am actually concerned something else is going on underneith as well.
 
The vet gave us some medicine to try and get in her that will treat some parasites, in case she has something going on. We have so far had no luck getting it in her though. Her mouth is so small and we can't get her mouth open to squirt the medicine in. I have watched youtube videos showing how to do it, but they are all on much larger snakes. We called the vet and explained that she is refusing to eat and they said it's much more important to get the medicine in her rather than food right now. We are going to give it another shot tonight when I get home from work.
 
ok Good just making sure.. I still say make more hides in the cage, remove top light, bump up the under the tank heater, maybe put a towel over the cage to just lessen stress in general. Avoid offering food while medicating too.. the intense weight loss could def be parasitical I could see that be potential so I see what she's thinking. Keeping fingers crossed <3 <3 the heat is also super important to stimulate appropriate immune defense!
 
She has good hides in the enclosure. Her temps are low 80's on the warm side so if I take her heat lamp away it will be too cold. Nothing about her enclosure has changed so I have to think that it's something health oriented instead of environmental.
 
Do you have a picture of this lump? I worry about impaction but that isn't very common. I would not hold her at all until she is eating again. 2 regurges is really tough on their bodies. For a yearling she really should be on something bigger than pinkies but that is not the issue. I would stick to pinkies until she has eaten several meals.

You could try a lukewarm bath to see if that well get her to go to the bathroom. It helped my snow when she was constipated.
 
Even with the light? if so you need to bump it up... Talk to your Vet about the 82 degrees and see what she says.. she may even tell you to bump it a little higher than 85 right now. What you can do is get a dimm light bulb but higher wattage but double check with what the vet want and how she wants you to set it up.
 
The undertank heater should be sufficient. What are you using to measure, and control the temperature?

The lump you mentioned has me very VERY concerned that what your snake has is cryptosporidium serpentis. Did the vet mention this as a possibility?
 
He did mention Crypto and he is concerned about it. He did say that the bulge associated with Crypto is usually firm. The belly bulge she has is very soft. She has lost a lot of weight and it is almost like her belly is distended (spelling?) like you see in starving people...very thin but with a large belly. I can post pics when I get home from work.

Quick update: I stopped home at lunch and we were able to get her medicine into her mouth so at least that is a step in the right direction!
 
Well, it's now 11 days since the last post and the snake is still refusing to eat. The weird thing is that the lump seems to be much smaller and she (or he) seems to be more active than she was before. We see her moving in her tank much more than she did a week or two ago. We have been giving her the medicine every morning, but the vet says that since she still won't eat that he believes it to be Crypto. My daughter is distraught as this is her snake. She wants to have her euthanized if it is Crypto because she is afraid that she is starving to death. Since she won't eat, she isn't pooping so I don't have a sample to get tested for Crypto. Is there any other way to know if the snake has Crypto without a stool sample? I have read a lot of posts on here with people who have corns that won't eat and people are saying it is normal for this time of year. Could this be all that is going on?
 
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