greymaiden
Love and Hisses
This is just an update on my sick snake, and a call for advice.
It's been one month since shes's been able to keep food down. Her bacterial culture came back negative for crypto and other bacterial infections, but she's been on anti-biotics/anti-parisitics anyway. I've discontinued the anti-parasitics because they were a 2 week course, and I will probably shortly discontinue the anti-biotics after I talk to the vet tomorrow.
Looking at her a few days ago, I realized that she had a dark spot in her body, much like the dark spots that show up when a snake eats and the food travels down the intestinal tract and eventually comes out the other end as poo. Problem: this spot is not travelling. It has been in the same place for several days and probably longer than that before I noticed it. I checked her out against her healthy mate and the spot is not a normal fixture or an internal organ of any kind. I tried gently working the spot down her body with my fingers, but I didn't want to worry it too much and didn't make any progress. I can't imagine that this spot is food/poo, because she hasn't been fed in almost two weeks. (Note: this is a butter snake, so it is fairly easy to see her internals because she is light colored. Those of you with regular colored corns can see the dark spots of food/poo in your own snakes if you turn off the lights and shine a flashlight through them in the dark. You can also watch their heart beating, which is pretty cool.)
So what I'm thinking is that she has some sort of intenstinal blockage, so that when she eats her food digests normally until it hits the blockage and then has nowhere to go but back up. Is that possible? If it is, is there anything I can do myself to relieve the problem, or does she need to go to the vet for some sort of surgery to remove the blockage?
I have put in a call to the vet about it, but he isn't in the office today and is going to call me back tomorrow. Besides being dangerously and sadly skinny and obviously starving to death, my snake appears healthy. She is alert and active, and an enthusiastic eater (except the regurging later part). She has even shed once since she's been ill. I was going to feed her today, after the 10+ days waiting period for a snake after regurging, but I'm going to hold off until I get some sort of info on the possible blockage.
I guess I just need to know the following things:
1) Is it even possible for a snake's digestive tract to be blocked by something? If so, what are some common things that could block it up?
2) If possible, what are the common courses of treatment involved in clearing such a blockage? Is there anything I can do myself?
I'm so worried about my little girl. She's so beautiful and is really being a trooper and I just want her to get well. It makes me sad every time I look at her and think "Nobody is helping you, we're still trying to figure out what is wrong with you!" It would be so sad if she died and it turned out to be a problem that was fixable :*(
Thanks for any advice you can give,
Jamie Lynn
It's been one month since shes's been able to keep food down. Her bacterial culture came back negative for crypto and other bacterial infections, but she's been on anti-biotics/anti-parisitics anyway. I've discontinued the anti-parasitics because they were a 2 week course, and I will probably shortly discontinue the anti-biotics after I talk to the vet tomorrow.
Looking at her a few days ago, I realized that she had a dark spot in her body, much like the dark spots that show up when a snake eats and the food travels down the intestinal tract and eventually comes out the other end as poo. Problem: this spot is not travelling. It has been in the same place for several days and probably longer than that before I noticed it. I checked her out against her healthy mate and the spot is not a normal fixture or an internal organ of any kind. I tried gently working the spot down her body with my fingers, but I didn't want to worry it too much and didn't make any progress. I can't imagine that this spot is food/poo, because she hasn't been fed in almost two weeks. (Note: this is a butter snake, so it is fairly easy to see her internals because she is light colored. Those of you with regular colored corns can see the dark spots of food/poo in your own snakes if you turn off the lights and shine a flashlight through them in the dark. You can also watch their heart beating, which is pretty cool.)
So what I'm thinking is that she has some sort of intenstinal blockage, so that when she eats her food digests normally until it hits the blockage and then has nowhere to go but back up. Is that possible? If it is, is there anything I can do myself to relieve the problem, or does she need to go to the vet for some sort of surgery to remove the blockage?
I have put in a call to the vet about it, but he isn't in the office today and is going to call me back tomorrow. Besides being dangerously and sadly skinny and obviously starving to death, my snake appears healthy. She is alert and active, and an enthusiastic eater (except the regurging later part). She has even shed once since she's been ill. I was going to feed her today, after the 10+ days waiting period for a snake after regurging, but I'm going to hold off until I get some sort of info on the possible blockage.
I guess I just need to know the following things:
1) Is it even possible for a snake's digestive tract to be blocked by something? If so, what are some common things that could block it up?
2) If possible, what are the common courses of treatment involved in clearing such a blockage? Is there anything I can do myself?
I'm so worried about my little girl. She's so beautiful and is really being a trooper and I just want her to get well. It makes me sad every time I look at her and think "Nobody is helping you, we're still trying to figure out what is wrong with you!" It would be so sad if she died and it turned out to be a problem that was fixable :*(
Thanks for any advice you can give,
Jamie Lynn
