etchouta
Collector of phenotypes
Hello everyone,
I thought I would write about a situation I have with one of my snakes in hope some of you might have input on the matter. This concerns a female hypo I have. She is a little over 1.5 year old. Maybe 10 months ago, she regurgitated for the first time, 4 days after eating. The little pinky looked like a mummy. I did the grepafruit seed extract method and fed her sliced up pinkies afterwards and she seemed to be doing fine.
Last fall I noticed she had a lump in her stomach area. I thought right away that it might be a kind of bug (please not crypto), so I sent feces in for some fecal and cultures to be done (3 different times). They all came back clean, with minor salmonella in the culture (normal). When feeling the lump, it felt (still feels) soft, and doesn't float when I put her in water (ruling out gas). In December, I noticed, while soaking her, that she was defecating bones (ouch!). I noticed some little bones afterwards when cleaning her enclosure.
That made me think that there could be some bacteria-like infection preventing her from digesting properly. I sent for another culture to be done, and nothing. My vet (ARAV meber, so he is somewhat competent with reptiles) then suggested we could do X-Rays to see if there was a mass of some kind. We couldn't see anything on the X-Rays. Since the beginning, I kept fearing crypto, but my vet kept dismissing it since she didn't exhibit any symptoms of crypto besides the lump: she is active, has a big appetite, doesn't look skinny and only regurged twice since last fall (probably due to a prey being too big for her - reason explained below).
My vet said he consulted with other reptile vets he knows and they all dismissed crypto (altough I am thinking about having the tests done). They concluded that the most logical explanation was some kind of problem with her stomach muscle, which sometimes pushed things upwards (regurge), or things too fast down (undigested parts). Since then, I feed her smaller food items so it is not too much stress on her stomach.
I was wondering if anyone had heard of a similar problem/situation? I attach a picture of the swollen area of her body and of some feces. Most of her feces either contain undigested bone fragments or appear grey/colorless (as below) and have a pretty bad smell. I am sure they are feces since they also contain urates. Any input will be appreciated. Oh, and one last thing before people ask: I keep her at the same temps as all my other corns (72 cold; 92 basking; 82 average - hides on cold and warm sides - feeding every 7 to 10 days - water changed every 2 days, etc.). She is currently a little over 95g and 80cm.
Thanks,
Alex
I thought I would write about a situation I have with one of my snakes in hope some of you might have input on the matter. This concerns a female hypo I have. She is a little over 1.5 year old. Maybe 10 months ago, she regurgitated for the first time, 4 days after eating. The little pinky looked like a mummy. I did the grepafruit seed extract method and fed her sliced up pinkies afterwards and she seemed to be doing fine.
Last fall I noticed she had a lump in her stomach area. I thought right away that it might be a kind of bug (please not crypto), so I sent feces in for some fecal and cultures to be done (3 different times). They all came back clean, with minor salmonella in the culture (normal). When feeling the lump, it felt (still feels) soft, and doesn't float when I put her in water (ruling out gas). In December, I noticed, while soaking her, that she was defecating bones (ouch!). I noticed some little bones afterwards when cleaning her enclosure.
That made me think that there could be some bacteria-like infection preventing her from digesting properly. I sent for another culture to be done, and nothing. My vet (ARAV meber, so he is somewhat competent with reptiles) then suggested we could do X-Rays to see if there was a mass of some kind. We couldn't see anything on the X-Rays. Since the beginning, I kept fearing crypto, but my vet kept dismissing it since she didn't exhibit any symptoms of crypto besides the lump: she is active, has a big appetite, doesn't look skinny and only regurged twice since last fall (probably due to a prey being too big for her - reason explained below).
My vet said he consulted with other reptile vets he knows and they all dismissed crypto (altough I am thinking about having the tests done). They concluded that the most logical explanation was some kind of problem with her stomach muscle, which sometimes pushed things upwards (regurge), or things too fast down (undigested parts). Since then, I feed her smaller food items so it is not too much stress on her stomach.
I was wondering if anyone had heard of a similar problem/situation? I attach a picture of the swollen area of her body and of some feces. Most of her feces either contain undigested bone fragments or appear grey/colorless (as below) and have a pretty bad smell. I am sure they are feces since they also contain urates. Any input will be appreciated. Oh, and one last thing before people ask: I keep her at the same temps as all my other corns (72 cold; 92 basking; 82 average - hides on cold and warm sides - feeding every 7 to 10 days - water changed every 2 days, etc.). She is currently a little over 95g and 80cm.
Thanks,
Alex
