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Very concerned about my gravid female Diamond..

wildlifephotographer

wildlifephotographer

Corn snakes rule!
I have two females right now that should be laying eggs. My oldest girl Diamond who is 7 years old I thought started laying eggs last night. I found (1) slug egg inside her lay box when I got home from class last night. Then about 2 hours went by and I checked on her again and she had not laid anymore. Before going to bed around 2am I checked once more and still no more eggs.

This afternoon when I got up from bed around noon I checked on her still no eggs. I was and am concerned for her as I noticed several days ago that she was very stiff and hard when I put my hand down her belly side. And was hoping that would not mean complications but I had a feeling it did mean that something wasn't right. (1) more slug egg came out earlier this evening and the 3rd egg I pushed out because it was like so hard and close to her cloaca area and looked pretty uncomfortable. She's not laid anymore eggs and she's been pretty active so far. Not acting like she's in stress mode or anything but I am still greatly concerned for her well being.

Diamond is like my kid - I know that sounds really silly but I've never had any pet as long as I've had her and she is very special to me. I'm going to be very devastated if she passes away from being backed up with hard eggs or something. I don't have any money right now to take her to any vet which we have none here in Bloomington, IN that knows how to deal with snakes and the closest being in Indy gosh that's far away when you don't have gas or anything to pay to get her taken care of. I wish I did.

If I can save her without taking her what would you do to help her out and make this egg laying happen without anymore trouble?
 
What are her cage temps? I would bump the warm side to 88 and the cool side to 80. And if I were you I'd stop checking on her so much. I KNOW how hard that is, but all you're doing is stressing her out. I checked on mine twice a day, once in the morning, once at night. After determining that she actually was egg bound I aspirated the first egg, and two days later soaked her and she was able to start moving it. I helped, and it came out. I then got the other two out with the probe method a few days later. It required a vet trip for the last egg.
 
It's kinda hard to keep temps right they are all over the place because my room is the attic and it gets really warm up here during warmer days and much much cooler during cooler or cold days. I've been monitoring her temps as best as I can and making changes as often as I need to but it's hard to keep up sometimes. Today was much cooler out then it has been the past 3-4 days so I've turned up the thermostat and it's in the lower-to mid 80's on the warm side ... it's back heat from heat tape not uth heat so it's harder to keep it right.
 
She's been out and about in her tub = she is in a rack system with 7 other corn snakes. Her tub being on the very top to stay the warmest possible.
 
Mine laid eight eggs in a span of five days, three of which were slugs. On day six I aspirated the last two eggs. She passed the shells within three hours. That was over a month ago and she is fine. Eating great and back to her old self. In my opinion, I would aspirated the egg closest to the vent, and see if that clears the way for the rest. Good luck!
 
She's passed two slugs on her own and I've massaged/pushed to get a third slug out of her that seemed completely stuck because of it being bad I guess and got that out...... it's been since the 10th since she's had three slugs and I found two longish smooshed up egg things inside her lay box last night when she was being active again. No, other eggs though.
 
It's crazy really! I woke up an hour earlier then what my alarm clock was set for this morning to smelling a burning smell and freaked out. But thankfully it's just from our house heater smelling like it's burning cause someone downstairs just turned it back on after it being off for a few days. Anyhow, I got up and checked things out and it was sooo cold in my room 64 degrees. The coolest room temp I've had ever of course it's when I have two girls getting ready to lay eggs. I checked on Diamond no eggs from her still. I checked on Libra my other female and she layed 9 eggs so far, 7 viable eggs and 2 slugs. But because of the coolness in my room her temps in her tub in the rack system were down to 76 degrees instead of the 81-86 temps I've been keeping them at. The thermestat is set for much higher temps but it was pretty cool in here when I woke up so it didn't do much good.
 
Oh, yes my thermometer/hydrometer in my incubator also went out on me yesterday when I checked to see what temps it was at and so now I don't have one and don't know what the temps are in it. It's just not been a very good year so far for me. :(
 
When it rains, it pours...:(

Hang in there - having some of the remaining slugs pass is very good news. Got my fingers crossed for her...
 
It sounds like your problems with maintaining temperatures are potentially a main issue rather than a sideline. Without keeping your snakes healthy how could you hope to breed them successfully? Even if you do get fertile eggs how will you incubate them? And hatchlings are far more sensitive than adults to temp variation when you are trying to establish them as feeders.
And I know this won't sound very nice to say, but breeding isn't always easy on the females even when they are kept in good conditions, so not being able to afford vet care if it's needed could be a life or death deal for your snakes.
For a start, can you get a heat cable for your rack? Either a reptile one or a soil warming cable to boost the ambient heat in the tubs. Or more heat tape?
If you can't provide the basics in the form of properly controlled heating and correct temperature ranges maybe you should think about whether your snakes are in good hands.
I rehabbed a 'non-feeding' hatchling for someone a few years ago. She was literally skin and bones and took syringe feeding before she was even strong enough to try normal feeding. It turned out he had a terrible set up and once she was in a controlled temperature all her problems disappeared. With help and advice he got properly controlled conditions for her and she was fine.
 
Yes, I understand that I should be more prepared for emergencies like this one. I feel awful about not being more financially stable right now especially since I have gravid females and already hatched babies to take care of. The babies I have are doing great so far and the majority had no issues eating their first meals. For the most part I am able to keep my temps right. This week the weather has been up and down dramatically and monitoring the temps in all my cages is very hard especially with how they were built for me in the first place where I can not get a heat cord underneath the tubs in the rack systems to begin with or would have by now and I do have one more heat tape strip I could put up there behind all the tubs on the back wall of the rack system but that would give them way way to much heat even on the controller I have. Since it's closer to summer time here in Indiana giving them more heat probably is not a good idea in the long run not in my bedroom which is the attic. It's going to get warm up here as it is so all their heat is either going to be turned completely off or way way down when it gets warmer outside. Right now we are just having a cold spell for the next few days so I have to be very careful and watch the temps closer. I got my room temp back up to 73 degrees and the temps in the racks are good to go and so are the temps in the incubator I have. I've got another thermometer so I know what the temps are being kept at.
 
The other reason the temps were so cool in my room this morning when I woke up is because the other day I had put in my window air conditioning unit since it was getting warm in here and some of the cold air through the window came in after turning air off at night, it was pretty chilly out last night as it was. Plus, I had my exhaust fan in my other window to bring in the cool air and didn't turn that off until the middle of the night. It got pretty darn chilly , it's not usually that cool in here , not even during the coldest months because I have a heater running and my windows are not open. On top of that though our house heater was not turned on until one of my family members turned it on this morning when they got up. I do and can take care of the snakes I have for the most part and as far as food and stuff I got plenty of it in my freezer. The thing I don't have is money to get any of them to the vet if need be and that is definitely an issue and I know how hard it is on the females even if they do lay eggs without any issues. I do have a friend that lives about 40 minutes from here and she is going to be coming over in the next couple of days to try and aspirate the eggs for me if it comes to that. She has been very active and seems alert enough and I'm keeping a close eye on her.
 
One thing you could do is put in a space heater that is set to come on only in emergency situations where the heat gets too low.
 
All my babies are so far healthy and eating. I had a few not eat the first offering but I'm not too concerned at this point as they just now had their first sheds in the past two days. Out of 19 babies and out of 15 babies that I have offered food too so far only 4 did not eat their pinkies. I think that is pretty good. I have no worries about getting them too eat once second feed time comes around. :) Their temps are just right for them.
 
I do have a heater that keeps my room nice and toasty for me when I have it on. I turned it off though because it was getting warmer outside, and had my air conditioning on instead. I got up this morning and turned heat back on and took air unit out of window and exhaust fan out of other window. Room is back to where it needs to be. Temps in racks are also fixed.
 
I do concur that you should evaluate actually breeding snakes if you do not have the money for a vet.
I ended up having to take one of my females in last year to my vet for egg binding.
A lot of things could happen during egg laying, as you've probably even witnessed on here; be it prolapse, egg binding and whatnot that would require vet attention for survival.
 
Obviously you care very much for your snakes, this really can't be easy for you and I really do understand that many of us just don't have unlimited funds. To deal with the temperature issues for next winter/spring, is there any way of modifying the rack system? Maybe a complete rebuild so you can have belly heat for the back third of the tubs?
As for your female, again, I really do feel for you. I've had an egg-bound female in my first year of breeding. I basically interrupted her laying with my novice worries. I had fairly harsh but necessary advice from more experienced people who told me to leave her alone! She did successfully pass her clutch but it was over a week to do so. I know some people advise early interventions with the vet but from reading through many threads about laying difficulties I found this thread one of the most helpful
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50824&highlight=tincture
Obviously sometimes aspiration or surgery does become necessary but the judgement call on it isn't set in stone
(edited to add; I'm by no means well off, but I do have funds for emergency treatments for my pets. I don't have insurance on them but if I was in the position where I couldn't pay for treatments I'd really have to rethink owning them at all. Personally I feel it's my responsability to them, I have no right to own pets I can't provide for)
 
I won't always be in the situation where I can not get my snakes to the vet if need be. I'm just going through a hard time financially right now. I've also had to take a female to the vet last year for egg binding , not that it did me any good - the vet did not know anything about snakes or egg binding and I just came home and pushed it out myself. And I know I should probably wait next time if I can't afford a vet. This time it's too late for me to do anything about it.
 
I'm going to try and get my rack systems either rebuilt or just a whole new system this coming fall so my heating situation is taken care of for winter/spring time. I understand the responsibility for my animals lie on me and that I need to have money put back for them just in case of emergencies. I feel horrible about putting my girl through this as she was egg bound last year and although she had some beautiful healthy babies she was the one I took to the vet... but I had to push the egg out in the end. She will not if she even makes it through this egg laying this year will never be bred again. She's very special to me and I hate myself for breeding her this year. I should have known not to but I did anyway... and now she is probably going to pay the price for my stupidity. I won't ever do this again if I lose her.
 
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