Malabsorption?

[ceduke]

My champagne gal has a problem that for a long time I htought was regurges. She "regurges" any time I try to get her up to the next size prey. At over a year old, she's about 33g and still eating pinkies. Anytime I try to get her something bigger, I find it almost complete back in the cage a day or two later.

Friday night I gave her a peach fuzzy. Knowing that this was going to be hard on her, I slit it in three places. She ate it eagerly.

Last night I found it "regurged" again. :( As I was cleaning it up, I noticed several things.

1) It didn't stink.
2) It was in the middle of a pile of poo.
3) It dissolved when I wpied it up.

Thinking about this has me wondering if her problem is actually malabsorption of her prey items. Are they passing virtually untouched through her digestive tract?

I'd be thankful for any input, and suggestions to get her on track again. Usually when this happens I follow regurge protocol carefully, and she seems to recover fine...then months later I'll find another one.

[diamondlil]

Do you use nutribac or Grapefruit Seed Extract?

[ceduke]

I've been using Bene-Bac because we sell it at my work. I haven't heard of using grapefruit seed extract!

Edit: After a little reading, looks like that will be my next step for her. Thank you!

[diamondlil]

No worries, hope it helps. I'd also bump her temps up a little to see if that helps her digestion

[Susan]

I have a snow aztec female that went through the same problem. She must have been at least 2-3 before she actually made it onto fuzzies. I just followed regurge protocol every time she regurged and only did very gradual increases in prey size to match her growth rate. I would often give her 2 smaller prey items instead of one larger one and that seemed to help a great deal. Once she made it onto fuzzies, I continued with the multiple smaller meals for another year, she grew much more rapidly, never regurged again, and she's now on single appropriately sized meals. She is still much smaller than she should be for her age, but I think she'll make it eventually!

If you do want to experiment with digestive aids, besides the BeneBac, Nutribac and grapefruit seed extract, the addition of digestive enzymes to her meal might help as well. A little pancreazyme powder (or equivalent) sprinkled on her pinky sure couldn't hurt!

[ceduke]

Thank you Susan! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has had a snake like her.

Looks like I'd need a prescription for Pancreazyme. I don't object to bringing her into my vet and getting one, but I do sell this stuff (http://www.naturvet.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&category_id=16&product_id=99&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=3) in my store, could it be beneficial?