Help please

[JoannaD]

I have a beautiful male lavender 05 that I think is not going to make it. I bought him with two other snakes at a show in October. He was doing great until a few weeks later when he regurged. Since then he has been eating and not gaining weight. He regurged one more time and I was hoping it was because I gave him a slightly larger pinky. He has skipped his last two meals and is very thin. I have been using the Nutribac. I am concerned for the other two snakes since they have been incredibly slow to gain weight. One of them has regurged twice as well. I have checked my temps. They are all housed separately. I have even been in touch with the breeder who says they were no problem prior to the show and that their sibs are doing fine.
Would it be wrong for me to ask my vet for some flagyl on the off chance he has a parasite or it will stimulate his appetite? She is not a herp vet but I think she might give me some if I knew the length of time to give it. (I checked the dose in Kathy Love's book). I am afraid of what the stress of giving him meds would do to him. I also don't think he will produce any poop for me.

Thanks for any input,
Jo

[poppycorn]

I'm not going to say yea or nay about the advisability of giving flagyl however I will say that you don't need to go to the vet to get it...you can order if from Bean Farm. Sincerely, I wish you the best of luck. And btw, I LOVED your gorrilla pict, the composition & lighting were superb.
Marsha

[JasonS]

When was the last time you tried feeding? You want to wait at least 10 days before offering anything else. Offering something before that could give the snakes more stress. Don't handle them and try and keep it quiet around them. Do you have them housed together? Worst case scenario is that you might have to tease-feed (force feed). You may also want to try and find a herp vet in your area, although you will find the advice on this site is sometimes better than some vets. Good luck, hope everything turns out ok.

[PtDnsr]

You can also try live pinks for feeding too - I had one girl that I had to slowly get over to f/t but she attacked live like no other. As for the vet, you might want to have your vet do a fecal to check for parasites or other diseases. I can't see it hurting anything and might help to put you more at ease.

~Katie

[JoannaD]

Thanks for the replies. I waited the appropriate amount of time each time he regurged and he would eat a 1/2 pink afterwards no problem. When I got to the full pink this time I thought he ate it because it was not where I put it but I found it in the morning. I didn't think it was a regurge because there was not smell and the pink looked exactly as it had when I put it in there - including the cut in the back. I have not been handling him at all except to movehim to clean the cage and change water! I am afraid he is not big enough for a whole pink and I put a pink cut in half with nutribac in last night but he did not eat it. I am not sure he will make it another 5 days or so until I can try again.

Jo