Adult Baird Rat Snake Regurgitating

[xsaram3]

Hoping someone can offer advice please
I have an adult (9 yrs) Female Baird Rat Snake.
She has always been an excellent feeder and is used to having 2 or 3 adult (Frozen) mice at each feed.
Recently (Last 3-4 feeds) she has been regurgitating 1 or 2 of the mice about 2 days after feeding. I have reduced her intake to 2 mice at a time but she still brings up 1, a couple of days later.

I have read Kathy Love's FAQ but am not sure if I should reduce her down to such small meals as pinkies!

Any additional advice would be very much apprieciated as I have never had any problems with her before and am now quite worried about her overall health as she seems to be a little "skinney"

many thanks

Glenn

[dawnrenee2000]

How often are these feedings that your doing? Have you gone at least two weeks after a regurge to allow her stomach flora to build back up in her system? Repetative regurges are much more dangerous to her than going without food for a bit. I reccomend you not feed her for two weeks and on the next feed drop down to nothing larger than one small hopper. if she keeps this down next feeding give her two hoppers...and gradually build back up to her old regimine. But if she regurges that hopper after two weeks of no food then a vet exam is in order for sure.

Also, If you have not done so..look inside her mouth and make sure it looks healthy and pink in there without any mucus.

Best of luck to you and your snake

Dawn

[Nanci]

I think she should get a vet visit. I think the #3 regurge is the place to draw the line. Get her checked for parasites or anything bacterial.

Nanci

[xsaram3]

Thank you both for replying,

I will try one more feed with just 1 hopper, and i will check her mouth beforehand.
If that doesn't stay down then I will book her in for her first Vet's visit.

Thanks again

Good luck to you both

Happy Herping

[Nanci]

I'd advise you again to schedule a vet visit before feeding again. Multiple regurges should be taken very, very seriously. Your snake can die if it gets started on a pattern of regurging, because eventually all the stomach flora that it needs to digest is lost due to the regurges, and there is no way to replace it, and the snake can't digest, so regurges, and you have to break that cycle before your snake starves to death.

Nanci

[xsaram3]

Thanks again Nanci,
I will check her again in a couple of days and ring the vet as advised.

Glenn.

[xsaram3]

She has just pooped!

I am taking this as a good sign, at least something is going all the way thru her digestive system.

I will however still take your advice an schedule a vet's visit.

thanks again for all the advice.

Glenn

[Nanci]

My snake Maizey regurged once in January due to a mouse too large. I wasn't worried, and fed a smaller mouse after ten days. In March, she regurged a mouse, normal size, the first one she'd been fed out of a batch of frozen bulk mice. I didn't feed her ten days, and put the probiotic Nutribac in ther drinking water. She refused the next mouse, same batch. I offered another mouse seven days later, and she regurged that. I took her to the vet yesterday, and she has worms, though no bacterial infection. She will need four dewormings. I still think it's a bad batch of mice, but it wasn't worth risking my snake's life to carry it out any further without a vet getting involved. I have seen too many snakes written about on this forum who start regurging and never break the cycle and eventually die. The vet says I may continue with her normal feeding schedule, resuming ten days after the regurge, and to continue to give her the probiotics. I am relieved that she doesn't have anything worse than internal parasites.

Nanci

(Oops, even though the vet determined Maizey was a male, which I suspected, old habits are hard to break!)

[starsevol]

My 06 bloodred boy regurged in January. I checked his temps and waited 10 days before feeding him again. He regurged again. I waited 10 days, fed him a pinky head, and ordered some Nutribac.

He was gone before the Nutribac arrived.

[Nanci]

Oh, I forgot to mention in my above history that Maizey continued to produce small poos- that's what the vet used for the fecal and gram stain.

See- that poor little bloodred's story is what really scares me about regurges. I believe that hatchlings that regurge often have underlying problems that can't be figured out/dealt with before the continued regurges starve them to death, but with adults at least we have a little bit of body reserves that give us a bit more time to figure it out. But still, it's a serious issue if it happens more than once- you have to err on the side of caution.

Nanci

[xsaram3]

Hi,

following a visit to Vets, she has been diagnosed as having worms!
I have to start her treatment later this week and will begin "reduced" feeding with "fuzzies".

Thanks for all advice regarding this I will post an update for info soon.

Glenn

[Nanci]

I wonder what percentage of our CB always fed FT snakes have worms...I'm going to check all of mine out as finances allow. ($75/snake for check up, fecal and gram stain) Starting with the oldest first, now that my two LTCs are done.

Nanci

[dawnrenee2000]

Hi Nanci,

My vet reccomended as a cost savings way to check for worms and parasites to send in combined smears at first. Meaning collect poo from several animals and mix it and they can run the smear on that . If it comes back clear then all animals were cleared at once if not then the process of individual checking has to occur. Maybe you could try that and save yourself some money.

Dawn

[Nanci]

Even if all I had to do was bring in a fecal for each one, that wouldn't be so bad, but he wants to see them at least once for a check up. I guess that's fair, even though I wish he would just check the poo.

Nanci