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Help, gravid female tail gone limp

M

MISS.SB

New member
So my gravid female is currently blue for her prelay shed. She laid one egg on the 14/4 then another on the 15/4 then one on the 17/4 she still had many eggs left which are all pretty close to her vent but I’ve just gone to check in on her and upon lifting her, her tail just dropped like a dead weight, she’s perfectly fine and moving fine right up to her vent at which point she completely limp and doesn’t react to my touch on her tail, which normally she has a very responsive tail and rattles it at me.
I’m wondering could the eggs but putting pressure on a nerve causing this or has she injured herself in some way? Hoping someone can help.
She’s drinking well, she hasn’t eaten in around 2-3 weeks. She’s in a rack so she doesn’t have anything high she could have fallen from.
Thanks!


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Do you have any pictures of the tail itself? Is there any lifting of the scales or redness of the skin?
 
No redness or lifting. I’m completely baffled she was perfectly fine yesterday. I’ll get a picture of her tail in the morning though.


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How odd! It definitely sounds nerve related. I'm reaching, but is there anything heavy in the viv that she could have shifted and somehow pinched her tail? Like a rock or big branch? I do see that you mention no visible injury.

If she's still like this tomorrow, I'd try and get her in to a vet. They lift their tails to expand the cloacal opening when they're laying the eggs. I'm concerned that a limp tail could contribute to dystocia (problems laying).

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I'm more concerned that something is cutting off blood flow. It would take a very great deal of pressure to affect the spinal cord, but the aorta runs right down the inside of the body cavity and a very large egg or a bunched up mess of slugs could cause pressure.
 
I also find it concerning that it's taken her three days to lay three eggs. That sounds like she may be having an issue getting them out.
 
Shiari said:
I'm more concerned that something is cutting off blood flow. It would take a very great deal of pressure to affect the spinal cord, but the aorta runs right down the inside of the body cavity and a very large egg or a bunched up mess of slugs could cause pressure.
Click to expand...
That actually makes a lot of sense. Whatever is happening, she needs a vet at this point.

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Thank everyone for your feedback, what visually looked like a egg close to her vent actually seems to be a swelling after gently palpating. There’s 100% nothing she could have hurt herself on inside her enclosure. There’s no other visible signs of injury besides This swelling which looked like a egg.
I’m contacting vets locally to arrange for her to get a checkup. Fingers crossed for this lovely precious girl.

I’m still baffled as to what’s happened, she’s around 6 years, she has amazing bodily condition, she eats like a champ. But this is her first clutch. I thought she was perfect visually to breed, unfortunately you just never know. But I’m going to do everything I can to ensure she gets the treatment she needs.


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Poor girl. Good luck getting her seen asap. Please let us know what happens. Fingers crossed.

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Sorry for the slow reply She passed away [emoji22] she had a huge blood clot I’m devastated hence the slow reply. I’m going to have her preserved.


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The one she laid on the 15th is the one pearly white that’s looking beautiful. The rest didn’t make it, they all had embryos but they didn’t look calcified and unfortunately they all started to smell bad and look bad so one by one when I was sure they wasn’t good I froze them just to make sure.
Now I don’t know if this is something that’s possible, but I know my incubator is perfect I’ve got three other clutches in it at the moment, so I’m wondering if… when I’ve marked the eggs if due to them not having that calcified layer if the ink had seeped into the egg and poisoned them? Just because I cut one to see if I could figure what was going on and I could see what looked like a little ink inside. Because all other parameters were exactly the same other than the rest not having the calci layer or if they simply wouldn’t have made it anyway. It seems it was just never meant to be.
Like I said I’m going to preserve her and obviously the one beautiful egg shall be kept they’re my special little baby.


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Oh, I'm so happy to learn that you've at least got one egg from your treasured girl! I hope this baby is healthy, sttong, and a great eater.

MISS.SB said:
Now I don’t know if this is something that’s possible, but I know my incubator is perfect I’ve got three other clutches in it at the moment, so I’m wondering if… when I’ve marked the eggs if due to them not having that calcified layer if the ink had seeped into the egg and poisoned them?
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Click to expand...
I hate to say so, but yes, that's a distinct possibility. The only thing that should be used to mark the eggs is a pencil. I'm sorry. [emoji17]


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Oh really.. in all the years I’ve never heard that and all other breeders I know all use a sharpie type pen. I’ll certainly keep that in mind though and have a chat with other breeders about it.


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Snake eggs are gas- and water-permeable, so anything water soluble can penetrate the shell and expose the occupant to potentially harmful chemicals. Some say that a water-soluble marker like those for children is harmless; I haven't seen any scientific data either way on this, so I err on the side of caution. Sharpies are called "permanent marker" but there are things which can partially or completely dissolve their inks.
Here's a link to an article about some of the potential dangers of Sharpie-type inks to humans. It's logical that these dangers could be magnified in a developing embryo of any species.

https://www.thoughtco.com/sharpie-tattoo-safety-3975986

When I started breeding the standard wisdom said to use only pencil... Using a pencil is still absolutely the safest option. (Of course, one shouldn't use a super-sharp pencil which could scratch the shell.)
Again, I'm so sorry for your loss. I really hope you get a healthy baby from your girl's remaining egg!

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No, really thank you! I’ll certainly switch to using pencil for safety then if I need to mark any eggs.
It’ll be due to hatch around 14th June so I’ll most likely post updates when it has hatched [emoji1694]


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