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Eating but loosing weight

80 degrees is on the low side of the warm end so yours shouldn't be burning more than anyone elses'. I keep my cages at 82 (my snake room maintains an air temp of 77-80) and my snakes are out day and night for the most part. They are fed every 2 weeks or so and none are thin. It's much warmer out here where the snakes are found normally in the wild and they most likely are not eating weekly yet whatever I find is usually in excellent condition. Feeding every 3 days just because the animal is out and about is no reason to feed. I doubt they would lose weight if you didn't feed every 3 days. I don't even have a temp drop at night and mine still don't lose weight. Mine are also ravenous feeders due to only being fed twice a month. Snakes are opportunistic feeders and will start looking for food long before they need it, mostly because it usually (in the wild) would take a while to find and catch it. They can't afford to wait until they are starving to hunt, they expend a lot of energy and calories just looking for food...yet they aren't thin.
 
Hi everyone, thank you all for the advice and suggestions. Thanks for telling me about the Nutribac, hopefully it can do some good for her. I ordered some Nutribac today and weighed her again. She was 126 grams. I don't know if she put on weight since last week, or if that is just a normal fluctuation. I rechecked her tank and her temps, and everything still looks to be in order. There are no hot spots or anything. Thanks Bitsy and MegF. for pointing out that too many feedings might do more harm. I will not increase her feedings more unless I get the ok from the vet.

I also did take one of the poops that looked to have some red in it for the last fecal and they said everything looked normal in the fecal exam.
I'm pretty certain that something is very wrong with her, because she is not just small she is visibly very thin, and I can see her spine. Also, nothing had really changed about her feeding routine when she started to drop the weight. I guess I will just have to wait and see what the vet says about her. Thanks again to everyone who responded. You have all given me a lot of helpful information.

P.S. Oops, I just noticed that I spelled losing wrong in my original post! Please excuse my poor spelling!
 
No worries...we don't care too much about spelling :) I would have suggested using some grapefruit seed extract in the water, but if you're using the nutribac you can't. GSE is a natural antibiotic and it will kill the good bacteria in the nutribac and we don't want that. Hope you can find out what's going on. If the vet was only looking for parasites, they might not have noticed red blood cells unless they were looking for them and they would probably only see those on a smear and not a float. RBC are heavy. You might want to refridgerate a sample to show the vet so that they can do an occult blood exam.
 
I should clarify, that would be on the "cool end" of the house, our house is oriented so that the backside stays about 4-5 degrees warmer than the thermostat shows. I didn't even think about that when explaining.

from 9pm to 9am it's about 76-78 degrees ambient outside cages, from 9am to 9pm it increases until about 5 pm to roughly 82-85, stays there for a couple hours and drops as soon as the sun goes down around 8. Cage ambient is about a degree or two warmer, and the UTH sometimes never comes on until after dark. I do keep them pretty warm I'd say, because we still use UTHs even with the heat, it's just the thermostat keeps the warm side temp down until after dark, then I catch them behaving like their "basking" about the time the light is starting to fade, rather interesting to watch. I take precautions, we have the ceiling fans going all day so the snakes on the higher shelves don't overheat and the snakes on the floor don't overheat. Our floor acts as it's own heater because we have an elevated foundation, and our A/C only got serviced friday, so we will see what kind of difference that actually makes in feeding schedules now.

Anyways, first thing is first, you cannot trust an uncalibrated thermometer you get from lowes or walmart or petco/petsmart. Need to get an IR heat gun, even the little ones for spot checking will work just as well, and check several spots around the place you have the UTH. I have VERIFIED a 6-8 degree variance in the pad itself, usually the far side of the pad to the cord is the hottest for whatever reason...can get around that by laying a piece of tile about the size of the uth right over it's location, just be sure it's big enough the snake can't move it. That should help equalize things if your having issues. Sorry for the long winded post.
 
*Update*
Hi everyone, just wanted to tell you the latest news.
I took my snake in to the vet on Wednesday and they were surprised at how much weight she had lost. She was 119 grams. We had some blood drawn, but I don't have the results from that test yet. The vet also mentioned that it could be something like cancer and that I might have to consider putting her down. I cannot go that route unless I know there is no hope for her. Because she is still eating and pooping I think she still has a chance to get better. Hopefully the results of the blood test can shed some light on the situation.

So my vet decided to put her on Ceftazadime (sp?) just in case there is an infection somewhere that is not showing up in the fecals. They also did an oral swab and gave her an injection of vitamins along with her 1st shot of the Ceftazadime.

So my instructions are to give her one injection every 3 days and soak her for about 30 minutes every day. The vet also thinks I should continue my current feeding schedule of every 5-6 days.

I fed her the night after her vet visit and I don't know if I'm being overly optimistic here, but today she did look a little better than she has lately. I'm hopeful that the antibiotics will help and she will get past this.
 
Hopefully the antibiotics and vitamin shot help. I would have asked for extract vitamins to give as well, since it's hard to have too much of those.

Good luck getting her better!
 
oh my gosh....good luck with your snake and my thoughts are totally wtih you. Please keep us posted for just the education alone. You are such a great parent, kudos to you for working so hard to provide the best care. Personally for me I appreciate this thread for the knowledge of an issue that is out there. I am sorry you are going through this but appreciate your time for reaching out with information
 
I hope things improve for her. You might ask him for injectible Vit. C. My reptile vet gave me a vial to inject the food item with. He is a firm believer in Vitamin C and the antioxidant properties. It can't hurt her.
 
Thank you all for the kind words and thoughts. I did not think to ask for extra vitamins, but I will check on it. I haven't received the Nutribac in the mail yet, but does anyone know if it is ok to use that while she is on antibiotics? I was thinking no, but I wasn't sure.
I do hope sharing this experience can help someone else with their snake someday. Hopefully the vet will be able to pinpoint the problem.
 
you won't be able to. The antibiotics with kill the useful bacteria in the nutribac. It won't affect the antibiotics but it will affect the effectiveness of the nutribac
 
Once she's on the antibiotics it will be low. Unfortunately, antibiotics don't care which bacterium they kill....they kill all of it. You can still use the nutribac and maybe some of the it will overcome the drug to help stabilize her stomach and intestinal tract.
 
I am not sure if it would help with snakes but any time my cats or rabbits look off or act off I add apple cider vinegar to their water. Just a few drops at a time. They bounce back pretty fast and the only change is the ACV. Worth a shot and it shouldn't hurt anything.
 
Test results and new problem

Well I got the blood test results back. The vet says she found some sort of bacteria from the oral cytology. She said she wasn't sure if that was the primary problem or something secondary. The liver enzymes were up and the muscle enzymes were up. The kidney enzymes were just slightly elevated and the white cell count was normal.

So the vet still isn't sure exactly what the cause is, but she said the antibiotics should be helpful to clear up the bacteria found in her mouth. The vet also wanted me to soak her twice a day from now on because my snake was also slightly dehydrated and anemic. I just wish I new exactly what is causing the snake to drop weight.

Now I have another problem. The first day she got her antibiotics, she ate with no problems. She even started to look a little better and has seemed to hold onto some of her weight from that feeding.
Now she hasn't eaten since then, which was 10 days ago. She has refused three meals in a row. I tried adult mice for two days and then last night I tried hoppers. She has never refused a meal. I told my vet and the vet wants me to bring her in for a tube feeding on Monday of she still hasn't eaten by then. I am going to try feeding her again tonight, although I doubt she will take it.

I am wondering if all the soaking and the injections have maybe stressed her into not eating? Or maybe the medicine has made her not want to eat? I don't want to stop because I know she needs her shots and has to stay hydrated, but geez this is frustrating. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks to everyone for all of the info so far.
 
It's possible that she's stressed and that's put her off eating, but I don't see you had an alternative. She really did need those tests even though they've proven inconclusive. Another possibility is that the underlying problem (whatever it is) is getting worse and now she just can't cope with eating/digesting.

Normally I'd counsel patience with a feeding strike, but losing weight on the feeding regime you were using means that missing meals could be a problem. In your shoes I'd go for the tube feeding, just to keep her going.

You're doing all you can for her. Good luck.
 
I guarantee that the injections, soakings and everything else is probably the cause of the lack of feeding. Normally I wouldn't even suggest feeding during this time since the system is fighting a disease and all the energy should go into that and not digestion. Usually it's a matter of 4-5 injections only and that with 72 hours between. I'm not sure what you're using, I use amakacin. The doseage even for baytril though is not too long. Baytril is quite caustic too and sometimes it's recommended that fluids be given with it. It's harder on the kidneys than amakacin. I'm not surprised that her kidney function is not normal if she's dehydrated. It's hard to tell with the liver, but it certainly could explain the loss of weight. I hope she does better and that the injections help her.
 
I wonder if the vet has done any 'coloring' tests, for lack of a better word? E.g. not the microscopic visibility test for parasites, but coloring a preparation of feces with certain indicators to see whether certain bacteria or other very small parasites are present. For example, one can see the presence of the reptile version of 'parrot's disease' with that. From the symptoms I don't think that's what's going on, but I'd want to rule out any possibility for a bacterial infection. I don't think bacterial infections in the intestines would show up in blood work (only indicators of an infection going on).

My reptile vet always told me, if nothing can be found, it is probably a virus, which cannot be tested for in most cases, except if you are willing to pay for very expensive tests, knowing one cannot test for all possible viruses anyway.

Viruses can not be killed with medication. The snake has to fight it itself. I would not keep administering the antibiotics if they don't seem to work, since they do harm the gut flora and weaken the snake in its fight with the virus if that's the case.

You do quarantine the snake I hope?

by the way, I have always wondered how soaking would help with dehydration? The skin does not suck up water, does it? I'd think soaking only causes stress now, and that she could miss.

I wish you much strength wit this ordeal, I know how you must feel!
 
Most reptiles actually do have permeable skin that does take up moisture when soaked. Soaking is an excellent way to help rehydrate snakes and soaking in something like flavorless pedialyte is even better. Even a virus would show elevated white blood cell counts and that is normal in her bloodwork. There are antiviral medications that treat viruses, but in most cases, supportive care is all you'll get. I think the real issue is the kidney and liver functions. They are showing decreased function and that's the real issue. I'm surprised since she showed bacteria in the oral swab that her white count is not up.
 
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