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Egg Bound! - Advice Please

S

Sunny-Delight

New member
So my snow laid her eggs last saturday. All 20 of them look great and are cooking away in the incubator. Problem is she still has one inside her. It's stuck up pretty high too, I will try to get a pic for you all to see where it is. I have tried all the 'home remedies' I knew of: excersize, gently manipulation, I even gave her and EXTREMELY small meal (that was 3 days ago, no poop yet). She had her post-lay shed last night. Luckily there is a very good herp vet in my city that I can take her to, but I was hoping there was more that I can do at home first. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to lose my Jadis. This was her first year breeding. Funny thing is that my smaller amel passed all 15 eggs no problem, and Jadis is a larger more robust snake than Sem, totally thought if someone was going to get egg-bound it wouldn't be Jadis... Go figure.
 
here is a pic

eggbound.jpg
 
I developed a method for aspirating the egg while still inside the female so it will pass. Most vets don't want to perform the procedure because they are concerned about sepsis from the leaking egg. But so far I have had great success with it. You only have a week or two after the other eggs are laid (maybe more, maybe not) before the contents of the remaining egg solidify and can no longer be aspirated. At that point, surgery may be your only option if she fails to pass it on her own.

Some vets try oxytocin, but I have never heard of much success in snakes using that method.

I can't really type out the entire aspiration method, but the details are in both of my books. if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, ask your vet what he thinks about it - he may only be comfortable with surgery. If you want to try it yourself and can't get a copy of my book, give me a call and I will try to walk you through it on the phone.

Good luck!
 
I had to use the aspiration method last year... I would do it again if necessary. Seemed to be rather pain free to the animal. I think I suffered more than the animal... gotta remember to breathe naturally!!!
 
I would call Kathy, take her up on offer on that part just to kind of walk you through again. I am praying and hoping everything goes ok with Jadis. She is in my thoughts and please keep us updated. Thank you and sorry this had to happen. It scares me as I have yet to breed any of mine!
 
If you decide to call...

first prepare yourself with an assistant to hold the snake, a large gauge needle, 10cc or more syringe, and a little antiseptic. Then you will be ready to go.

Email me first so we can find a time that is convenient to both of us.

Good luck!
 
Thank you all, especially Kathy for your advice. I think I will take Jadis to the vet tomorrow to see what he thinks. I think I get the aspiration procedure from reading your book Kathy (cover to cover about 6 times before I even got a snake lol), so after talking with the vet it might be my option. I just hope I am not too late and the contents are still gooey enough. Will she generally pass the egg on her own after the aspiration?
 
Yes, but it is easy to miss. Looks like a little deflated piece of white balloon - not like an egg at all, since it is usually totally empty by the time it passes.

Don't be surprised if the vet does not like the idea at all and wants to do surgery. I won't second guess a vet, especially one who has actually seen the animal in question. I can only tell you what has worked for me.

Good luck!
 
Some times the gee comes out all by its self it may take a month I would leave it a lone for a few days and see what happens. If it starts to move leave it alone. here is my phone number if you want to call me
 
kathylove said:
I developed a method for aspirating the egg while still inside the female so it will pass. Most vets don't want to perform the procedure because they are concerned about sepsis from the leaking egg.
Click to expand...

When we have done it, we've always followed up with general antibiotic injections. So far, I haven't had any die that can be attributed definitvely to infections. When one has (rarely) died in the past, it was due more to just not being able to pass the egg even with it reduced in size.

kathylove said:
Some vets try oxytocin, but I have never heard of much success in snakes using that method.
Click to expand...

When combined with Calcium gluconate, we have had much better success than with Oxytocin alone. Small sample size, but I always start with Calcium gluconate BEFORE giving Oxytocin because (1) sometimes that takes care of the problem, (2) it is less likely to harm the snake than oxytocin, and (3) it is known to improve the efficacy of oxytocin in other animals.

On another note unrelated to the above, the newer vet references (check whatever the most recent Mader happens to be) are stressing the importance of waiting more. I have to agree with this: lots of snakes will pass them if given a few extra days. Granted, this needs to be decided on a case by case basis. We rarely have this problem in our colony (knock on wood, but I suspect it is due in part to larger cages for and a lack of obesity in our females), but waiting has done more good than all other methods combined. I think that's because many of us THINK they are eggbound when they just haven't passed an egg YET. There is no good biological definition of when a snake is eggbound as compared to "just hasn't laid the last egg yet." I don't know if such a definition can be made, but I wish there was one!

I have taken a more relaxed view towards when a female starts to worry me, and it seems the problems often DO solve themselves. Knock on wood. Also, I've found that the females that look like they are going to die with an egg in them the day after they laid the other ones are likely to die whether I do anything or not. In those cases, sadly, I suspect that the retained egg is a symptom and not the cause. :(

KJ
 
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