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Hatchlings first shed, prolapsed?

T

Tegucentric

Certified Reptiholic
I have never seen this before so I seek advice or opinion..

This is not my snake, but I was asked and I have no idea. I believe its a corn/rat cross of some type.

This hatchling was incubated and hatched. It just went through it's first shed. It's umbilical cord was attached right up until it shed. Once it shed it looked as though it had a prolapse or perhaps a ruptured intestine.

Here are a few pictures of this hatchling. They are high resolution so you can zoom in a bit.

Click Here

Let me know what you think... Will it go in naturally if I use some probing lube? Should it be put down? Should it be fed its first meal or should the meal be skipped? I do have it here and its on moist papertowel until I figure out the best approach.

Thanks guys..

Rick
 
from the pics it looks like a scale or two didnt form correctly and allowed part of the GI or repro tract to come out a bit. if this is not snake that you had big plans for i would go ahead and utalize my kingsnakes if i were you. if it is a snake you had plans for, i am sure it would need to be placed back in the snake, and the snake would need to be sewed up somehow, but i am not sure how i would go about that.
 
well to be it doesnt look like a prolapse, its normally whitish pink, like this...

P5110002.jpg


P5110001.jpg


good luck with it
 
It's tough to see in the pictures what's in the herniation, but it is herniated. You can see the belly wall split and go around the protruding tissue. I can't tell from the pics if that is the inner coelomic cavity lining protruding out with "innards" housed within or if that's a swollen umbilical remnant or what from the picture. From the looks of it, though, that's a pretty good sized body wall defect and the tugging of the shed worsened the problem. Best case scenario, it's part of the umbilical remnant vasculature that got exteriorized. If that's the case, the potential is there to just ligate it at the body wall and amputate that umbilical stump. However, if there are organs or infection in there, that would NOT be a good thing to do.

If I had the snake here, I would GENTLY squeeze the protrusion and see if anything would "squish" back internally from the hernial sac (membrane lining everything). If you can internalize the contents and the sac deflates, you've got a simple umbilical hernia that needs repaired (closed with sutures, typically). If it is firm and non-reducible, you've either got umbilical remnants, an infected umbilicus, or entrapped and strangulated (blood supply cut off) organ(s) in the hernia with the hernial ring acting as a tourniquet.

I'm sorry, I wish I had the snake here to feel and see with my own eyes. Obviously the best answer is it should go to the vet for an opinion/treatment. If you are not going to take it in, your options are to 1)keep it on slightly damp paper towel changed daily and hope it's an umbilical stump or something non-vital that will dry up and fall off eventually knowing that the hatchling could die if it is strangulating vital organs or harboring an infection at the site and 2) to ligate the mass if it looks like it's just an umbilical remnant right at the body wall with thread and cut the protruding flesh off and hope the ligated area scars enough to keep anything else from herniating. Obviously this would be a poor choice if there are organs in the herniation or if there is infection/abscess.

That's the best I can tell you from this computer screen. Good luck with the little'en.

On the feeding issue, I'd probably wait a good 10 days and see what's going to happen with the hernia. Would hate to stretch the issue right away and make things worse. If I did feed it, I'd probably feed it a half pink, cut lengthwise to avoid stretching things, but to allow it to easily digest.
 
The snake was herniated. There were organs inside the cavity lining. These could not be put back inside the snake because part of the cavity lining was fused with the outter skin. I assume this was an incubation issue at some part of the final development stages. Because this animal could have had other internal issues that were unknown and the fact that this snake would not likely live a normal healthy life, what was best was to have the snake euthanized. It is a sad thing, but I do appreciate all of the input and advice. As I stated prior, I had never seen anything like that before.

Rick
 
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