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help with new tree boa...

N

neotekz

New member
sorry guys i know this is not the right forum but i didn;t know where else to go and it's too late to go to a vet.

i just got a C.B. 6 month old amazon tree boa from a breeder at a reptile expo. it looks healthy and is active and even ate a pinky 2 days ago but today when he was deficating i noticed this...
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i use a UTH set to about 86 degrees in a 12x12in exo-terra cage. i mist it twice a day, i even saw him drinking from the leaves the other day.

i'm not sure what to make of this, i probably will take it to the vet tomorrow. is there anything i can do in the meantime?
 
it was its first meal and i didn't know when it was fed last so i didn't give it too much. not sure if its a male or female, still too small to be sexed. is this a prolapse of an internal organ?
 
id get that checked it looks like its rectum has fallen out ive heard of this in other animals n humans but never a snake
 
I would send a PM to MegF in this forum. I believe she reciently had the same problem with one of hers.


:-offtopic You can post just about anything in the forum. If it's non-corn related it just needs to go in the General Chit Chat area.

Good Luck!
 
If it's still prolapsed, the snake needs to go to a vet. Until then, keep it somewhere clean. According to Meg, there is some chance of it happening again, even after the vet fixes it. You may want to consider talking to the breeder about a replacement.

Nanci
 
thanks everyone, the vet in my area that specialize in reptiles is booked for the day but i was told to give him a bath for about 30mins and use some polysporine to keep the area from drying out.

after the 30min bath, it went back in so i just clean the area with polysporine. yah i was told that there is a chance that this will happen again but i'll just deal with it rather than returning him. he's the most gentle atb i've ever seen, he hasn't even tryed to strike at me yet, unlike my corn....lol

i'll check out that forum skychimp
 
Yes, it appears to be a prolapse. I would try putting a bandaid (the fabric type)over the vent and leave it there for at least a week or two to keep the prolapse from coming out. After that, it should come off on it's own and I would do daily soakings for a week or so. I haven't heard of prolapse being common in ATB's, only in chondros (which is what prolapsed on me). It can happen to any species however. I'd have a fecal done eventually to rule out parasites. I would not feed for at least 4-6 weeks and then only a very small food item for a long while, waiting a week or two in between. You don't want to risk another prolapse. If it does happen again, you might need to go to the vet and have a couple of purse stitches placed at the vent to keep the intestine from coming out again. I'd take out any perches you might have for now and just have the wide flat areas for it to lay on. ATB's prefer to drape anyway. If it should happen again, use a sugar paste solution to help attempt to shrink the tissue as well as keeping the tissue moist in water. I would talk to the breeder of this animal also to get his imput.
Just for an FYI: ATB's can be sexed at any age as far as I know. They are not like GTP's that must be a year old. Mine was sexed when I got him and he was only 6 months old or so.
 
since i got the prolapse to go back in should i still see a vet to examine if the area needs to be closed up?
so daily soaking and no feeding for about a month?
 
If you put on the bandaid then I wouldn't soak now. It will just wet the bandaid. I had stitches put in so I soaked daily to allow any fecal/urate material to come out if she had any. She had eaten 3 days before the prolapse. The band aid would prevent any feces from coming out anyway so soaking is off for at least that time. You could soak every day for a week or so after the bandaid is due to come off.The water should help it come off without having to do anything else. After a week of soaking daily, I'd maybe do it every 3-4 days. I definitely would not feed for at least 4 weeks to allow the tissue time to return to normal size and to heal. You also want to keep the fecal matter to a minimum for a while to make sure that it won't prolapse again. I just fed my chondro her first meal this evening after 6 weeks post prolapse. She got the stitches out after 2 weeks. You don't have to go to the vet if it's reduced, but I'd watch for any signs of infection or re-prolapse. It might be a good idea to do a prophylactic worming just in case also. Although my chondro tested negative for parasites, we still wormed her as a precaution. Hope it does alright. Did the breeder give you feed and shed/defication records? And if not, why not?
 
I'd be pretty disappointed if my vet didn't make room for that on the same day. I'd consider it urgent, at least.

Nanci
 
I took mine to an emergency vet. Paid more to go of course and it was an hour away, but I didn't care...it was my baby!
 
i didn't get the records from the breeder, i forgot to ask for them. my mistake...

there is only one vet in my area that is good with reptiles so he's pretty busy, i called around but most of them referred be back to the same doctor and the ones that do see reptiles seemed reluctant to do so on the phone. i called a local zoo that has a pet shop and got some good advice, that's where i was told to soak and clean the prolapse.

you think i should go get it tested for worms? can this be done without fecal sample?
 
No, it requires a fecal to do it although there are some parasites that show up in bloodwork. It might have to wait until you've gotten some food into it first. We got a small sample from my girl and tested that, but when she gives me something substantial I'm going to take that and have it tested again. She did get wormed anyway just to be on the safe side.
 
I've taken in samples that were a couple days old (found dried in the viv) and the vet's been able to work with that. If you find anything, put it in a baggie in the fridge, not the freezer, till you can get it to the vet.

Nanci
 
took her to the vet today, i didn;t have a fecal sample but the vet was about to get some urine out to do a smear. The prolapse was caused by bacteria so she got a dose of antibiotic and a worming medication. I will still need to bring a good fecal sample in to get examined to make sure it's not anything more serious. other than that she's in excellent health, not dehydrated or skinny. i was also told that i can feed again within the next few days and there is a chance that it can prolapse again but i can just give her a bath and it should go back in again.

thanks again everyone for helping out...
 
If I were you, I would not feed right away but wait several weeks. The more often it comes out, the worse chances the animal will have. There is a possibility that the bacterium is from infection from the prolapse. Is this a reptile specialist? I've not heard of doing a smear from urine. The urates in the reptile are not usually a very good way of getting a fecal. It must be the fecal matter. I wouldn't treat the prolapse so cavalierly as this vet seems to. I would give it at least 4 weeks before feeding and then feed a very, very small meal. Prolapses are something that can kill your animal. I'd hate to have you come home to a dead animal because it prolapsed just after you left to go to work or something and it dried out and became necrotic in all that time. Or worse yet, it ends up with sepsis due to having it's intestines exposed to air and developing an infection.
 
yah he's a reptile specialist, he even owns a atb and a gtp, all teh pet shops and local zoo in the area all use him for their reptile needs. the feeding is to get a better fecal sample to make sure that there's not other strains of bacteria that needs more serious treatment. he was able to see some flagellate bacteria with the urine smear but he still wants a better sample to send to the lab.
 
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