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Hognose health problems - back kink

Duae

Duae

New member
This is just more for sharing info.

July 2013 - bought female western hognose, small but eager feeder.

Nov. 2013 - Female hognose developed a small kink on her back. It was not there before, we examine our snakes carefully for kinking and my husband is especially good at feeling them on the first try.
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k298/duae/lump_zpscf0808fd.png

Took her to the breeder, he examined her, didn't think it would be a problem but to keep an eye on it.

Over time the kink grew sharper looking and more pronounced, she continued to eat well, shed fine, but she stopped feeling right. She didn't move as freely as the others. She developed difficulty reaching up to her water bowl, so she was switched to a shallower one.

Even with the shallower one, she didn't always seem to find it, so we started gently showing it to her every day. Sometimes she would drink, sometimes not.

Last week on Tuesday she took a large pinky without any problem like usual. She always seemed to have more trouble than the others with front legs, so we gave her slightly smaller prey items.

This Thursday we went to check on her, and she had passed away. She was kept in the same conditions as the other hognose in our collection, in a rack with the warm spot at 88f, usually in carefresh but had been on paper towels for a month after a potential mite scare. (No mites were ever found in her rack, but better safe than sorry)

Right now we have several others, from the same breeder, who have grown much larger and have never shown the slightest sign of spinal problems, but it does mean we'll be watching them and future offspring very carefully.
 
I had a weird thing happen with a snake, once. I bought three snakes, together. They were all fine when I unpacked them. Then, a week later, one hatchling had a kink. Then she had more. Then she had many kinks. I took her to the vet, who was mystified. I told the breeder, and decided to hang on to her, because now I was attached to her. After the initial onslaught of kinking, she didn't develop any more. The kinks never went away, but as she became an adult, they became more difficult to see, but were still easy to feel. In addition, when it happened, she became paralyzed for about the lower third of her body. She's "fine," she can still climb and swim, etc. (She swims oddly, though!) I really don't know what to make of it. But- Jasmine appears to be going to live to a ripe old age. I'm sorry about your baby. It's hard to not know what happened.
 
I'd bet it's a fluke thing, and the siblings will develop normally. Stinks when one fails to thrive for any reason.
 
I would have necropsied to see what the spine looked like. It's possible that she had a disease like Paget's that causes an abnormal amount of calcification to grow around bony structures...usually the spine. In humans you see it in the pelvis and skull quite often. There could have been something else like an infection or who knows what. Sorry for your loss......
 
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