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parasites?? help please

tstephe3

tstephe3

Wanna pet my Snake?
I think my Cali King has parasites or something. She's been a great eater and showed progress from when I got her. But 2 out of the last 3 times she has regurged her meal. I dont think the mice are bad as all of my other snakes are eating them fine. But I also noticed that she hast seemed to gain any weight whatsoever recently.

I just called the local vet by me, and it was 40 dollars just for the examination! I really dont want to spend that much as I only picked her up for 25. I do have a new pack of mice that i might try her next feeding.

She seems week when I hold her too. I'm just wondering if there is any thing that you have found that works or can work that I can pick up?

Or maybe its something else?

Please help.

thanks
 
Have you made a jump up in size recently? How long do you leave before handling after feeding? What are her temps? How long have you been leaving between feeding attempts after regurges? Let's explore all possible husbandry faults before assuming it's parasites.

All the best

David
 
Regurgitation also isn't necessarily a symptom of parasites. It could be sub par temperatures, stress, etc that are causing the regurges.

While you can pick up panacure to treat your snake for parasites, without a vets dosage suggestion, it can be very easy to overdose the snake. I would suggest taking a fecal sample in to check for parasites before an attempt to treat them is made. Also, when shopping for a vet, make sure they're actually an Exotics vet...You don't want to be waisting your time and money with a standard dog/cat vet with little or no experience with reptiles.
 
Snake Dave said:
Have you made a jump up in size recently? How long do you leave before handling after feeding? What are her temps? How long have you been leaving between feeding attempts after regurges? Let's explore all possible husbandry faults before assuming it's parasites.

All the best

David
Click to expand...

size, no its been the same since ive gotten her. 2 small pinkies. if i really want to handle her its usually 2 days. but with my busy schedule its been more like 3 to 4 before i handle her. she regurged the first time and i waited 7 days. she kept that meal down. then i just fed her yesterday and shes regurged today.
 
and im checkign the temp as i type. its just weird because ive really not changed anything in her viv. or really handled her any more than usual. 1 or 2 times a week.
 
TripleMoonsExotic said:
Regurgitation also isn't necessarily a symptom of parasites. It could be sub par temperatures, stress, etc that are causing the regurges.

While you can pick up panacure to treat your snake for parasites, without a vets dosage suggestion, it can be very easy to overdose the snake. I would suggest taking a fecal sample in to check for parasites before an attempt to treat them is made. Also, when shopping for a vet, make sure they're actually an Exotics vet...You don't want to be waisting your time and money with a standard dog/cat vet with little or no experience with reptiles.
Click to expand...


the vet i called, i asked if they dealt with exotics like snakes. and they said yes the one vet deals with snakes quite a bit. she was with a customer so hopefully she calls me back. as for the fecal sample.. will she still poop without food?

and i bought a new bag recently of small pinkies, so i will try one of the new pinkies next feeding to see if it might be the mice? maybe she's more sensitive? not sure.

but thanks for the quick replys!
 
You're welcome, but remember you should leave 10 days after a regurge, and feed a smaller (or in this case, less) prey items. So next time, feed only one pinkie and leave 10 days from her last feed. Try to bother her as little as possible.
 
tstephe3 said:
as for the fecal sample.. will she still poop without food?
Click to expand...

I would keep her on paper towels and when she does poo, immediately bag the sample (just rip around where she pooed on the paper towel) in a zip lock and stick it in the fridge until you get to the vet. You said she ate the meal before last fine,? Next time you offer her a meal, give her one pink (not two) and hope she keeps it down so you can acquire a sample.
 
I think you need to be very careful with the next meal. Two regurges is very, very serious. You need to wait ten days. You need to get Nutribac from Kathy Love to put in her water or on her next meal. I would not skip this step. What was the size meal she regurged? I would feed her half a pink, split in half lengthwise before thawing for the next two meals, then move to a pink cut into thirds after thawing, the whole thing, for the next two meals, then move to a pink cut in half for the next four meals, very gradually increasing the size of the pinks. Then one and a half, and so on. You HAVE TO not let her regurge again, and the only way you can possibly control this is by giving her Nutribac, to re-establish the good bacteria in her gut, giving her time to rest after the latest regurge, and then feeding her such tiny meals they don't stress her system at all. She won't starve to death, but another regurge would quite likely kill her. I would feed her at a 5-6 day interval, but some may advise you to go to seven days. In my opinion, feeding mouse portions rather than whole mice allows for a near-normal feeding interval.

How many good meals did she keep down before the first regurge?
 
I'd like to add, as Dave says, no more handling except for meals. Her warm side is hot- what is the temp right on the UTH? Do you have the UTH on a thermostat? I think it's unlikely for such a young snake to have parasites, but not impossible.
 
sorry didnt read these.

TripleMoonsExotic said:
I would keep her on paper towels and when she does poo, immediately bag the sample (just rip around where she pooed on the paper towel) in a zip lock and stick it in the fridge until you get to the vet. You said she ate the meal before last fine,? Next time you offer her a meal, give her one pink (not two) and hope she keeps it down so you can acquire a sample.
Click to expand...

so should i completely clean her viv out? and i dont have a thermostat so would the glass be to hot? i have a UTH but i wasnt sure if it'd be to hot without the aspen.

Snake Dave said:
You're welcome, but remember you should leave 10 days after a regurge, and feed a smaller (or in this case, less) prey items. So next time, feed only one pinkie and leave 10 days from her last feed. Try to bother her as little as possible.
Click to expand...

ok will do.. thanks again
 
Nanci said:
I think you need to be very careful with the next meal. Two regurges is very, very serious. You need to wait ten days. You need to get Nutribac from Kathy Love to put in her water or on her next meal. I would not skip this step. What was the size meal she regurged? I would feed her half a pink, split in half lengthwise before thawing for the next two meals, then move to a pink cut into thirds after thawing, the whole thing, for the next two meals, then move to a pink cut in half for the next four meals, very gradually increasing the size of the pinks. Then one and a half, and so on. You HAVE TO not let her regurge again, and the only way you can possibly control this is by giving her Nutribac, to re-establish the good bacteria in her gut, giving her time to rest after the latest regurge, and then feeding her such tiny meals they don't stress her system at all. She won't starve to death, but another regurge would quite likely kill her. I would feed her at a 5-6 day interval, but some may advise you to go to seven days. In my opinion, feeding mouse portions rather than whole mice allows for a near-normal feeding interval.

How many good meals did she keep down before the first regurge?
Click to expand...

ok i will get the nutribac. and when i do get it add it to her water right away?
well the meal she regurged was two small pinkies. the one before that was a small pinkie with a pinkie that was a little larger than i should of picked. but the meal she kept down in between was 2 small pinkies.

well ive been feeding her every 7 to 14 days since ive had her. and i got her i believe in march or april. she hasnt had a single problem.

as for cutting the pinkies. do this before or after i thaw them? and i thaw mine but putting a cup of water in a microwave then put the pinkies in the cup after the water is warm. is this how everyone else does it?
 
tstephe3 said:
so should i completely clean her viv out? and i dont have a thermostat so would the glass be to hot? i have a UTH but i wasnt sure if it'd be to hot without the aspen.
Click to expand...

You should have a thermostat no matter what substrate you're using. 88 does seem high to me for a King, and if you aren't regulating what the UTH is outputting, it can very easily go well over 88. It's completely possible that she's regurging because her temperatures are getting too high and she can't thermoregulate properly.

I would strongly suggest setting her up properly (thermostat, digital thermometer) before assuming she has parasites (and yes, remove her current substrate and put down paper towels if you would like to test her for parasites). You can get NutriBAC here as well.
 
yeah no thermostat, i was under the impression that they werent somethign that you absolutely needed.
 
i do have a flukers digital thermometer. i use it for all my snakes.. should i upgrade on that?
 
The UTH can reach 120-130 degrees, unregulated. If I'm cutting the pink lengthwise, I do it before thawing, like with a cleaver, and then thaw wrapped in plastic wrap, just the half I'm using. I cut a whole pink into thirds with fingernail scissors after thawing, and feed the whole thing as the next step. I learned this from Kathy Love.

You put the Nutribac in the water, and change the water evey day. Once she feeds again, you liberally sprinkle the mouse with it,m and can stop putting it in the water.

For a healthy baby snake, who would be eating double pinks, a seven day feeding interval is the longest you ought to go. 14 days is way too long for a baby. Many people feed babies at five day intervals, I would say most people, except some breeders who are saving time/resources.
 
I use Big Apple Herp dual-probed temperature thermometers. Something that is really, really nice is a temp gun. They aren't so expensive. You don't need the kind with a laser. That way, you can measure the temps instantly all over the whole surace of the mat, as well as various spots in the viv, the temp of mice, etc.
 
tstephe3 said:
i do have a flukers digital thermometer. i use it for all my snakes.. should i upgrade on that?
Click to expand...

You need one digital thermometer per enclosure so that you can monitor temperatures with a single glance as opposed to moving it around to check when you feel like it.

Personally, I like the Acu-Rite ones you can get at Walmart for $14 because they store the minimum/maximum temperatures and do humidity.
 
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