• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Possible impaction?

Tula_Montage

Tula_Montage

It's Jager time!
My black milk Noir, ate 2 rat fuzzies on the 19th - this was his biggest ever meal. I took him out to check on him and clean poop (as he usually poops 2-3 days after a meal) however all I found was urates.

I handled him a bit and felt a solid lump (about the size of a rat pup skull) about 1/2 inch from his cloaca. When pressed on it moves freely a couple of millimeters each way, however when pressed towards his cloaca he opens right up and the lump will not move any further than roughly 1cm from the opening.

Perhaps this is me being paranoid and he will pass this himself, so to help I made him swim around in a shallow bath of 88F water which did not make him poop. I'll leave him a couple of days and keep bathing and masaging if he has not passed it within 72 hours is a vet visit adviseable?

I'd like to know what this could possibly be? Is there any chance it's something other than rodent remains? Why would he be impacted and whats the quickest way to help him pass the lump? Hot end temps 82-85 and cool end 69-72. He likes it cool and has never had a problem passing smaller food items before.
 
Soaking will help as some moisture will get in through the cloaca and help loosen things up.

I don't want to make you more worried than you already are, but Vern's prolapses started when I bumped her up a food size. One of the theories put forth by the vet is that with an extra large excrement load, she just simply pushed too hard to get it out and ....

Would your vet entertain a phone consultation about Noir? My vet's office generally will only let me speak to a vet tech, who's advice invariably has been, "better bring him in."
 
Noir is a big snake (250 grams_, and due to having an adult moose shortage over the last 2 weeks I have been feeding him fuzzy rats or multiple (8+) fuzzies. on the 19th he got two large fuzzy rats, which was a big yet satisfying meal. I don't know why he would have trouble digesting and passing food...
 
I forgot to mention, it obviously hurts when I press or push the lump as he frantically tries to squiggle away. I haven't applied huge amounts of pressure but I am concerned about how hard and large it is. If he does push it out himself, hes going to have major ring sting!
 
Ack maybe i'm just over reacting, but I am a snake illness hypochondriac these days...

Why would it be all compacted though? I don't understand.
 
These are the *joys* of exotic keeping I'm afraid. We do our best and worry all the time about it. This *might*of happened to us, with out costa rican. We done the bath and massage bit and then he passed the biggest poop you ever seen. Since then we feed one meal but more often..
food has been scarce for a few weeks as there has been trouble getting them from Holland. Start to stock pile in vacuum bags in case the problem occurs again. Rotate the stock when feeding.
Good luck our prayers are with you..
MIKE
 
This is just a theory of course, but it could be a urates clump. I've had a couple of my corns poop out big peices of urates that were pretty darn hard. I usually let them exercise in the tub and they will often poop in there. Once one of them pooped and the urates clump made a noise when it hit the tub wall. I'd wait a few days and then maybe think of the vet visit.
 
snakewispera snr said:
These are the *joys* of exotic keeping I'm afraid. We do our best and worry all the time about it. This *might*of happened to us, with out costa rican. We done the bath and massage bit and then he passed the biggest poop you ever seen. Since then we feed one meal but more often..
food has been scarce for a few weeks as there has been trouble getting them from Holland. Start to stock pile in vacuum bags in case the problem occurs again. Rotate the stock when feeding.
Good luck our prayers are with you..
MIKE
Click to expand...

Overfeeding is slightly different with dwarf boas. It's highly recommended you "underfeed" them due to the fact they are such slow growers yet if overfed their organs can grow too quickly and cause health problems. For example my adult Bolivian gets one small rat once a month and he stills gains weight.

I'm not so worried about colubrids in this way. With the mice, I was holding off on ordering until this week because I'm doing a big order of UK bred mice. I'm buying my usual 400 or so mice so I should have plenty to last a while.

It does no harm to feed lots of smaller items. This is the first time I have ever had this problem and I am in no way sure it's due to the amount of food he ate.

Plissken said:
How much exercise is Noir getting? Snakes (and others) can become constipated/impacted when they aren't getting enough exercise.

Hope he is okay :)
Click to expand...

Thanks lass. Noir gets lots of excersie. He has a large tub and uses every inch of it including branches etc... hes always roaming when hes hungry. Plus I handle him every other day for 5-10 mins. It's possible this is due to lack of excersie though... thanks for the suggestion :)

Bobo's Mama said:
This is just a theory of course, but it could be a urates clump. I've had a couple of my corns poop out big peices of urates that were pretty darn hard. I usually let them exercise in the tub and they will often poop in there. Once one of them pooped and the urates clump made a noise when it hit the tub wall. I'd wait a few days and then maybe think of the vet visit.
Click to expand...

You could be right. I have had corns pass big lums of solid urates before and that was the first thing I thought of. It feels the same way lumps of urates do too...
 
Tula_Montage said:
Overfeeding is slightly different with dwarf boas. It's highly recommended you "underfeed" them due to the fact they are such slow growers yet if overfed their organs can grow too quickly and cause health problems. For example my adult Bolivian gets one small rat once a month and he stills gains weight.

I'm not so worried about colubrids in this way. With the mice, I was holding off on ordering until this week because I'm doing a big order of UK bred mice. I'm buying my usual 400 or so mice so I should have plenty to last a while.

It does no harm to feed lots of smaller items. This is the first time I have ever had this problem and I am in no way sure it's due to the amount of food he ate.
Click to expand...

Right, you DON'T know whats a matter with your snake, could be impacted could be constipated etc......You should never turn your head away from advice....
Also just because you was feeding less food more often this could still cause
a problem is you ate a one piece of a chocolate bar every 10 seconds in the end you have ate a bar....so our theory still stands..
You don't feed on substraight do you.

JOEL
 
Elle,
I think it sounds like you're doing all the right stuff. The warmer temperatures, warm baths, all of that will encourage digestion and movement. I'd be really gentle with the massages, don't push too hard or force anything.

If the cloaca opens easily, I wonder if you could inject a little mineral oil? Just thinking out loud.

"ring sting" is a great phrase. I'm going to watch for an opportunity to use that in conversation.
 
Joel, I am not in the mood to be polite yet again. I appreciate the suggestions and attempts at "fixing" my husbandry but what you have suggested or said is already very clear to me.

I do not know what the problem is with Noir, which is why I asked for advice or opinions. Experienced opinions would be far more benfitial when it comes to health issues... I was not feeding less more often, I was feeding more LESS often as clearly stated.

I do feed on substrate... kitchen towel.
 
wade said:
Elle,
I think it sounds like you're doing all the right stuff. The warmer temperatures, warm baths, all of that will encourage digestion and movement. I'd be really gentle with the massages, don't push too hard or force anything.

If the cloaca opens easily, I wonder if you could inject a little mineral oil? Just thinking out loud.

"ring sting" is a great phrase. I'm going to watch for an opportunity to use that in conversation.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much Wade, your posts are deffinatley an encouragment. I'm going to give him another 10 min bath just before I go to bed if he hasn't passed it already. The lump moves easily and with light pressure his cloaca opens right up and the lump moves down but without pushing too heavily on the lump it will not move down and out. I guess I will leave him to his own devices. And ring sting comes into play after too much alcohol and indian takeaway...
 
Tula_Montage said:
Joel, I am not in the mood to be polite yet again. I appreciate the suggestions and attempts at "fixing" my husbandry but what you have suggested or said is already very clear to me.

I do not know what the problem is with Noir, which is why I asked for advice or opinions. Experienced opinions would be far more benfitial when it comes to health issues... I was not feeding less more often, I was feeding more LESS often as clearly stated.

I do feed on substrate... kitchen towel.
Click to expand...
So what is wrong with Joels experience. It's still experience,isn't it?
And our point IS more less often is worse than less more often Thats why he said it.
MIKE
 
Well I stongly disagree with that statment when it comes to snakes. Whereas he gave an example in relation to humans. Experience is valued differently by everyone. I'm sorry but I cannot and will not take sound advice from a 14 year old who has been nothing but abusive towards me. I am not holding a grudge but he is begining to iritate me. Age and experience are two entirley different things, however Joel does not have many "points" for either IMO.

Anyway, I gave Noir another bath and still no poop. I applied light pressure again which opened up his cloaca fully but he just musked me. Why is he not pushing to get this lump out and why is it stuck where it is? I guess I should wait till tomorrow before I really start to panic.
 
What a job! I phoned the vet to get advice and all they could offer was warms baths etc. So I shoved him in another bath which he hates and I gently applied pressure to the lump. After about 5 minutes of me not letting go I felt him start to push. I honestly thought he was going to prolapse once this thing was out. It was absolutly rock solid.

ringsting.png


ringsting2.png


Thankfully hes ok. Everything is sucked back in where it should be and he did a nice wee poop to follow. No more rats for Mr Noir me thinks! I'm going to cut his food back a bit (even though hes only fed every 10 days as it is).
 
Really glad you got it out Elle. What is it? It looks like a lump of calcium.

Hope he'll be good for you now!!
 
It was just a solid lump of calcium urates. When I pinched it between my fingers, it crumbled as you would expect urates to. I'll give him a few days of piece and quiet then check up on him to see if hes passed the rest of his large meal.

Just goes to show the kind of problems us snake keepers never think about - Oh it will never happen to meee!?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top