Mrs InsaneOne
I See Snakes...
For most of the season, things had been running extra smoothly, the females were laying their clutches without any glitches in under 12 hours on the average. So I wasn't too worried when Magnolia, the amel stripe we purchased early in October of 2007, first started dropping her eggs in the early morning on 06-14-08.
She'd already dropped 5 eggs as we were heading out the door and things seemed alright at the time. Though I was concerned about her and didn't like the fact that we were heading out of town for most of the day - it was an unavoidable trip though - and we left our oldest home to finish up some chores and to watch over Magnolia as she laid.
We checked in with Elizabeth a few times, to make sure everything was going smoothly, and she informed us that Magnolia had dropped another two eggs. So there didn't seem to be anything to worry about. However, I did worry. Something kept telling me that everything wasn't going as it should - and given the fact that Murphy had made an appearance just the night before, I was concerned that the laying was dragging out for so long.
By the time I checked on Magnolia when we got home, she still hadn't dropped any more eggs. And it appeared she had one stuck at her vent with several more still fairly high. At this point I wondered if she might end up eggbound and after giving her a drink of water I tucked her back on our make-shift rack with a paper towel draped over her lay-box to make her feel secure.
The next evening, it was obvious she was indeed egg-bound. (We'd checked on her once or twice during the day, but none of the eggs had moved.) I offered her more water and continued to monitor her condition as best I could without disturbing her or stressing her out. on Monday night, Tim helped her pass the egg that was right at the vent - just as he had last year with our Snow female who prolapsed with a stuck slug - and we offered her more water before tucking her back into the laybox.
She seemed much more active after that, and I had hopes that the rest of the eggs would move along now that the one was out of the way. The next morning she was still doing fine, so I freshened up her water and let her be.
Tim got home later than usual that night because he'd gone into town for an appointment and stopped by the Vet Supply in town to pick up some syringes in case we needed to aspirate one or more of the eggs - something another breeder advised us may be necessary. I didn't look forward to doing that, but knew it might have to do so and wanted the supplies on hand.
In the end we didn't even get a chance to try. That night (Tuesday) when Tim and I went to check on Magnolia, we found her dead. This is after she was doing just fine in the morning. Completely unexpected and frustrating. Three days after she started laying... and without any warning. I had fully expected to have time to help her before she was in any serious danger.
I know she was not under weight, she'd weight in at around 385g prior to pairing her up. She appeared quite healthy, seemed to have good muscle tone, and never gave us any trouble, though she did stop eating about two weeks before her pre-lay shed. We have no way of knowing if she had difficulties in prior breeding years because we'd purchased her as an adult and her history was not known.
The seven eggs she laid prior to all this are doing fine, but I'd actually prefer to have her alive and healthy. After Tim and I discussed it, we decided to remove the stuck eggs on the off chance that any of them might be viable, but they don't look all that good and I'm not really expecting them to make it.
We've lost the occasional hatchling and one yearling to a freak accident and other issues, but this is the first ever adult that we've lost. I really hate this part of breeding and keeping snakes. =(
Here's the last picture I'd taken of Magnolia, taken on the day I first began to suspect she had become egg-bound:
And here's her seven good eggs:
I have the other seven in a separate container, but didn't have the heart to take pics of them because I've been too upset about losing Magnolia. :crying:
I just hope that everything goes smoothly for the last of our girls when they lay. Only two more clutches due and I'm sweating bricks wondering what else could go wrong. :realhot:
She'd already dropped 5 eggs as we were heading out the door and things seemed alright at the time. Though I was concerned about her and didn't like the fact that we were heading out of town for most of the day - it was an unavoidable trip though - and we left our oldest home to finish up some chores and to watch over Magnolia as she laid.
We checked in with Elizabeth a few times, to make sure everything was going smoothly, and she informed us that Magnolia had dropped another two eggs. So there didn't seem to be anything to worry about. However, I did worry. Something kept telling me that everything wasn't going as it should - and given the fact that Murphy had made an appearance just the night before, I was concerned that the laying was dragging out for so long.
By the time I checked on Magnolia when we got home, she still hadn't dropped any more eggs. And it appeared she had one stuck at her vent with several more still fairly high. At this point I wondered if she might end up eggbound and after giving her a drink of water I tucked her back on our make-shift rack with a paper towel draped over her lay-box to make her feel secure.
The next evening, it was obvious she was indeed egg-bound. (We'd checked on her once or twice during the day, but none of the eggs had moved.) I offered her more water and continued to monitor her condition as best I could without disturbing her or stressing her out. on Monday night, Tim helped her pass the egg that was right at the vent - just as he had last year with our Snow female who prolapsed with a stuck slug - and we offered her more water before tucking her back into the laybox.
She seemed much more active after that, and I had hopes that the rest of the eggs would move along now that the one was out of the way. The next morning she was still doing fine, so I freshened up her water and let her be.
Tim got home later than usual that night because he'd gone into town for an appointment and stopped by the Vet Supply in town to pick up some syringes in case we needed to aspirate one or more of the eggs - something another breeder advised us may be necessary. I didn't look forward to doing that, but knew it might have to do so and wanted the supplies on hand.
In the end we didn't even get a chance to try. That night (Tuesday) when Tim and I went to check on Magnolia, we found her dead. This is after she was doing just fine in the morning. Completely unexpected and frustrating. Three days after she started laying... and without any warning. I had fully expected to have time to help her before she was in any serious danger.
I know she was not under weight, she'd weight in at around 385g prior to pairing her up. She appeared quite healthy, seemed to have good muscle tone, and never gave us any trouble, though she did stop eating about two weeks before her pre-lay shed. We have no way of knowing if she had difficulties in prior breeding years because we'd purchased her as an adult and her history was not known.
The seven eggs she laid prior to all this are doing fine, but I'd actually prefer to have her alive and healthy. After Tim and I discussed it, we decided to remove the stuck eggs on the off chance that any of them might be viable, but they don't look all that good and I'm not really expecting them to make it.
We've lost the occasional hatchling and one yearling to a freak accident and other issues, but this is the first ever adult that we've lost. I really hate this part of breeding and keeping snakes. =(
Here's the last picture I'd taken of Magnolia, taken on the day I first began to suspect she had become egg-bound:
And here's her seven good eggs:
I have the other seven in a separate container, but didn't have the heart to take pics of them because I've been too upset about losing Magnolia. :crying:
I just hope that everything goes smoothly for the last of our girls when they lay. Only two more clutches due and I'm sweating bricks wondering what else could go wrong. :realhot:
- have my sympathies and my crossed fingers for the rest of your females and magnolias seven sons or daughters waiting to hatch!
