The drama of regurges

[bobicus880]

My snake has finally done it, I didn't think he would, but he has done it

REGURGE!

the very words strike fear into my heart.

It was a warm and particularly uninteresting Florida day when I took a journey to observe my beautiful snake king Leopold the Third. He is only about 8 months old, and is the most vivacious feeder I have ever had. Thats when I saw it......

It was a pinkie butt sticking out of a poo like substance. So I said to myself "why doesn't this smell like the bowels of a whale?" I mean it had to be a regurge it is just too big to be poo. However the whole situation was strange. My snake had pooped once normally before this, plus his feeding was three days and four nights ago. So finally I decided to calm my wayfaring heart by asking the good people on some far off forums what to do.
hence I have conjured up these questions just for you, and your fellow snake enthusiasts.

1. Can a snake receive partial nutrients from a regurge? (the pinkie was very digested only its tail, and some skin were visible)

2. Could the regurge be related to my clumsy snake trying to climb the glass only to slip and slide straight into his water bowl?(only a 15 gallon not too high up, and he was partially on the ground when he slid)

3. Could this really just be poop with a tail? (sure it was a little big to be poop, but it did not smell at all)

Closing Statements, and the Crying of pleas

I'm quite worried about my snake for when I got him he was in pretty bad shape from the pet store. I thought he returned to health, but now I'm concerned that this is not the case.

hear it hear it there are no reptile vets by me although I think Kathy Love is about half an hour away (I have only heard legends).

Also I'm definitely going to treat this like a regurge, and monitor my friend like a hawk.........well like a hawk monitors a reverse okeetee in the wild (sorry black humor for the blackest of times)

Please give me your input. I'm hoping that somehow this is only poop.

Also I have searched the forums, and know how to treat a regurge (thank you mysterious Kathy Love, and your helpful Fact Sheets) I just want answers to my questions especially the one that goes like this "can partially digested regurges provide the snake with some nutrients"

 

[Nanci]

Well, I think for some types of regurge, the snake is just digesting till something happens that makes it voluntarily regurge, so in that case, yes, it could have gained nutrition from the meal until it came back up. As opposed to a meal that doesn't digest because it is too big, or the snake is too cold, or whatever, and the meal sits there inside, rotting, till it comes back up by itself.

I wouldn't think a drop into the water bowl from the short distances your snake could achieve in its viv would be enough to cause a regurge.

Every regurge I have experienced has smelled like someone dropped a dead body that had been rotting in the sun for a few days off in my house. If in doubt, pick it up and take a nice big whiff. You're still going to have to treat it the same, but at least you can think to yourself, it probably wasn't a regurge.

How big is your snake?

 

[dave partington]

I've got a corn that regurges now. She used to be able to handle 2 pinkies,
one day I went to 3 pinkies, and within a day all 3 came back up. After that, I tried switching back to just 2 pinkies, but that seems too much for her now, regurgs both of them. So she's got the heat tapes, and now she eats a single pinkie every 3 days. She's a year old, but still on the little pinkies. She's also quite slender, but is gaining length. I added NutriBac to her diet a couple of times, thinking that might help her to digest her meals; it seems to have helped a little.

No two snakes are totally alike, they all have little differences. It might be genetic, and nothing can be done about that. Not all the snakes read the books about themselves, try not to take it too personally. Perhaps trying smaller food items will help out, one at a time, every 3-5 days depending on temperature of her crib. Temperature influences how quickly food digests.

Another thing I've found is most of my snakes like to crawl under a piece of bark and hide themselves for 24-72 hours after feeding.
Though after eating, some of them like to sit in the feeding bowl, and others like to hide under the feeding container. I use a feeding bowl, ESpecially for baby snakes, so there is reduced danger of the baby snake swallowing aspen shavings or whatever substrate is in their enclosure. If they get that inside of them, it might swell up, and since plant materials are not something snakes can digest, it can lead to blockage.

I NEVER handle a snake while it is digesting food, with the exception of the larger juveniles thru adults, and then, only long enough to get them out of the feeding pans and back into their enclosures, and being VERY careful to support their bodies, but avoiding bending them where their food makes them swollen.

For what it's worth, I hope this problem works itself out.
dave

 

[bobicus880]

I'm not quite sure how big he is. He kinda wiggles and jiggles a lot. He almost reaches the top of the cage though which is 31 cm. I would say maybe 28 cm. It seemed like a normal feeding he sat under his stick for two days, then climbed his stick and sat in his toilet paper roll for a day. Then I got home from school, and I had to do a double take. I almost thought a garter snake gave birth in my tank, however as a wise man once said "it was not as slimy as a garter snake"

And yes the first thing I did was stick it straight up to my nose. It smelled like poo a little, however I wouldn't say it was as bad his poo. It almost reminded me of the smell of goat meat, and tomatoes cooked in an outdoor grill.

I think I' am going to butcher a mouse into bite size pieces (pinkie an' bits), and try feeding him.

If that doesn't work I will wait 3 days, and try just a head

If that doesn't work I will probably start to panic, and have to tell my self that snakes sometimes don't eat for weeks.

After a day or two I will regain my composure, and try to go to the "Thank God I live in FLorida Nature Plan" which would be to feed him a little anole from my back yard (is this smart? I will definitely worry about parasites.)

Does this POA (plan of action) sound good? Also would it be wise it if nothing works to try feeding a wild anole? I know it's risky, but if Richard Francis Burton could do what he did then my snake can certainly become a "captive wild" for a day.

 

[kathylove]

I have seen regurges all the way from upchucked in 10 minutes to ALMOST fully digested - but not quite. I would assume that the ones that are almost digested probably gave some nutrition, but probably also messed up the balance of the digestive tract, nutrition, or not.

If it didn't have a sickly sweet smell, like human vomit, but worse, then maybe it WAS "weird poo". No matter - follow the regurge protocol, and start again with sometime tiny, and always put cuts into f/t meals so they will digest faster and more fully.

You probably don't need Nutri Bac YET. But if you get another regurge, you might want to try it. But if you do use it on a regurger, be sure to feed it every 3 days or so, VIA TUBE for at least 3 times (longer is better), not just dusting the meal. You want to really coat the stomach with the stuff, maybe the day before feeding, and once in between, to get the best results. Dusting is for a preventative, such as new or stressed snakes that are not yet showing any problems.

Where in Florida are you?