Slow digestion?

[Cazador]

Kitkat, James,

I think you're both helping to put together a pattern that I though I noticed a while back. As you might remember, I normally feed caribou meat as the primary food source, and I supplement with worms, fish, vitamins, calcium, etc. Anyway, when/if I feed a strip of meat that has a lot of tendons in it, the snakes sometimes regurgitate it. Sometimes they pass it only partially digested. I'm not sure what causes it, but I try to trim these sections of meat off before feeding. Maybe that contributed to the abnormally fast passage and incomplete digestion?

By the way, that was a great, descriptive picture Kitkat. The second lump was clearly beyond the stomach and just anterior to the cloaca. It definitely showed a blockage. Though not certain, I think sepsis is a very reasonable diagnosis. Can you please remind us how old this snake was and how long it had the lump before dying? The age/timing may help others in the future.

This sounds rough, but I just had a female go through a rather difficult birthing process. Some of the young became blocked and died in utero. The female couldn't pass them for nearly a month. After about three weeks, I figured that the female was going to die if nothing was done, so I began to try to manipulate the blocked (and it turned out - partially decomposed) offspring by the equivalent of a deep massage. I never pressed her from the sides for fear of breaking ribs, but I stroked her fairly deeply from the vent anteriorly to separate the young. Sure enough, she began passing the young soon afterward. I want to be clear to everyone that this was a last ditch effort, though. In hindsight, Kitkat, your problem may have been even more difficult. If you were too rough in manipulating the blockage, the bone (undigested foot) may have punctured the digestive tract. Sorry for the rotten outcome, Kitkat.

Rick

[KITKAT]

Kitkat, James,

snip

By the way, that was a great, descriptive picture Kitkat. The second lump was clearly beyond the stomach and just anterior to the cloaca. It definitely showed a blockage. Though not certain, I think sepsis is a very reasonable diagnosis. Can you please remind us how old this snake was and how long it had the lump before dying? The age/timing may help others in the future.

snip

In hindsight, Kitkat, your problem may have been even more difficult. If you were too rough in manipulating the blockage, the bone (undigested foot) may have punctured the digestive tract. Sorry for the rotten outcome, Kitkat.

Rick

I do believe sepsis was the cause of death, due to the horrible odor when I opened the gut. When I increased the temp slightly in response to his problem, I believe this caused increased growth of bacteria and overcame the baby in short time. This little fellow was about eight or nine inches long. I had gotten him as a free (just pay shipping) baby because he would not eat, and Scott was force feeding him to keep him going. Scott was surprised (and so was I) when he started eating after only one forced meal. I think he was about a month old when I got him... and I had him about six or eight weeks.

From feeding of the mouse parts, to death, took about 3 weeks, although the lump was not obvious until the latter part of that time... perhaps ten days before death was the first time it looked suspicious to me.

I believe this baby was too small to safely massage... although I did a very small amount of that on one occasion, about a week before his death.