Slow digestion?

[GarterGuy]

Really sorry to hear you lost your little one. Really surprised that pinky legs did all that. Wouldn't think they'd be all that hard to digest. I know all my little guys are munching on them with out any worries. Guess it was just one of those things.

Roy

[Odie]

I'm sorry for your loss
Hi, form Oregon, Anji

[anji1971]

First, thanks for the help, and condolences.
KitKat, to get to your questions- the lump was not moving, in fact it just grew bigger within the last day, however she did poo a bit during a warm soak,and after too. She ate twice a week, usually 6-8 big nightcrawlers, and if I was out in the garden and dug up any sizable worms, i'd throw them in ad lib for her to snack on.
I've been using ReptiBark for substrate, I actually wondered if maybe she swallowed a chunk of that (one of the toads did that once, although they can just spit up their stomach, get rid of it and swallow the tummy back in!!! Lucky toads!) All decorations- climbing stick, hideout, rocks have been there since day
one- 2 years.
I don't know the temps in the cage for sure- this is something new I have learned about, not even sure how to check that accurately.Have a heating pad under one end.
Honestly, KitKat it happened so quickly i don't have a clue exactly what the problem was. She was fine one week, and then she was crappy, i found this site, posted a note, bathed her, massaged her belly lightly, petted her, held her, etc.. but she was gone within 3 days after noticing she was ill. I had never had a SINGLE issue with her before- kids caught her, she was even pregnant at the time-THAT was quite a surprise a couple weeks later!!!!!
She only had one baby though so it was probably a leftover from her actual litter. She always ate well, had beautiful sheds- kids kept them to show their friends! She never got very tame, I got bit few times! But she was busy and healthy right up til last week. So who knows?????????

thanks again for getting back to me!

[KITKAT]

So sorry I could not help...

sorry you lost her!

[adamanteus]

Here's a thing...my tetrataenia are on half (lengthways) pinkies now. Yesterday I found a completely undigested pinky foot in the poo. Everything else was gone..spine, pelvis, skull etc. but a perfect foot made it through.

I buy my pinkies frozen and more often than not the feet have already snapped off 'in transit', otherwise I might see this more often? I don't know...just thought I'd mention it.

[Lulu Bennett]

i have started feeding my tetras in quarters lengthways but i havn't found anything like that in their poo

[KITKAT]

Here's a thing...my tetrataenia are on half (lengthways) pinkies now. Yesterday I found a completely undigested pinky foot in the poo. Everything else was gone..spine, pelvis, skull etc. but a perfect foot made it through.

I buy my pinkies frozen and more often than not the feet have already snapped off 'in transit', otherwise I might see this more often? I don't know...just thought I'd mention it.

I did wonder whether the tendons in the pinky foot were part of the problem, ie harder to digest. Then again, he could have been a slow eater in the first place because something was wrong. I'll never know.

[adamanteus]

Since I got them they must have eaten 50+ pinkies between the three of them, and I've only seen the one foot, so it's not an everyday occurrence. I just thought it was pertinent to this thread.

[Snaky]

I've never heard of that before... very strange, I always heard they could digest very well.
I'm sorry for your loss.

[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