We had a girl a couple of years ago that had this happen and she ended up having surgery. She is fine now, in fact we believe her to be gravid. The vet could not offer any explanation other than "stuff happens" sometimes. I got to help with the surgery which was facinating. He removed two tennis ball size impactions and then closed her back up.

His only real recommendations before we ended up doing the surgery was to soak her, soak her, and soak her some more.
Her impactions were more mid body and not low enough to attempt an enema, which we had disscussed, however I never would have attempted something like that without his assistance if he had thought that was an option.

We had another that went 6 months without having a movement, but when x-rayed was not actually impacted. You can see on the x-ray where the stool becomes dry and cracked. In that case, he recommened injecting her rat with mineral oil, soaking her and getting her out for exercise regularly. Which worked just fine.
We now have an exercise tree that everybody gets to play on regularly to keep this from happening ever again.(if that is possible) Some of our larger boas , even though they have plenty of room, and don't get over fed,(I don't like fat pin-headed snakes) don't move about their enclousures a whole lot. Hence, the exercise tree! It's good for them and they seem to really enjoy it,.... at least they don't want to let go of the darn thing when it is time to go back home.

Hope some of this might help. I think alot of it depends on where the impaction is and how severe it is, that would help determine what the best treatment would be.

Kathy

A picture of the exercise tree in action.

[ Hide Replies ]

• Boa With Impacted Stool, Any Advice??? - fgs, Fri Sep 15 10:30:07 2006
• RE: Boa With Impacted Stool, Any Advice??? - Riobravoreptiles, Fri Sep 15 10:40:47 2006
• RE: Boa With Impacted Stool, Any Advice??? - johnriz, Fri Sep 15 11:00:27 2006
• maybe... long> - drimes, Fri Sep 15 14:56:15 2006
• I've used the same thing......... - SNAKE26, Fri Sep 15 22:52:18 2006