Cheesie,

A lot of mixed messages and possible over reactions (IMHO).

Always quarantine a new animal for 6 months or longer. That means separate room from others and handle that animal last and clean its cage, water bowl, etc. last.

The stool did not look like a regurge to me but rather feces with some mucus (colitis). This means simply inflamation of the lower intestine. Similar to when you eat some bad "fish-n-chips" or get the flu!!! Cause could be anything from serious bacterial or parasitic infection or as simple as colitis from the stress of a new home!

Best not to flagyl an animal or for that matter treat it with anything prior to getting a veterinarian's diagnosis and recommendations for treatment! These are prescription drugs for a reason! A vet is trained on if and when and how much to use! Until you know what is going on you could at best be flushing cash down the drain or worst case exacerbating an unknown problem!

Take a deep breath, go on line and google for quarantine techniques if you are not already up on those.

Continue to feed the snake on its normal schedule.

This is not a veterinary emergency so take some time to call around and find an experienced reptile veterinarian, (ask the folks at the shop where you got the snake if they have a vet, and or look online). If there is a reptile club in your town or a neighboring town see if any of those members have a vet they use!!!

Reptile medicine is different from cat, dog, or horse medicine (obviously), but some vets would rather do something that they may not be totally qualified to do rather than let a euro slip out the door..... Don't be a jerk about it but just make sure that the vet knows what they are doing. You want them to be able to identify a would be parasite in the sample of poop they are looking at right! Also, do not worry about saving a sample of the stool. This is done in cat and dog medicine because you typically can't get a dog to crap on command. The vet can however easily squeeze out a good sample of snake poo and it don't get any fresher than than.

Even if the snake's stools begin to look normal you should take it in for a vet visit and get a fecal sample looked at. This satisfies two goals.. 1) you start to develop a relationship with a vet. Good for later when you have real emergencies..... 2) the snake may have a problem and the quicker you identify it the quicker you can treat it and move on prior to infecting all your snakes.

Again, don't stress. do your home work and don't over react.

I hope this helps to alleviate some of your questions and stress.

To do it right you will have to spend some money which is never fun but when you take on an animal you own the creature that much, right?

GOOD LUCK and please keep us posted.


JG

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