Well, I have now had a personal experience with reproductive issues in a Desert female. I am going to try and make this as short and summarized as possible because I hate to type… LOL
This is still going to be a long post due to pictures and descriptions of my experience. I am posting in hopes that a few questions can be answered and to let inquiring minds make their own decision on this topic. I believe there is some valuable information here and I learned a few things first hand.
On Friday 7/20/2012, this Desert Enchi aka Tiger female passed 2 slugs(infertile ova). She seemed to still have 2 slugs/eggs in her so I waited her out until today. Today I tried to manually palpate these eggs slugs out but they stopped about 3 inches from her vent. So we went to my colleague’s Veterinary practice. For those of you that do not know my background, I am a Certified Veterinary Technician and I teach Veterinary Assistance. My colleague is a good friend and great Veterinary Surgeon. Note; this picture was taken today before we left to the clinic.


Once at the clinic we anesthetized her with a gas anesthetic (Isoflourane). Once under general anesthetic, we again tried to manually palpate the remaining eggs/slugs out. Again they stopped about 3 inches from her vent. So now we are off to surgery.



In these pictures you can see the surgeon removing the first slug. Once removed, he found that she had a stricture in her oviduct that was preventing her from passing the slug. The stricture was so small that he couldn’t pass a red rubber catheter thru (1/8 inch diameter). The stricture was about 3 inches from her vent/cloaca.




Now he is trying to remove the second slug. He tried to move it down and thru his original surgical opening. He found that she had another stricture in her oviduct so he had to make a second incision.




Before he closed her up we obtained a sample from the lumen of her oviduct to submit for culture. I had collaborated with another breeder that is also a DVM and he recommended it since we were there. The results of the culture will be back in a week or so and I can give an update. I don’t think that it will yield anything diagnostic but you never know…. And if you don’t try, then it would be a waste not to, in my opinion.


Post op pictures. She is doing well and I anticipate a full recovery.



In closing I would like to voice my opinion on what I think is going on. My opinion is based on my experience, opinions from colleagues and information readily available from other breeders that have had similar issues with Desert female reproduction. I think at least 2 things are going on.
1) I think that Desert females have issues producing viable ova that can be fertilized. This could explain the very high infertility issues.
2) I think a large number have anatomical issues with their oviducts preventing the passage of eggs/slugs. Like strictures seen in this female.
I hope that this helps those with questions about reproductive issues in Desert females.
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Best regards,
AlanColesReptiles

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