Posted by:
Blackwater
at Mon Nov 10 16:44:41 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Blackwater ]
Most of the time, (unless you're feeding green rats to your snakes LOL) the green color in the fecal material is indicative of a bacterial infection, in my experience. I'd suggest taking a fecal sample to a vet to have it analyzed for pathogens. Is the snake a wild caught animal? It may be thinking it's time to den for the winter, and that could be one cause for the fast... she could be tough to get started without cooling for at least a couple of weeks to see if you can fool her into thinking it's spring again. Once you have the fecal sample examined (some of what you took the photo of might work if it isn't too dried out yet) you'll probably end up having to give her some flagyl and possibly panacur. You can search for doses here (roughly 100mg/kg body weight, if I recall correctly) and also suggestions on administration of the meds if you've never done that before. It's not too hard to do, but if you haven't much experience I'd suggest taking the snake to a vet that will treat venomous (if that's an option) or finding a local keeper with the experience, so you can learn correctly.... the only real "trick" to getting a feeding/medicating tube in is lubricating it a little... The only dangerous aspects are 1) that you don't insert the tube in the lung, and 2) that you aren't so rough as to scrape up the esophagial region while pushing in the tube. I buy catheters from Bean Farm with a round tip to medicate snakes... they're cheap so you're not tempted to re-use them and cross infect another animal, and they have holes in the sides of the tube so that the end can be smooth for easy and safe insertion... The come with a fairly large (30cc If I recall correctly) syringe.... large enough to mix the meds in some pedialyte with some puree'd turkey or chicken for a little protein and fat in the "cocktail" and the holes in the sides allow you to squeeze a little medicine out on the way in to wet the tip as you push....
Best regards,
Tom Townsend
>>Can anyone give me some possible suggestions as to what greenish colored poop might indicate? The snake is a south western speckled rattlesnake that gave birth in late sept. and has only eaten one meal since. She is pretty thin right now and I am wondering if part of the problem is that she might be chronically ill.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Brendan
>>
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"Seek first to understand, then to be understood"
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RE: Crotalid defication - Blackwater, Mon Nov 10 16:44:41 2003