Posted by:
LindaH
at Sun Feb 27 10:22:03 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by LindaH ]
Hi,
Fortunately, I have never dealt with constipation with my boas. I soak all my rats for a couple of hours in water as I am thawing them. For my gravid females, I also inject the thawed rats with water – as much as the rat body can reasonably hold - without popping...ack  My boas have always had nice moist, but firm, poops like clockwork.
I have heard of soaking the constipated boa, like you are doing. I have seen one boa palpated gently to help move the hardened feces along toward the vent. I don’t think I would be comfortable doing this without instruction and demonstration from my vet first.
This is from Dr Mader’s book ‘Reptile Medicine and Surgery’. He recommends saline enemas for constipation. The saline volume should be 1% of the boa’s body weight. He says the catheter should be well lubricated with water soluble lubricant. The saline flush is followed by aspiration and repeated several times. He also says a commercial balanced electrolyte stool softener will work well when administered to well-hydrated patients. However, he says constipation is often the result of dehydration in carnivorous specimens fed heavily furred animals – so I don’t know how comfortable I would be giving a stool softener to a snake that is already dehydrated.
Perhaps some more soaking will do the trick or the saline enema. Like I said before, I don’t have any first hand experience with this problem. Once your baby poops, you might want to try the rat soaking thing and/or injecting them with additional water.
Best wishes for impending poopage 
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Linda Hedgpeth
lindafh@frontiernet.net
Sierra Serpents
"...and God took a handful of southerly wind, blew his breath over it and created the horse..."
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RE: something to worry about? - LindaH, Sun Feb 27 10:22:03 2005