This happened to three of my snakes this year.

One, a female black milk had her last egg get stuck just above the cloaca. For some reason she did not like her eggs box set-up because she waited until day 18 to finally lay 7 eggs and then the last got stuck. Vet removed this via surgery and she's doing fine now, eating, etc. This was her first year breeding and she was a five year old black milk. Plenty big, etc. Other black milk in identical set-up laid a dozen great eggs and is almost ready with her second clutch.

Second was a three year old hondo that reabsorbed her first clutch this year. Like others have reported, she swelled up, I could palpate what I thought were eggs, she went into her shed and then nothing. So I continued feeding and then she went into what would be her second clutch cycle, laid six eggs but I could feel two small masses far up her oviduct and she went off feed. So 7 days later vet removed two normal looking eggs via surgery (the eggs were infertile but looked fine) The rest of the clutch is fine and should hatch in about a month or so.

The third snake was another female hondo, four years old, her second year breeding. Last year, two great clutches. This year, one great clutch of eight but she must have retained one egg far up in the oviduct. I assumed she was simply ovulating maybe again. She went off feed and two months later vet removed one large and putrid egg from oviduct. Everything was healhty and blood counts came back nornmal. No sign of infection and she's eating again.

All of these snakes are large so I'm thinking that traditional rack caging set-up plays a factor in long muscle fiber development or lack thereof. I'll add more structure (cork logs) to their cages and see if this continues next year.

This was a very expensive experience but the best thing overall for my snakes.


Rob

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