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another egg bound snake question. i have an aberrant sinaloan. 15 days after her pre-lay shed she layed one good egg. now almost a week after the first good egg, she has yet to lay anymore. she clearly has at least five big eggs in her. the closest one is about an inch from the vent. i soaked her in warm water. ive been told everything from leaving her alone, to manually pushing the eggs out, to aspirating the eggs. i called the vet and i now understand how they afford their lifestyles. any ideas would be great. or if anyone is near the austin area ill give you half the offsping if you get the eggs out. thank you, troy.

point cause they won't be any good even if you do get them.Just try to save your snake.The first egg could be adhered to the ovaduct.You should try aspirating the egg first.Just take a 1.0cc syringe and small needle and go strait into the egg from in between the scales on one side.You will probably extract about 3 cc.then the egg will be calapsed and may be palpated out pretty easy,This works alot of the time and I havn't lost a snake from this.
I have also had pretty good results with takeing a long q-tip and dipping it in a lubricant then inserting it up through the cloaca and try to go all the way around the egg.
I have had them pop right out after applying the lube then palpating gently.

Good luck and I hope you can save her its been a while since she laid that first egg.
Shannon

n/p

Ditto on the aspiration. Only I wouldn't have waited a week. Three days max, then I go in. Haven't lost a snake yet. Better to lose the eggs than the female. Many years ago I did the vet visits. Three different snakes, three diff. vets, and three dead snakes within 2 months afterwards. Each trip over $200. So much for reptile vets. Maybe there's a " good vet" out there, but not in the tri-state area. They're all very good in the math department though.

Good luck with yours. If you don't know how, find someone local from the herp clubs.

Mike

good luck with her, troy, you've gotten good advice.

fwiw, my vet's removed whole clutches of retained eggs from females on several occasions, and not only did the females live but they bred successfully and laid without problems in subsequent years. so it can be done.

now a question: what's the advice here when a single egg is "stuck" high up in a female?

peace
terry

>>another egg bound snake question. i have an aberrant sinaloan. 15 days after her pre-lay shed she layed one good egg. now almost a week after the first good egg, she has yet to lay anymore. she clearly has at least five big eggs in her. the closest one is about an inch from the vent. i soaked her in warm water. ive been told everything from leaving her alone, to manually pushing the eggs out, to aspirating the eggs. i called the vet and i now understand how they afford their lifestyles. any ideas would be great. or if anyone is near the austin area ill give you half the offsping if you get the eggs out. thank you, troy.

I would drain the egg stuck way up before it "hardens" with the appropiate syringe. This worked for me twice. Haven't had any egg bound animals in over 7 years. Prior to egg laying, even before the pre S/S, I like to warm up the animal (either to a warmer area or a UTH) so she drinks more water. After egg laying, I would feel for any eggs high up, and give her 2 days max before draining. If egg is visible at the vent, a little pressure is applied, being mindful of the membrane encasing the egg.

P.S. You're lucky to have a competent vet near you. All the ones I've been to in my early days should switch vocations and go into politics.

Mike

Mike

Terry,
I would say that the same applys to a egg stuck up high.I would asperate the egg of all fluid and then I would soak the snake in pedyalite (not sure on the spelling but its for dehydrated infants).
I have done this about six times over trhe years and only had one snake that died cause she just would deposit the egg.
I also have had a couple snakes never lay the eggs (sometimes six or seven) but still breed fine the next year.Just feels like hard lumps as the snake passes through.They turn into calcium after time and the snake usses it up.
You may need to gently palpate the egg out after she has soaked for a couple days

Shannon

Hey Terry,
I've been breeding hondos for a few years now and encountered my first eggbound female this season. She laid 6 fertile eggs but clearly had one left stuck high up in her. I soaked her for about 20 minutes in warm water after the 5th day following the laying of the primary clutch of eggs and then let her try and work it out on her own. On the 7th day, which is today, I noticed that she still didn't pass the egg so I took her out and soaked her again. After about 20 minutes of soaking her, I took a Q-tip and applied petroleum jelly just barely on the entrance of her cloaca. Then I gently massaged the egg out using my right thumb on the underside of her belly. I would apply just enough pressure to ease the egg down and once it felt like it would not go any further, I would hold it there with my thumb still applying pressure so it would not go back up. The whole time I kept her tail and cloaca submerged in the warm water. After about 5 solid minutes of constant pressure, she released some bowel movements and then the egg (still soft and full of liquid yoke) slowly popped right out. This is obviously very stressfull to the snake but now that the egg is out, she can rest for a bit and hopefully have a safe recovery. There is always a risk of losing the female when it gets this far but I feel that the risk of internal organ damage from the manual pressure of palpating an egg is no more or less than the risk of inserting a syringe into the female to aspirate the egg and possibly risk puncturing an organ or infection from any egg fluids leaking into the female. It all comes down to what has worked for some and what has failed for others. I got this advice from my old man who has bred Kingsnakes for years and is now retired in San Diego. Just my experience for what it's worth...Barin