Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey

We are looking for people who have experience with retained sheds. A coworkers boa has retained her shed - however she never appeared to turn grey/blue and the shed will not come off from anywhere!! Her eye caps are NOT grey at all, they are perfectly clear, but they are crinkled. When she moves you can hear her skin scrape/rustle together. The only change for her husbandry is the fact that she had UV lighting for the past month (since her last shed).

Her humidty is WAY to low, so she is working on that as we speak. This is the first time she has had such a problem. Blood tests revealed that she has an infection of some sort, so the vet put her on baytril for 8days. She has not been eating.

Any thoughts???

I have done a search of the forums, but I could not find info on whole body retained sheds (but lots of retained eye-cap info!). Would the moist pillow case be a good idea????

Thanks.

Chrissy

astroturf@cheerful.com

I would put the snake in a tub of warm water and allow to soak several hours.

Sounds severly dehydrated first off,tell them "lights are for lizards" and to never use them with Nocturnal animals.
As for fixing.......
I would soak the animal in 100% Pedialyte(unflavored) useing a heat pad to maintain solution temp above 80-85* for about 1 hr.
The animal doesnt need to float or swim,use a container that will not allow alot of free movement,but not cramped either.
Soaking for over an hour does nothing except increase your chances for a case of RI
To much space and theyll be restless and struggle or roam causeing more unneeded stress.After soaking coat your hands with liquid cooking oil and lightly handle the animal as to coat the entire lenghth.becareful not to load the vents with oil,but make sure the eye orbits get coated.Return the animal to a dark enclosure lined with clean paper towels and leave it alone.
Bring temp up to 85-88 and humidity to around 60-65
Repeat above every other day for about a week. All this prior stress with the dehydration,meds etc should kick off a shed cycle within another week or so .....?
I would also wait a few days or even a week after a shed before attempting to feed.The shed will again be very stresfull considering the past history with the animal no sense is setting up a possible regure stituation when it can easily be avoided with simple forsight.

Best Of Luck !

M/

Thank you SO MUCH for the reply, that is definetly the most info I have been able to find regarding a retained shed.

Just so you do know, the snake is about 4ft in length and is of a healthy weight, so hopefully the recovery will go smoothly.

Chrissy

Your friend's snake is already on Baytril, I would think it has a respiratory infection already. I would also think that it has a vet who prescribed it. If so, you should ask the vet for tips on how to deal with this considering the sanke has an RI too. The oiling up idea is a real good one, although I have never doine it. So be careful about the animal getting chilled in a soak. It needs a humidity bin inside the cage with moist moss instead of soaking if it already has a RI, in addition to clean fresh water everyday, because it's dehydrated too. The cage should be up to 60% 2 or 3 times a day from spraying inside it. If it's an aquarium, cover it up with a towel.

Good luck,
Caden