Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently purchased a rather overweight female sand boa and someone said something about being gravid, but having no idea and no money I can't take her to the vet... I've had her for about a week and I started researching. She had a very hard spot in her body and I know that's bad news, I've soaked her thinking it was an impaction hoping it wasn't a fecolith. I called the pet store I bought her from and they said not to worry, so naturally I did. I took her in tonight to see if she was going to be ok, they felt her, she hadn't eaten for two weeks and I know that's no big deal but I was still concerned. After taking her home I took her out of the box she was in and I guess the stress caused her to abort one of her young. It was not even close to being developed and I was curious if all the palpating mixed with the pressure and stress could cause her to abort the rest of her unborn? I'm very upset and hope that the rest of her babies are going to make it

It's near impossible to say how the other babies are going to do. There is a story in the preamble of the Mader text that tells/shows a pic of a snake that had it's kidney squeezed out by an over exhuberant petstore employee who thought it was constipated. eewh!

The best that you can do at this moment is to continue your research and give this snake optimum husbandry/care. Read sections on breeding and learn what females prefer when bearing young. This is a live-bearing species. They may not want to eat during this time, but it wouldn't hurt to offer slightly smaller prey during this time in case they are hungry.

Good luck

Ian

thank you very much for your reply. I will keep an eye out for all the information I can get. This is my first snake. I have a blue tongue skink and whatever my boa won't eat I feed to her so it doesn't go to waste. I didn't push out the egg but i'm sure it came out due to the stress of it. I'll be sure not to push out a kidney or anything for that matter. Thanks again for your help.

I didn't mean to imply that you'd squeezed her to injury, but showing that unexperienced people, even at a petstore, can do more harm than good.
Good luck with your boa. I would just like to add that it may not be a good idea to share leftovers. It cuts down on waste, but disease/parasite transfer is possible this way. At least until your new snake is happy and healthy for several consecutive months I would do everything to keep them as seperate as possible

Ian