Reptile & Amphibian Forums

...one of these unless you have cut open a baby boa who died because it had a hard yolk belly, or like me, with enough fiddling with different treatments, were lucky enough to get the boa to pass it. This was a worthy foe, but things are looking up now. The baby isn't 100%, but the mass is gone. Thanks to all who took an interest and emailed.

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Davey Giltner

Wow, the mass looks pretty gnarly. Good job bro on figuring it out. I will definetely be keeping the technique handy if I have to deal with the same issue.
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Randall L Turner Jr.
Boas make the world go round.

I'm afraid that I missed the drama that you apparently had. Was this from being a premie? How exactly di you coax it out? If you already have this info somewhere, can you post a link ? Thanks, David
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I'm just the snake room janitor

I had three premies that had a LOT of yolk outside of the body when born,and in less than 5 hours had absorbed almost all of it into the body. Subsequently, the yolk that was taken in was not used by the body before it became hardened.
My concern began when those three didn't shed with the group, and escalated when I saw swelling in the abdomen. The yolk itself didnt cause swelling, only a hard lump that could be felt. What I assumed to be an infection caused swelling before and after that lump. That was treated with antibiotics used for marine fish. I figured that would be easiest, as it can be added to water for them to drink, or to soak in. When the swelling went down, and the lump remained, I posted here on Kingsnake asking for help, and got numerous emails with suggestions. Many had experienced the same thing, and the most common responses was "Mine died". I didn't want to go down like that without a fight.
I had three animals to work with... so I had three test animals that would die if I didn't do anything, so dieing from anything other than nothing wasn't going to feel so bad.
One was my control animal. It was given antibiotics only to control the swelling.It died on sunday trying to pass the mass.
By the end I had both of the other 2 on tubed mineral oil, and saline injections into the masses.
Early on, one of those was given just mineral oil, and then it was tubed some saline. Saline seemed to work, but worked better when injected into the mass. When the one who was injected with saline and tubed the mineral oil seemed to be doing awesome, I switched the other(the one pictured in the other post) to that treatment strategy.
There are a lot of blanks to fill in regarding quanties, frequency, and what exactly I used, and when I get time I will do a write up on that. For now, I am just still hopefull that the one that passed the big chunk makes it.
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Davey Giltner

I won't be responding to those emails sent by people who want to attack my method, or the fact that I shared what they consider to be veterinary advice on the forum.I didn't do this because I thought it would be fun. I did it because it was better than letting them die. Local vets had no advice for me.
My reasoning doesn't matter anyway, I am sharing so that maybe someone can use it to help their snakes.

I am a plumber, not a doctor, that doesn't mean I am stupid though.

I wouldn't have tried anything that I thought would have any ill effect on the snakes, only things that would either help, or not hurt.

Mineral oil was suggested by a few people, and I thought if nothing else it will lubricate the passage,or do nothing.It was tubed in orally using antenna tubing used for remote control cars. These were new, and boiled before use.

Saline solution is used for everything these days,and I thought it would either disolve the mass, or at least hydrate it enough to be passed when coupled with the mineral oil, or do nothing.

I used betadyne prior to injections, and used sterile needles provided by my diabetic sister to make the injections. To avoid infection at the injections sites, I soaked each boa for half an hour in a Maracyn triple antibiotic solution.
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Davey Giltner

sounds like you know more than most Vets at least about snakes. LOL good luck with the little guy.
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Vince Pramuk

Thanks for sharing it with us.

That is terrific news. If it works all the time you will have saved hundreds of future babies!
Look for an email from me.
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http://www.GilbertBoas.com/

I can't help but see the solution is a lot like plumbing really, isn't it? Maybe it took a plumber's mind to think of it. Way to go, for all the future babies. It's terrible that people would write you and criticize you for saving baby boas lives. I salute you for not just letting them die.
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Caden Chapman
slithering.serpents@gmail.com
http://slitheringserpents.com

Congratulations Davey! I am very impressed at how your method has worked for you. I am also impressed at how a guy who is "just a plumber" figured out what the veterinarians in his area could not!

Well done young man....you are TOPS in my book!
Keep up the good work!

Denny Rimes

Congrats on pulling that one thou Dave..I didn't see your other post. That baby boa look healthy enough,again Great Job Dave

Greg VanZweden
http://www.vanzwedenreptiles.com/

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Forever Trust in what we are,and nothing else Matters