Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just took my new northen pine to the vet because he has been passing undigested food for the couple weeks. After I fed him a small mouse the first time he pooped out the whole mouse 1 day later. Feeding two I gave him a fuzzy same result. I have his warm side around 86 and cool side around 80. He also has a great feeding response. The vet gave me a high protien dog food that is like a thick liquid and meant to put weight on dogs. I am suppose to feed him with a sarringe again on Tuesday. He told me the purpose of this is it will be easy for him to digest.Just wondering if anyone else has had experience with this?

Ken

Sounds like your snake is regurgitating it's meals. Sometimes if a snake is, too hot, too cold, stressed , handled , parasites, dehydrated, no hide box, too much food, Bad food etc..etc. I can't tell you the reason.

The A/D your vet gave you is good but I wouldn't give it to a snake that's regurgitating it's food. It could and will aspirate it into it's lungs and die. Also Tube feeding is dangerous and stressful to the snake. It would be much safer to wait and offer food later..A week or two. Give the A/D to your dog...

I agree with colby. I do not know If your vet has herp experience but firstly do not feed the animal for 2 weeks. get a body wt. in kilograms. Find a vet that can do a fecal analysis and or stomach wash(pull material out of the stomach with sterile technique).
Identify why it is regurging or having undigested meals(which ever is going on) by looking for parasites or microbial infection and treat accordingly.

tube feeding is a last resort. If I tube feed a snake I consider it to be as good as dead.........last resort.

Find a vet with herp experience or one that is willing to contact a colleague that has experience.

Once you get the snake over this hump you can begin to address the husbandry elements that may have lead to problems.

GOOD LUCK

I didn't think it sounded right to force feed the snake like that yet. I am not sure if it is anything to do with my husbandry. My cage does not get any warmer then 86 on the warmside and stays around 80 on the cool side. My 2 other northern pines are in the exact same conditions on the same thermostat. Just got the from different places. He also has plenty of places to hide and I have not been handling the month I have had him except cage cleaning time. I will take your advice on trying a different vet. I just moved to the las vegas area and I was refeered to him by two other breeders in the area. Thanks for the advice.

Ken

I agree with John, I would address immediately the husbandry or the animal. It sounds as if the little guy is being kept too warm to me. My pits are all kept in the 78 - 82 degree range, with a few exceptions n some that need lower temps than that. 86 is not an optimum temp. and may be stressing the little guy. My strong suggestion would be to lower his temp. to 78 - 82 degrees, clean his cage top to bottom, make sure he has a hide box, clean fesh water and get a weight on him. then do as John suggested and wait two weeks, and give him a furry or something very easy to digest if he is a yearling or less I would even just give a large pink the first time around and I bet you correct your problem. Over medication and interdicton can many times be a fatal mistake.

John cherry
Cherryville Farms

Cherryville Farms

Sounds like your snake has had two regurges. This is not good. Regurgitating is very hard on your snakes digestive tract. You do not mention what size your animal is, but I would not feed it anything for 14 days. Then try feeding a very small meal, something that will not put a visible lump in your snake. Wait 10 days before feeding again. Once you see that your snake is passing normal stools, then start increasing the size of the food item. I would also try reducing your cage temps to 75 on the low end to no more than 82 on the high side. Do you have a temp gun to verify your temps? Make sure your snake has plenty of fresh water. My northerns have always liked to drink plenty of water. Good luck!

My snake is less then a year old.I will try dropping the tempatures down to 82 (I do have a temp gun). I did not know northerns liked it that cool.I grew up in the pine barrins and the environment there is a lot hotter then that in the summer. He does always have fresh water available. The fuzzy I fed him was very small for him I was surprised that came back up. I will try feeding him again in a couple weeks. I have 15 other snakes (6 pits) and I have never had this problem. I think I may need to get his fecal matter tested.

Ken

>>My snake is less then a year old.I will try dropping the tempatures down to 82 (I do have a temp gun). I did not know northerns liked it that cool.I grew up in the pine barrins and the environment there is a lot hotter then that in the summer. He does always have fresh water available. The fuzzy I fed him was very small for him I was surprised that came back up. I will try feeding him again in a couple weeks. I have 15 other snakes (6 pits) and I have never had this problem. I think I may need to get his fecal matter tested.
>>
>>Ken

Ken keep him away from your other snakes and wash your hands.Good luck.
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