Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I have some honduran milks that are passing feces and urates daily. They are losing weight and had a really bad breeding season. I'm taking them to the vet this week to see what may be the problem. The only transmission seems to be by breeding and lock up contact. There are only a handful of them, the rest of my collection are flourishing. Symptoms include:

weight loss
daily fecal matter and urates (very liquified)
occasional bloody stool

No regurgitation or lack of eating is seen. Any suggestions what this may be. All are captive bred and come from reliable sources/breeders. I never had any problem in my collection and only affects my hondos.

I was thinking flagyl or panacur may help....suggestions
Thanks in advance (I posted this also in the health section)
Herb

A fecal exam of each snake is a smart investment and even if the results are negative for parasites, the possibility of bugs is ruled out.
Our snakes suffer from inflammatory bowel disease just like us mammals occasionally do and a couple doses of metronidazole which has anti-inflamatory properties should stabilize the gut/intestines again. Not likely you'll ever need to repeat the treatment either. I use it periodically on very stressed snakes with loose stools like you describe.
Follow the vets advice for dosing with Flagyl (metro) and keep the snakes unstressed.
Be sure to check out Melissa Kaplan's excellent site and search for the "common reptile drugs and dosages" page - she's posted a wealth of useful and well researched information for us to use.
good luck, Jeff

*Metronidazole(Flagyl)...25-50 mg/kg body weight(oral)...you may repeat in 14 days. I usually go on the high side, as Flagyl is well tollerated by snakes even at much larger doses, but I don't recommend that.

*Fenbendazole(Panacur)...50-100 mg/kg body weight. Again, you may repeat in 14 days. This is also well tollerated by snakes.

Like Jeff stated,....it would be well advised to get a
"fecal floatation" done by a vet, just to know were you stand on the issue.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

np