I hope you and Jeff have been practicing standard procedures for chronic regurgitation syndrome, CRS. You both may actually have little to worry about, regarding pathogens.
I won't cite verbatim, but the Diseases and Disorders chapter of most corn snake books spell out procedures for dealing with this malady. First and foremost is the need to understand what happened after the very first regurgitation. Virtually all stomach acids were expelled. Hence, there are insufficient acid stores to digest the next meal. If your snake was eating pinkies, I recommend the next three meals to be the size equivalent of a pinky head. Most people don't have the resources or experience to substitute for a pinky head, so the head will suffice. Feeding the pinky head is better than nothing and is the correct amount to feed, but given the lack of striated muscle in the head, the hind section of the pinky would be more beneficial AND more easily digested. It's just so messy. Yuckk! Having said that, the head is better than nothing and small meals are essential to restoring stomach fluids. Basically, after one or more regurgitations, your snake is incapable of digesting more than this and may not even be able to digest this much. If your snake was eating fuzzy mice, it should get a one-day old mouse pink. If it was eating adult mice, you should feed one large mouse pink or small fuzzy.
After three such feedings, six to seven days apart, move up to the next logical size. If your hatchling was getting three pinky heads in the first round, now you feed the three headless torsos of those pinks, three times, six to seven days apart. If digested completely, you can progressively work up to the size you are supposed to be feeding. Note I did not say you can move up to feeding what you WERE feeding. If temperature was not the reason for the regurgitation, often it was from feeding oversized meals in the first place.
Don't try any of this until you're certain proper digesting conditions exist in the cage. I recommend a hide every few inches in the cage when you have this problem. They will only utilize the ideal digesting temperatures if they are in complete darkness and privacy. Avoid any action that would increase stress. By offering a hide every few inches, you're giving it more options to facilitate digestion; from hot to warm to cool to cold, moving from end to end of the cage to the other. Some of my customers split PVC pipe down the middle and set both halves in the middle of the cage longitudinally. This allows the snake to move from warm to cool; in the same hide. If you use something like this, block out as much light as possible on the ends. They must not experience the stress of movement outside the cage during this important rehabilitation period.
Recap:
After a puke, you wait seven days. Then, you feed a meal 1/4 the size of what they should be getting; three times/seven days apart. After that 3-feed cycle, repeat with a meal 2/3 the size of what they should be eating; three times/seven days apart. Then, you progress to a normal feeding regimen, once every seven days. After a few weeks, you may resume your routine feeding schedule IF cage conditions are safe.
In conclusion, Tom and Jeff; you probably have no diseases in your snakes. Sometimes we can't identify the stimulus for the first regurgitation, but subsequent ones are foregone conclusions, unless subsequent meals are very small. Insufficient research has been done (so far) regarding the benefits of using Nutribac in corn snakes, but know this. Nitribac is nothing more than living bacteria (if indeed it has not been killed in shipping and storage). Nutribac is not medicine (per-se). It is simply a way to replace bacteria in a stomach that was purged of its natural bacterial flora. Simply treating with Nutribac will do nothing to eliminate potential causes, if indeed the stimulus was a pathogen. Metronidazole is a commonly used medication that kills or reduces populations of flagellated protozoa and related beasties. In captive corns, flagellated protozoa infestation is probably the number-one cause of CRS (not counting overfeeding and improper cage temperatures).
Regardless of how you two deal with your situations, it's never wise to make your own diagnoses. It would probably be the smartest money you ever spent, taking your snakes to a qualified reptile vet to make sure you know who the enemy is. I recommend that you DO NOT attempt medicating your snakes without the help from a qualified reptile vet, but either way, you must practice post-regurgitation procedures. The only thing we know for sure is that your snakes surrendered virtually all their stomach acids with the first regurgitation and are now incapable of normal digestion. Often, the only thing wrong with them is that deficit of digestive acids. The thing to keep in the front of your mind through all this is CAGE CONDITIONS. If they're not ideal, you're wasting your time and possibly your entire collection. If your snakes actually are sick, every day you are not correcting the problem, you could be infecting every reptile you own. It's almost impossible to completely prevent cross-contamination, just from washing your hands and arms between snakes.
Good luck.
South Mountain Reptiles
