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IM looking for a little info.I have a rosey boa that took to shipment rather poorly and became stubborn about eating. This lasted aprox 1 month with only one pinkie consumed. It formerly was in a rack, quiet part of the house with belly heat, fed f/t.I have duplicated those conditions .

It then ate a juvie mouse which it regurged after aprox 2-3 days with the mouse being perhaps 50% digested. I offered it fresh water each day and it drank a great deal once. 10 days later it took two pinkie mice which 2 days later it has regurged.
The snake is still responsive, feisty and moves freely about its cage. But has dropped some weight.

The other 5 roseys I own are doing well and eating very well.
My question is there anything else I might be able to do and how long before this could do irreversable harm to the snake? The vets in the available area all offered to look it up on the Internet. Not their fault..just they are dog and cat vets.

Rosies are notorious for this. Once they start regurgitating, it can be a real issue.

The snake needs access to warm temps to aid in recovery. I don't mean 80 deg shoebox temps, I mean up to 88-90 deg (at one end of the cage.) I would shoot for 75 at the cool end. Give the snake hides so it can access the warm temps. Many regurgitating rosies will eagerly make use of very warm spots.

Soak the rosy in about 1/4" of water for 5-10 minutes to rehydrate it. For a possibly dehydrated snake, this is better than just offering water. Regurgitation dehydrates snakes.

The snake may possibly have a parasite load gone out of hand due to stress. Flagyl helps alot for this. Sometimes just one dosage and the snake is good to go. Dog vets can supply it. You can find it online. Dosage - I forgot, something like 1mg per kg of snake. Others here know.

I'm no vet, and I gave Flagyl to rosies that I wasn't sure if parasites were a problem. Sounds like a bad practice. Not one of them reacted negatively to the Flagyl. I was told by a vet that one dose of Flagyl is fairly harmless to a snake if it turns out the snake didn't need it. Was true for these rosies.

Also, rosies take time to build up the flora (good bacteria) needed for digestion after regurging. Wait a good 7-10 days with elevated temps. Then feed a single super-small meal. Don't bother the snake after that at all.

Some people rave about the probiotic supplements that help regenerate the gut bacteria needed for proper digestion. I've never tried it on a rosy. Might be something to look into if all else fails. Python breeders use it.

Although may not be the issue, too much humidity for days and weeks in a cage can make rosies not feel so good. When I used cages with little ventilation, I simply did not leave a water dish in there for more than a day or two at a time. Can't hurt to try.

From my experience, I have gotten rosies on track using Flagyl, warm temps and a largely hands-off approach. I've had a few that didn't respond to anything. Those were shipped to me that way and never recovered. I may have not known then about the high temps. Best heat source (even if it is a secondary heat source) for an ailing rosy - ceramic heat emitter. I stand by that.

Good luck. Rosies can be very sensitive to stress. This doesn't happen with Cal kings.
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Mark

One additional suggestion to add to that, would be to NOT try to feed the snake ANYTHING at all for another 10-15 days. If another food item is offered, and it is regurgitated again, this will even make matters MUCH worse than they already are.

The extra heat Mark mentioned should help things out immensely in getting the snake back on track. Also, I haved used Flagyl(Metronidazole) with great success on occasion, the proper dosage is 25 to 50 mg per/kg of body weight, it comes in paste form for horses, and 250 mg. tablets. Flagyl is well tollerated by snakes, so I use the higher side dosage of 50 mg per/kg. I've heard of dosages far in excess of that with no ill effects, but there's no need to basically exceed the 50 mg. dose. In a 250 mg. pill, a 300 gram snake takes 1/16th of the pill, this breaks down to 15.6 mg. for the 300 gram animal.

I break off the necessary portion of the pill, cruch it into fine powder, put it into a small shot glass, add approx. 1 1/2 cc. of water, and mix as thoroughly as possible. No matter how long you mix it though, it will NOT completely dissolve, so just stir it up again just prior to drawing it up in a syringe, or small tapered eye-dropper. Then hold the snake in an upright position, gently pry the mouth open, and glide the tip of tubing, or eye dropper(I use a special stainless steel tip) down the snake's mouth, being careful to avoid going down the glottis(wind-pipe), and slowly force the liquid down the throat. Keep the snake upright so gravity will help it into the stomach, there, it will kill pathogens such as Entamoeba invadens, Trichomonas, Balantidium, Rhizopoda, Flaggellates, and Ciliates.
Do NOT attempt to feed the snake ANYTHING after administration for at least 10 days, and thereafter, give it a VERY small meal while still keeping temps up. If this SMALL meal is successfully held down, you can GRADUALLY increase the size of meals in small incriments.

Wow, so much for my only ONE other suggestion!..LOL!
in any case, I've had a few snakes over many years that I administered Flagyl to this way, there was one in particular that regurged EVERY SINGLE MEAL, no matter how small,......in comes Flagyl,.....problem GONE!

Hope you get the snake helped out!

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

>>Also, I haved used Flagyl(Metronidazole) with great success on occasion, the proper dosage is 25 to 50 mg per/kg of body weight>>

OK, so I was off 25-50 times the dose. What's your point? lol

Great info. Thank you.

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Mark

n/p
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"