Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Let me start by introducing myself. I am a wildlife/exotics rescue/rehabber, and have been for ten years. I have extended experience in many medical proceedures, including giving injections, and tube feeding a variety of animals, from brown pelicans, to armadillos, to tiny baby wild rabbits. I have successfully rehabbed several severely dehydrated lizards by tube feeding.

Yesterday afternoon, I got in an emaciated ball. It has been anorexic for months and the keeper just let it go too long. I consulted with a well respected snake rehabber, and we decided, based on the snakes critical condition, that tubing was her ONLY hope. It worked, at least so far. She is still very much alive and slightly more alert this morning with no sign of regurgitation or respiratory distress.

Now I have a question. How much fluids/reptiaid should I be getting down her and how often? Does anyone have experience with tube feeding, with fluid replacement, or with rehabbing an emaciated snake, and have some guidelines, or am I just to navigate through the dark here?

Any advice would be most appreciated.

I have a little experience. A year ago my wife and I rescued a wild caught, adult female. She was dehydrated, emaciated, had mouth rot, scale rot, pneumonia, Ticks and mites. After a trip to the vet and several injections, daily soaks 2x 20min each for 30 days, and four weekly tube feedings of Hills a/d, 1 ounce per Kg w/ a 1:1 ratio of pedialite, she got better. After that we stopped tube feeding and began to introduce live prey, she went hungry for 2 months, but when she was ready she ate with a vengance. The food ratio is the same recomended by Roger J. Klingenberg,DVM in "The Ball Python Manual".
Hope this helps.

Thanks so much, but she passed. She had been left to starve for months before the people decided to turn her over to me. I tubed her for a few weeks, but I noticed that she could not coil the latter half of her body and was quite edemic there. A vet visit revealed that she had blown kidneys from the prolonged starvation and dehydration.

Unfortunately, I just got this one too late.

Thanks again.
dc
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