Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Last week, I posted about my baby corn snake who had a "lump" in his belly that wasn't going away. On Wednesday, we took her to the vet and he was able to work out most of what was lumped up there, which was a combination of some bacteria and fecal matter. By the second day, it was all worked out and she was being tube fed to get some strength, since it had been over 2 weeks since her last meal. On Saturday, she ate a pinky and kept it down. She was treated was flagyl and heat and is back on track now. Just brought her home a few minutes ago
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0.1 Ball Python
1.0 Great Basin Gopher snake
0.0.1 California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Corn Snake
1.0 Western Hognose
0.2 Kitty cats
1.0 Cat

GOOD!!! i hope she stays healthy for you!!!
~kin
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~Sober Serpents~
www.freewebs.com/soberserpents
Corns, Creamsicles, A Black Rat, Thayeri, Cal Kings, A Jungle Corn(Just A Pet), A Ball Python, A Bearded dragon, Leopard Geckos, Green Anoles, a Snapping turtle, and a white cheeked mud turtle

Hey!,...that's great news!,......but keep in mind, make the meals very small, and a little less frequent for a while. The snake's intestinal tract has really gone through hell recently, and you certainly don't want any problems reocurring after all that.

Easy does it for a bit until you really feel things are back to normal. Again, glad to hear it survived!, Please keep us posted on how the snake is doing in a while.

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

Congrats! Hope she continues to improve.
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Jenea
Guardian Reptiles

"When your memories are bigger than your dreams, you're headed for the grave" Author unknown

Since my vet has snakes of his own, he breeds mice. Some were born this passed weekend and that he fed on Saturday with success. He gave me two of those new pinkies to bring home (no charge, he's awesome) too. But I stupidly did not ask him how long I should wait until the next meal. I had been trying to feed every 4-5 days before, but that seems a little too frequent for this snake. So, maybe she should be on the once a week schedule that most of the other snakes are on?? How long do you think I should wait to offer the next meal? Of course, if I'm still not sure by the end of the week, I'll just call the vet and ask.

Thanks for the support guys. I'll keep you posted on her progress. I'm happy to have her home
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0.1 Ball Python
1.0 Great Basin Gopher snake
0.0.1 California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Corn Snake
1.0 Western Hognose
0.2 Kitty cats
1.0 Cat

As I mentioned before, I would do very SMALL meals, once every 7 to 10 days for at least a month or so, this would allow it's intestinal tract to get some relief from all it's gone through recently. The snake will do absolutely fine on this regimen until it gets back to normal. Over-feeding the young snake is what caused the problem in the first place, so under NO CERCUMSTANCE would I take a chance on it getting to big of a meal at this point,....the snake cannot go through another battle like it just did, or it will likely die next time.

Another thing, the antibiotic Flagyl(Metronidazole) kills all the good flora(bacteria) in the gut(as well as the bad), that is needed for proper digestion, that being said, common sense would dictate that larger meals would NOT be able to be digested properly by the young, small snake. I've seen this type of thing happen many many times in the past. Go easy and SMALL with meals, only then will it continue to do better, that little dude has had a rough time, make it easy on him, not tougher.

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

It's funny how different the answer to the same question can be based on who you ask. When I first got this baby snake, I intended on feeding about once a week, then I was told by many resources that a snake that young needs to be fed once every 4-5 days. So that was what I tried for, but it wasn't consistant. Sometimes I fed on the 5th day, sometimes it was the 7th, sometimes the 9th. For about 3 weeks, it was a steady pinky every 5-6 days. But I was feeding too much??

Now, you keep saying small meals. I have 2 pinky mice that were just born on Friday or Saturday that I froze on Monday when they were given to me. I don't think I can get any smaller than that. None of the stores I've ever been in that sell feeder mice offer anything smaller than what I have. Will that do?
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0.1 Ball Python
1.0 Great Basin Gopher snake
0.0.1 California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Corn Snake
1.0 Western Hognose
0.2 Kitty cats
1.0 Cat

There can be several answers to the same thing sometimes, but the right answer depends on the "ACTUAL" conditions, AND the individual animal. For example...the temperature, snakes, especially young hatchling snakes need a certain amount of warmth to help them digest meals. Now I don't know what your temps are in it's enclosure, but optimumly, it should have a cooler side around 74-77 degrees(with small hide box), and a warm side(also with hide box) that's 81-85 degrees at the substrate level where the snake actually IS(inside the warm hide). This will allow the snake to thermoregulate it's temps as it sees fit for any given condition.

Now like you said, many(including me) will often feed young hatchlings every 4-5 days, sometimes slightly more often than that, but that is depending on meal size, species, and their individual ability to digest the meal.

Now is the time that I'm stressing you to feed it SMALL meals for a while(after the vet ordeal), yes, the smallest pinkies you can get(as you previously mentioned) because the snake obviously had a serious infection problem in it's intestinal tract, so I stress SMALL meals for this reason for a while to see if those are digested without problems.

Again, there's really no exact science to any of this, they are individual animals that can have different needs at times, THIS being one of those times after all the infection trauma.

Never mind what others have done with their animals, you just focus on the immediate needs of this one, and make sure the environment is like I previously mentioned, and do small, less frequent feedings for a while, and see how things go from there.

hope this helps some!

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

That if the snake is very small, and the meal seems a little large, whichit just might, as you CANNOT risk another intestinal episode, or regurgitation, you can cut the frozen pinky in half, and offer it the thawed/warmed portion. I have done this many times with problem hatchling snakes that couldn't risk eating larger meals for one reason or another. This would really be the safer route in my opinion for right now with this particular situation.

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

Gotcha. Thanks!

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0.1 Ball Python
1.0 Great Basin Gopher snake
0.0.1 California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Corn Snake
1.0 Western Hognose
0.2 Kitty cats
1.0 Cat

As was mentioned...

Another thing, the antibiotic Flagyl(Metronidazole) kills all the good flora(bacteria) in the gut(as well as the bad), that is needed for proper digestion, that being said, common sense would dictate that larger meals would NOT be able to be digested properly by the young, small snake. I've seen this type of thing happen many many times in the past. Go easy and SMALL with meals, only then will it continue to do better, that little dude has had a rough time, make it easy on him, not tougher..

I totally agree on this, and once the little feller is up and feeling better I might consider some probiotics to stimulate the belly flora.. I was thinking of posting the tummy issue, but I was beat by the excellent post..

Regards. Tim of T and J

The idea of the Flagyl killing the good bacteria also has me just a little bit concerned. The Vet treated her with Flagyl and also ended up feeding her a new-born pinky a day or two later. She ate on Saturday and the "lump" from the mouse wasn't all that big. However, it looks a little bigger today. She likes the tree I have in her tank and spends most of her time there, so today, I took her out to get a good look at her (while she was out.. for just a second at one point, a little clear bubble came out of the side of her mouth) and I put her back in her hide on the warm side of the tank. I will also add a little more heat from a light, to hopefully help her digest.

Did the vet feed her too soon? Could this be the first sign of the problem returning already? Maybe I'm just paranoid now.
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0.1 Ball Python
1.0 Great Basin Gopher snake
0.0.1 California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Corn Snake
1.0 Western Hognose
0.2 Kitty cats
1.0 Cat

Just take note of what has been mentioned above.. I am not sure about the bubble thing though.. Easy does it...

Regards... Tim of T and J