Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Last year we had an albino female close to 1900g become eggbound. I posted pictures here when I suspected things weren't going well and contacted a few other breeders requesting input. The consensus was that she looked pretty bad and intervention would be required. I believe I took the picture below at 32 days post-shed. She is a big robust girl, but those eggs were huge! At 35 days post-shed I took her to my vet and had the 2 posterior eggs aspirated... 80cc's from one and 92cc's from the other. Once those eggs were aspirated we were able to palpate the 4 remaining eggs up and down and believed there was no problem with internal adhesion. She got an injection of SQ calcium to boost her stamina for contractions and hoped she would push out the emptied eggs and lay the remaining eggs on her own.
For two weeks she stayed in her cypress bedding nest site and shifted herself around such that we hoped she would go ahead and get them out on her own... It never happened. Finally, 49 days post-shed, concerned that the egg contents would congeal, making aspiration impossible, we elected to have the remaining eggs aspirated and try to manipulate the empty egg shells from her body while she was anesthetized. The vet was able to squeeze all 6 eggs out after aspirating the 4 remaining eggs. The first 2, which had been aspirated 14 days earlier were a normal color. The 4 that had only been aspirated that day had strange charcoal-black blotches on them. It was pretty obvious that things weren't going right for her. She was down around 1200g after that and very weak.
She was barely moving around her cage at all and I weighed both her and her water dish every day. It was obvious she wasn't taking in fluids. I began tubing her with pedialite and water every other day. After a little over a week she was getting enough strength and will to resist the tubing procedure, and started drinking on her own. Two weeks later she took a weaned rat.
She fed well for awhile then went off feed for the winter. She was still quite thin and she started developing follicles briefly before re-absorbing them. She resumed feeding again mid-February and seems to be doing quite well, although she is still a few hundred grams lighter than she was a year ago.
It's a long story, but since it's that time of year, I wanted to get this posted. Every situation is different and the decisions are hard. I hope sharing this experience can help others faced with similar circumstances.
Paul

I'm glad you were able to save her. Are you going to try to breed her again?
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Alice Cobb
Florida Reptile Room

Thanks for the update Paul. Glad to hear she's doing better. Keep us posted on her progress.
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Louis Kirkland
Cornerstone Reptiles

It's nice of you to take the time to share her story with us. Glad to hear she made it.
What is her prognosis as far as breeding in the future?

As for breeding her in the future, we really don't plan on it. We kind of stumbled into the albinos several years ago by getting lucky with some possible hets. We have a few other albinos to breed, and we're not inclined to put her at any unnecessary risk. Thanks!
Paul

Wow... It's really awesome and admirable that you went through all the trouble to try and save her. That photo looks painful as he!!. She is a beautiful albino, and I wouldn't breed her again, either. I think that's a good decision -- No hobby/business is worth an animals life, right? Thanks for spending the time to share!! Again, kudos to you!!
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Cheers!
• Chelsea Lynn Gardiner
(and Frank M. Wood)