Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm in need of some urgent advice. I've raised a V. albigularis from a hatchling to 20 months. At almost four feet long, eats F/T mice, quail, and supplemented roaches (Dubia) routinely without fail. It has been housed in an 8ft trough with 2 feet of dirt/sand substrate, a baksing area of 95-100 degrees F and a cool side of upper 70's for approximately 15 months. However, about 10 days ago, it stopped feeding and constantly basked under the heat lamps. I took it to referred herp vet and had X-rays and blood work done. On one side several rounded bodies stacked neatly can be seen, but none are clear on the other side. This indicated to the vet that maybe the follicles on the other side had ruptured, leading to peritonitis. Everything else appeared normal. Calcium and phosphorous in the blood are also elevated (16.9 and 14 mg/dl, respectively), maybe indicating gestation. There is also an elevated white blood cell count also indicating an infection or peritonitis. All other liver enzyme functions appear fine. The vet suggests doing surgery to remove the any material from the "ruptured" follicles and perhaps removing the healthy follicles too. But time is of the essence, since she is not eating and losing weight. My question is this:

1. Is 20 months early for this to happen? We are still not even sure if it is a "she", since I believed I saw hemipenes everted earlier.

2. What would have led to this? She does not appear to be overweight physically or radiographically. Although, fat pads could be seen on the X-rays. Is there a husbandry issue I need to address here?

3. What would be the chances of her coming through such a procedure intact and able to breed? The vet said she would try to leave as msuch intact as possible, but would this likely happen again to the same animal?

4. Finally, what would you do? I know this is a desperate question to ask, but the best outcome I would see is that I would end up with a sterile, female blackthroat. She is very special to me, but the surgery is not cheap and I've already spent houndreds of dollars on the diagnostic test to date. I'm forced to make a decision very soon. I respect your opinions and thank you for the input.

Hello, sorry to hear about your sick monitor did you have a basking spot of 130F or 135F? All monitors require this as far as I know.

As far as 20 months being too young, not a chance, in fact a female albig can reproduce as young as 6 months old and as small as 2ft long.
What you saw were not hemipenes, but hemiclitori. Hemipenes are a different shape, both can be just as long.
If theres a problem with the animal in producing eggs it is appearant after a few weeks of much much reduced feeding. In fact it takes from 2-4 weeks for them to produce eggs, and lay them normally, and can go as far as 5 weeks, after that its definitely a problem and medical help is required.
Im not sure exactly what changes in the blood tests would indicate if theres a problem with the eggs, but they will not eat for sometimes 1.5-3 weeks during the time they produce eggs, then eat very small amounts instead. My female albig ate 1 mouse per 1.5 weeks after not eating for 2 weeks during that time. Keep in mind that she was under 18 months and 5.5ft long at the time.
We simply xrayed her and saw eggs, then after more than 4 weeks decided to remove them, and her ovaries to prevent any problems in the future while I got her new cage set up properly.
She is almost 8 years old and huge now, no regrets on her loss of a reproductive system. Simply put, if you are having trouble with a single female and her health dont worry about complicating matters by 100 times and trying to get her to breed and having a male with her.
If you are going to get surgery get it done as soon as possible, the recovery time is much faster, and they heal so quickly. Second make sure the environment is proper to prevent these problems in the furure, improper environment and stress can lead to these problems.
Good luck.
My little girl with no ovaries today.