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I have this boa that had been constipated for weeks on end...was very uncomfortable.

I read a post last week about giving a boa an enema and tried it and it worked. I got her to poop out a lot of stuff, thinking that i'd gotten it all out.

This morning, 1 week later, she had released a watery stool that had blood in it. I haven't fed her in 5 weeks since all this started happening, so whatever is causing this i have no idea.

Any thoughts?

First off the obvious, sure it was blood? Just a little or a lot?

Blood in the feces is never good. Might not be bad but never good. I'm not a vet and don't know.

Things that come to mind are....

Damage from the enema?
Damage from the constipation?
Bleeding tumor etc?
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (05/26/2009):
36.51 BRB
29.42 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Coccidia or your may have scrapped your snakes colon when you inserted the enema.the sheer size of the stool may have created a hemmeroid type situation. Did the colon prolapse after passing the stool? The fluid that you used may have caused inflammation in the colon as well.you could give your snake probiotics to help restore the beneficial bacteria.

What was in the enema? First off when giving an enema you have to realize the solution will remove the mucous lining of the colon so when the hard stool passes it's likely to scrape the colon. If you used soap like someone was talking about in another post I would hope you didn't use an antibacterial soap because it would be to harsh on the colon. You don't want to kill the healthy flora.honestly I would only use luke warm water for an enema. Make sure it is a nuetral ph.

thank you for your assistance.

I used an enema of glycerine and luke warm water....about 90% water. That is all.

it wasn't a lot of blood...she had pooped in her water bowl and it was liquid brown...with some red blotches that were sticking to the plastic of the bowl.

I just visited her and rubbed her back...i noticed that she is in much discomfort as she opened her mouth as if to moan...not a respiratory problem i am sure of that. She just seems to be in pain from what i can tell.

Question For you was the blood bright red and what amount was there?
The reason I ask is most often bright red blood coming from the
colon usually means more superficial problem that can heal.
Dark almost black blood or something that looks like coffee grinds is a more serious deeper internal problem
and would need a trained experienced vet forsure.
I'm not saying you shouldn't contact a Vet in the first scenario
You problably should contact a vet regardless.

. . . Lar M
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Boas By Klevitz
Boas By Klevitz

Very true. They might be able to precribe an anti inflammatory. I agree black blood is a sign of ulceration of the stomach lining.

deep red. That's about he best i can describe it.

a couple quick thoughts/points: intestinal parasites can cause bloody diarrhea/stools. where i am going with that is, you may want to have a reptile vet take a look. there maybe an underlying reason why your boa got constipated in the first place. most of the time constipation happens for one of a (or combination) couple things. impaction (from ingesting substrate or something of that nature). but most of the time, constipation is caused by certain percentages of dehydration which prohibits proper intestinal motility/movement. and the key is usually to find out why the animal (or human for that matter) is not intaking as much liquids as they should be to function properly. i have seen in my hospital, quite a few times, constipated iguanas, bearded dragons, snakes, dogs, cats, ferrets, etc. about 90% of the time, when we run, whats called a packed cell volume (checks for anemia or dehydration), it is above normal (indicative of dehydration of varying percentages). too large of prey item can cause constipation also, but is usually not an issue if the snake drinks and/or soaks in water regularly to stay hydrated and keep proper intestinal motility. i know i threw alot out there. but being in veterinary medicine, i am trained to speak from a medical point of view. it also, could have been a simple case of being a little too plugged up until it was able to be brought out artificially and now the blood is probably from the trauma of being backed up and the enema. i would just maybe think about getting the boa checked out, to be safe.
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retic is king of kings

1.0 Tiger Retic
1.0 Albino Tiger Retic
0.1 Striped Tiger Retic (het albino)
0.1 Salmon Boa
1.0 Albino Boa
0.1 False Water Cobra

Lot's of great advice above. We see a lot of melena (bloody stool) in the veterinary field and it's always far more alarming for the owner's than us. Any time there is an insult to tissue blood can result; much like scraping your knee only something insulted the GI tract (inflammation, trauma). Since it was of a reddish color, this is most likely what it is as Lar said. A vet visit is in order I think given that you say she's uncomfortable possibly. I would definitely what a thorough fecal screening (float/centrifugation, cytology), to rule out parasites and a few other things. I too would be more concerned with what caused the constipation since a properly functioning GI system shouldn't have those issues. Reticguy went over reasons for constipation in great detail. Personally I like low-dose (and I mean low, low, low dose) metronidazole when there's colitis even if a fecal screening is negative, but discuss it with your vet. For the most part I end up selecting my own drugs since the DVMs I work with put probably too much trust in me (haha), so I have a little of an unfair advantage. Get her an office visit and please let us know how she does.