Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Took my snake back to the vet with a stool sample. Still has pin worms. They gave me three syringes with .45cc of Panacur to give by mouth for three consecutive days. Any ideas on the proper way to do this? Don't want to injure or stress my snake.

DAVY

Davy, I can tell you how I have done it in the past. Maybe others can give their methods. I would put a three to four inch piece of IV tubing on the end of the syringe (adult snake). I gently pry the mouth open using a small thin piece of cardboard (cereal box top piece) and then after wetting the tubing I gently insert it while using a side to side twisting motion until the tubing is down three to four inches. Then just press the panacur in, gently pinch below the tubing and message the stuff down a bit, and put the snake back into the enclosure. If the snake is large enough you can use clear fish tank pump tubing. If you use IV tubing you will need to heat one end in boiling or very hot water to soften it up so you can stretch it over the nipple of the syringe. Good luck

Joe

I have a stainless steel ball-tip tube that fits snuggly on the end of syringes just for giving medications. It also works great for gently prying the mouth open then directly slide it down the throat. But you can also use a few inches of soft, pliable rubber tubing too, or almost anything else that is smooth and long enough that will attach to the end securely to get the medication down the snake's throat a good bit while holding the snake UPRIGHT so it doesn't run back out of the mouth. Also, make sure you get it down the snakes throat, and NOT it's glottis (wind pipe) located at the bottom of the lower jaw near where the tongue is. Then you let gravity help you out by keeping it upright after you have slowly pressed the plunger down for about 15 seconds and it done.

Panacur (Fenbendazole) is typically given to snakes at the rate of 100 mg/per kg. of body weight and again in 2 weeks until a negative fecal reading for worms is obtained.

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

"some are just born to troll and roll"

....that this is a perfect time for an assistant. Large or small snake, you'll be glad you have a 2nd set of eyes and hands..
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

Yeah, that's true. An assistant definitely comes in handy, Mark. I always do it myself and just simply hold the snake's body down firmly (but gently) with some pressure of my bare foot while crouching down close to the floor. This has always worked exceptionally well for me...

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

"some are just born to troll and roll"

Doug, I use heavy gauge staples to hold to the snake in place on a piece of plywood. Just have to be careful not to hit the spine. LOL. Yeah, I have never had an issue, but I also have never had to dose a large animal. I have dosed quite a few w/c with both flagyl and panacur though. Just have to get used to the poop and musk!! I would have loved a second set of hands to help out though as the proceedure would have been even smoother. If I can add one more thing to this it would be to get the animal crawling forward and keep them crawling for a few seconds. With dosing and tubing food this keeps them from regurging (at least right away). They can't spit stuff out when moving forward.

Joe

"Doug, I use heavy gauge staples to hold to the snake in place on a piece of plywood. Just have to be careful not to hit the spine"

HAHAHA!!,...

Yeah, your aditional info was certainly true as well, Joe.

Funny how people always lunge forward when they puke, but snakes always go backwards..LOL!..

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

"some are just born to troll and roll"

Thanks, great information. I'll let y'all know how this turns out
thanks again
DAVY

KY jelly is a better lubricant than water. And for an adult snake, if you're using the preferred rubber tubing, I'd advise going more than 3 to 4 inches down the throat. You can then palpate the medicine further into the body the same way you'd try to palpate an egg out of it, with a thumb pressing gently into the belly.

Yes, KY is water-based and is great for lubricating the lengths of rubber or plastic tubing, Terry. With the thin, very smooth blunt ball-tip tubing I use, I don't ever use any lubrication. The snakes throat mucous always seems to slide in very effortlessly.

I will also mention that depending on which type of soft plastic/rubber tubing is used, it should always have a very blunt tip so it doesn't tend to dig into, or poke the snake internally. I have lengths of feeding tube that already have a rounded tip when longer lengths are needed. The conical cone-shaped ends can be cut to accomodate any syringe too. As Joe already mentioned, this type of tubing works best if it is spun slightly back and forth when gently pulled back out of the snakes throat to prevent snagging on the snakes recurved teeth.

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

"some are just born to troll and roll"

If after cutting the IV tubing you hold the cut end over a flame quickly it will round off the cut end making it safer to slide down the snakes throat.Human feeding tubes are rounded on the end not cut at a right angle.
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"He's down in the basement staring at his snakes " My Wife

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Doug L