Reptile & Amphibian Forums

One of my female cal kings regurged last night about 20 min after eating the mouse and I have no idea why. Is there always a problem that causes a regurge? Or can it just happen at random?

Snake info:
3ish year old female, eats jumbo mice, lives in a 20 gal, 1/2 inch of aspen, large water dish, hide, 90-92* hot spot, 75-78* ambeint temps, never had a single problem, had a fecal check done on all snakes about 15 months ago (all were clear), only eats f/t.

For now i've placed a towel over the front/sides of the cage to ensure she cant see any movement and will be as stress free as possible and plan on offering a fuzzy in a week to try and get the ball rolling again.

I feel kind of silly... you'd think after 16 years of snake keeping i'd know exactly whats going on with my animals, but apparently I don't.
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1.1 Argentine Boas
1.1 Dumerils Boas
1.1 Black Milk Snakes
2.3 California King Snakes
1.1 Nelsons Milk Snakes
2.2 Corn Snakes

Get liquid Flagyl!

Taking that your husbandry temps are fine...KS do not regurge unless something is severely wrong. Maybe even Flagyl is to late. I would get a vet to check it out.
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"So I will end with, your now aware of the problem, what YOU do is entirely up to you. Now if you make THIS mistake, its not because you are ignorant."

Frank Retes

In this case, I disagree with Bluerosy. But only a tiny tiny bit. They can regurg from something minor, like a tooth or claw that hooks or punchers the stomach lining. Which normally heal quickly on its own. I had a pyro, many years ago, it had a hair trigger, it would eat, then regurg, then eat it again. Weirdest snake ever. And it did that for years and years.

That is a possibility and what Bluerosy recommended, a vet visit, is by far the best recommendation.

The fact is, you don't know what caused it, which means, you have an opportunity to learn and know better next time.

To sum it up, it could be something bad(deleterious) or not. The key is, you don't know which one it is. Best wishes

Called my vet. He was positive that this wasn't a digestion issue since the snake regurged so quickly after feeding. He asked if anything happened around feeding time that could have freaked the snake out (light bulb goes off). I told the vet I'd think it over and call him back.

I ask my kids if they went into the snake room. Of course they are quite because they know not to go in, but finally the 10 year old spills the beans and says the 4 year old was running by the cages and tapping the glass.

So after a little yelling, taking away the xbox, and promising no TV for a week, I put a lock on the door.

Now my question is this, since i'm fairly certain that the regurge was caused due to a child freaking the snake out and not a problem with the snake, is the vet visit still a must?

I'm ready to go today, but don't want to waste the vets time and my 100 bucks if the vet is going to say "the snake got stressed, spit out the mouse, no big deal unless you notice a resp infection start up".
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1.1 Argentine Boas
1.1 Dumerils Boas
1.1 Black Milk Snakes
2.3 California King Snakes
1.1 Nelsons Milk Snakes
2.2 Corn Snakes

A long term captive cal king normally would not regurg for anything, including being hit by a truck, so yes see the vet.

Non chronic reasons could be, temps, a spike of too high or to low can and does cause that. Chronic reasons, are many, but as mentioned, Flagellated protozoas are a common cause.(sensitive to flagel)

If your king was that sensitive to glass tapping, my bet is it would have regurged before, for some other reason. So I am going with, its a cal king, they are not that sensitive. Best of luck

Ended up taking the snake into the vet on saturday.

Talked everything over with my vet and ended up being torn. I trust Rainer and Frank's word and belive they know more about kings than I probably ever will, but the vet was very insistant that there is no way parasites could cause a regurge that fast (was 15 to 20 min). The vet agreed that flagyl is a must if the mouse would have came out days later partly digested, but in this case he felt very strongly that stress reduction and time was the best medicine.

In the end the snake was looked over, and appeared to by in flawless condition according to the vet, but not treated. I'll try a small fuzzy next week and hope for the best.

Hopefully my decision doesnt offend anyone or end with the loss of the snake. i'll update with the status of the next meal.
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1.1 Argentine Boas
1.1 Dumerils Boas
1.1 Black Milk Snakes
2.3 California King Snakes
1.1 Nelsons Milk Snakes
2.2 Corn Snakes

I think you're doing the right thing.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

Thanks for the update, most folks, just disappear.

The vet should have taken a fecal. That is the only way to tell. If your vet did not do that, I would locate another vet.

I have to say, in my experience, a vet not doing a fecal is very very odd.

And hes wrong. If the infection is advanced, it would indeed bring it right back up. A low grade infection could be different.

As you said, nothing against you, and this is only a guess. My bet is, you did not take it to a vet. You simply took someones advice on the internet. Good luck

Nothing against you, its your snake. But a vet that does not do or offer to do a fecal, then offers you a GUESS. That's not what a Vet would do. Cheers

The snake was fed Friday afternoon. As of this morning the mouse was still down and the snake appears to be doing just fine. granted the meal was half the size of the last one, but things look good. In a week i'll up it to a medium mouse and see how things go.

The vet in question had done fecals in the past... about every 2 years I have all of my snakes done just as a checkup. It's probably not neccesary, but I do it anyway. So he does do them. As a side note, I've only had 1 animal ever have results with parasites. an import ball python about 12 years ago that I rescured from a shady pet store just because i felt bad for the thing. turned out to be a stupid move on my part as that thing had more problems then most can imagine. I knew better, but seeing a sickly snake in a filty cage got the better of me.

You may very well know something the vet doesnt, so if things were to have gone bad it would be my fault for not taking your advice, but I trusted my vet and I think the combo of the fast regurge with the fact that the snake ate just fine 7 days prior gave the vet the confidence that the snake would be okay.
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1.1 Argentine Boas
1.1 Dumerils Boas
1.1 Black Milk Snakes
2.3 California King Snakes
1.1 Nelsons Milk Snakes
2.2 Corn Snakes

The snake was fed on friday 8/23 and as of today 8/27 the mouse is still down.

thats 2 meals, 1 very small and 1 slightly smaller than normal that have stayed down.

Hopefully she'll be good to go from here on out.