Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If you remember the post,back in February(I believe) I bought a Het Boa that was delayed in transit and came in basically dead.I put a breathing tube down the glottis,breathed for it and used a hair dryer on low and to my surprise,the Boa came back to life.This was a slow process,with gradual improvement over the course of a couple of weeks.

He developed the expected URI,but responded favorably to Amikacin.To make a long story short,with the exception of weight loss,the animal outwardly appears to be fine.He has,however,shown no interest in food of any kind..live,dead,rats,mice,chicks,fetal rabbits,ect.ect.Realizing that there could be many things(or absolutely nothing) wrong with the animal,I have not force fed him or tubed him.I guess I am asking if you would tube him,to give him bacteria,tube with probiotics,force feed,or do nothing.He has had one bowel movement,which was normal looking.

Any suggestions would be appreciated and if the suggestion ultimately proves to be the wrong one,no hard feelings whatsoever.I have treated nearly everything imaginable but never had anything like this.
Thanks,
Tim

I can't see much danger in force-feeding him something, as long as it's small and well-lubricated. It's worth a shot.

I don't know if I'd force feed him (I don't remember how long it's been though) but you need to get some calories down him. What I've done in the past is mix up a 'cocktail' of various things such as Enervite, minerall, herptavite, pedialite , & raw egg, & tubed animals with that. Your trying to get nutrition down him. That also activates the digestion process. Lots of times that will kick in a feeding response if the animal is not damaged internally. You can put anything you want in there like pinkies, etc. & put it in the blender & mix it up so it is liquid enough to go down a catheter tube attatched to a syringe. You can keep an animal alive for a long time this way, basically buying you time.
Paul Edwards