Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can anyone give me more information on this condition?

I'm not quite sure what type of info you want. A lot of times the impaction is caused by ingestion of substrate- sand, bark, ect. Often, it is fatal to the snake. If you suspect it, you may try letting the snake swim in some tepid water for 15 minutes or so. If that doesn't help, a trip to the vet is in order. Hope this is what you were looking for.

Todd

I agree. You said just about everything you can say on the subject. Basically the impaction also causes all the feces and waste to just sit in the intestines as well, causing infection. As said, it is often fatal if not corrected early. Surgery is really the only option a lot of times if the snake will not pass the item itself. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

Okay, I know I'm going to catch some flak here but this is my experience. I have a 4 year old male 5ft ghost bullsnake who developed a lump this summer. I took him to a local vet and spent $200 and got him xrayed, fecal float, enema, (didn't know that was possible for a snake!) etc. and it was verified that it was hardened feces and he had a mild amoebic parasitic infection.

So followed up with medication, etc and gave him regular soaks but after another 4 weeks no results...I have always kept him on newspaper, adjusted the heat a little and gave him a soak tub, etc but after 18 months of near total unemployment could not afford another vet bill with no results. So I started trying to massage it downward and found that I could move it easily to about 3 inches from the vent (from about 7 inches) at which point it seemed to meet some resistence. So I backed off and waited. I gave him mineral oil orally and then tried an enema with a ready made child's tube well lubricated. That went okay but no feces passed.

So I waited about another 2 weeks and feeling desperate, repeated the procedure this time massaging the lump downward a little more intently. Out it popped! I was almost ecstatic! Anyway followup...had to repeat the massage procedure one more time 2 weeks later and he seems to have another lump now. His appetite is good, fed him 3 pinkies yesterday and hoping the problem will stop. I am not recommending this procedure to anyone but let's face it...it's not a perfect world even for captive bred colubrids. I would like some further tips and feedback but frankly, unless you've managed to kept 9 snakes alive thru 18 months of no work and possible homelessness, I won't take flagrant criticism too seriously...

You won't get any crap from me. This is just the sort of reply I've been searching for all day. I have a jcp that took months to pass egg masses / slugs (very hard slugs the size of fertile eggs) and has been impacted for months also. She has been soaking off and on for weeks. She is curently soaking and I am going to try and bring the water temp up to 30c then try and work it out a little at a time. I honestly thought I was going to loose her months ago when she did not lay her eggs on time. When she did she would only put out one or two every week or so. Well sorry for rambling.Eric

I had a female sinoloan that got egg bound the previous summer (I've since sold her after the beautiful aberant male I had for her escaped three different containers on an exceptionally hot summer night and was gone for good)...she laid about 9 eggs but the last one got stuck and after weeks of fretting about it and then several half hearted attempts to work it out...I just persisted and it finally popped out. I figured she must be pretty stressed and although she was very thin at that point, maybe I should wait a couple of days before feeding her. But I was feeding another snake some pinkie mice so I threw one in to her and she chowed! I am amazed at the hardiness of snakes sometimes but of course you also hear of the opposite...some dying from no apparent causes. It does make for an exciting hobby and I'm very attached to the ones I've got.