Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My apricot pueblan milk regurgitated the fuzzy I gave her last night. The fuzzy was not much bigger than the thickest part of her body, and she had no trouble eating it. However, the fuzzy was a bit larger than when I fed it to her yesterday....could the early process of digestion caused the fuz to swell and thus become to large for her to finish digesting? She is a year old, and when I handled her today, to check that she was alright, she was her normal self. I have read in other forums that if a snake regurgitates, I should wait a week before trying to feed her again. I am more familar with kings than milks...so should I wait longer or shorter?

Yes, you should wait a week or so because the act of regurgitating causes some irritation to the lining of the esophagus. If the snake regurgitates a second time or refuses to feed after a week, then you need to have it screened for parasites or bacterial infections of the digestive tract. Watch for abdominal swelling and lumps in the rear half of the body forward of the vent. These lumps or swelling can be indicative of an infection of cryptosporidium, bacterial parasite that is either water borne or introduced by food animals (especially wild-caught food animals). The primary symptom of this disease in snakes is regurgitation. If you suspect that this may be the culprit, then you need to take the snake to a vet and have it checked. This will probably be done by stomach lavage. If the animal is positive for cyclosporidium, it will need to be destroyed as there is no treatment at this time to cure the disease. A treatment known as hyperimmune bovine colostrum treatment may be showing some promise, but it isn't widely available yet or approved for general treatment of the disease to my knowledge. Cyclosporidium is highly contagious and will spread to the rest of the animals in a collection like wildfire, and can infect humans. It is normally inconsequential to healthy people and animals, but is deadly in those that have depressed immune systems due to some other disease or stress. Since captive reptiles are always stressed to some degree, many of them are easily affected. It has been known to kill entire collections in a very short time. The only way I know of to properly disinfect for cyclosporidium is with a solution of at least 10% chlorine bleach. In cages that are constructed of wood or some other porous material, thorough disinfecting may be impossible.

Hyperimmune bovine colostrum treatment may actually be available...I'll have to do a little further research and see what I can find.