Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alright to begin, i bought a striped calfornia kingsnake named Abby that was egg bound just above her vent a couple of weeks ago. She was like that for around six months before i got her until just lately she was really getting enlarged around where the egg was. She was in shed when i got her so i didn't think there was a much of a problem that she wouldn't eat, until after she was done and still wouldn't take food. This was the first time she started to get a problem so i took her to the vet and thankfully the egg was taken out of Abby. My guess is that since she was in a real cage now where she can stretch out, and since i take her out for a crawl more, she finally slowly started to push the egg along little bits at a time. Also i noticed the egg started to abstuct her digestive tract and the poor thing couldn't get anything out, so the more she pushed, the further along it would go. Now the question i have is why she became egg bound in the first place?.. is it age, was she bred too much over time? Why also would she only get problems when i got her?...is it what i'm guessing?...Any info would be wonderful because i don't know her age and with help i can take a stab at how old she is.

Info that would be helpful to know: When you bought her, she was eggbound, and the seller told you she'd been that way for six months? And something dramatic changed in her condition "just lately" meaning after you got her two weeks ago? Have you asked the seller how old she is, or the circumstances of her becoming eggbound--did she lay a bunch of eggs and retain one, or only develop one apparent egg, for example? Or was it a second clutch egg?

I don't know what you're guessing, but it's hard for us on the forum to guess about whether age was a factor when you don't know anything about it. Kings can breed for a dozen years. They can double clutch, single clutch, or not breed. The cycle gets fouled up for some of them, partly for reasons we don't understand. imho, eggs that are not fertilized are sometimes harder to pass: was this snake ever put with a male?

Do some more legwork and give us more info and somebody here may be able to help you more.

For what it's worth, I've had snakes that were eggbound and had eggs surgically removed, breed successfully and without eggbinding in subsequent years. But factors like whether it was caught quickly or not, and whether infection had developed and affected critical parts of the reproductive system, can have a lot to do with what happens in the future.

good luck
terry