Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I'm having several problems with my snake, one of which has been going on for a while and one which is new. This is kind of a long post, so I appologize. I have a female rainbow boa who is 2 years old, 4'10" and hasn't eaten without regurgitating since September. The last time she ate without regurgitating was in August. Since then she's regurgitated everything I've offered her if she's eaten it, which she only has four times. She regurgitates something like 4-6 days after she eats.
I've taken her to the vet multiple times. She's been dewormed twice, and after the second one when I took her back the vet said he couldn't find any evidence of worms. The last time I took her to the vet he was palpitating her body for blockages and was trying to squeeze out what he thought was a stool sample or some urates when he caused my rainbow to express some walled off adipose fat tissue, which the vet's tech tells me means that my snake was prepared for a long fast. But the problem is, she's still not eating and her backbone is getting more prominent every month. Oddly, she's also shed four times, once without even a regurgitated meal between sheds, but she's still the same length she was in September.
I've got her in a 2'x2' polystyrene cage from herpcages.com with the hotspot in one corner at 86F and the cool side getting down to 79F at night. The humidity is >80% at all times, she has paper towel substrate, a tupperware box with a hole cut in the lid and filled with moss and another with water.
I get my rats frozen from a place that also breeds and sells transgenic mice to research labs also and so has really high health standards for their animals.
Before she stopped eating she would eat one large rat every week. The last time I got her to eat is was a small rat and she regurgitated the back half of it (only) in about four days, for most of which she was in her water dish.
Now, to top it all off, she shed the day before yesterday (the week after her meal of a half of a small rat) so today I took her out to make sure it was all off and I noticed that her mouth didn't close properly. It looks like the left front side of her mouth has something wrong with it. It isn't red, and I guess you could describe it as a grey but it's really just about the same shade of whitish that the rest of her mouth is. However, the area around that set of teeth looks slightly swollen. I was thinking that maybe my snake regurgitated because her stomach was sensititve from not having eaten for so long and was going to feed her something small this week (after skipping the feeding the week after she regurgitated) but now I'm wondering if I should with her mouth looking funny. Any advice? I'm out of ideas.

Thanks in advance,
Bettina

Bettina,
. I think your cage is too hot and that your snake is sick. The cage temperature may have caused the regurgitation initially but now there is probably a health problem as a result of malnitrition and regurgitating and having whatever the vet squeezed out of the snake. You need to find a vet that has lots of reptile experience to do more to find out what is wrong.
Good luck,
Jeff

>>Hi,
>> I'm having several problems with my snake, one of which has been going on for a while and one which is new. This is kind of a long post, so I appologize. I have a female rainbow boa who is 2 years old, 4'10" and hasn't eaten without regurgitating since September. The last time she ate without regurgitating was in August. Since then she's regurgitated everything I've offered her if she's eaten it, which she only has four times. She regurgitates something like 4-6 days after she eats.
>> I've taken her to the vet multiple times. She's been dewormed twice, and after the second one when I took her back the vet said he couldn't find any evidence of worms. The last time I took her to the vet he was palpitating her body for blockages and was trying to squeeze out what he thought was a stool sample or some urates when he caused my rainbow to express some walled off adipose fat tissue, which the vet's tech tells me means that my snake was prepared for a long fast. But the problem is, she's still not eating and her backbone is getting more prominent every month. Oddly, she's also shed four times, once without even a regurgitated meal between sheds, but she's still the same length she was in September.
>> I've got her in a 2'x2' polystyrene cage from herpcages.com with the hotspot in one corner at 86F and the cool side getting down to 79F at night. The humidity is >80% at all times, she has paper towel substrate, a tupperware box with a hole cut in the lid and filled with moss and another with water.
>> I get my rats frozen from a place that also breeds and sells transgenic mice to research labs also and so has really high health standards for their animals.
>> Before she stopped eating she would eat one large rat every week. The last time I got her to eat is was a small rat and she regurgitated the back half of it (only) in about four days, for most of which she was in her water dish.
>> Now, to top it all off, she shed the day before yesterday (the week after her meal of a half of a small rat) so today I took her out to make sure it was all off and I noticed that her mouth didn't close properly. It looks like the left front side of her mouth has something wrong with it. It isn't red, and I guess you could describe it as a grey but it's really just about the same shade of whitish that the rest of her mouth is. However, the area around that set of teeth looks slightly swollen. I was thinking that maybe my snake regurgitated because her stomach was sensititve from not having eaten for so long and was going to feed her something small this week (after skipping the feeding the week after she regurgitated) but now I'm wondering if I should with her mouth looking funny. Any advice? I'm out of ideas.
>>
>>Thanks in advance,
>>Bettina

At this point, if you are going to feed, you'll have to feed ridiculously small food items that are thawed in warm water.

I have an appointment with a new vet in Albany this week, but what do you mean 'if I'm going to feed at this point'? She has to eat sometime or she's not going to live for more than another 6-12 months at the most.

I've been offering weanling rats that are f/t recently and she's just ignoring them. For her these rats aren't much bigger at the shoulders than her head is wide, so they are tiny little snacks for a 4'10" rainbow. Is that small enough or should they be smaller? I think if they are any smaller they will cost more energy to digest than they are worth, but I could be wrong.

Bettina

Bettina,
. I think that what Jeff F. meant was that it would be best to find out what is wrong with the snake and get it corrected before feeding again and having the snake regurg again. I think that eating and regurging may cost more in energy and lost electrolytes than not eating at all. Sometimes snakes that are regurging prey animals with hair will keep down hairless pinky rats. The problem you described in the snake's mouth makes me think that the snake may be immunocompromised due to malnutrition or disease and that you likely have much less than 6 months to get her well before she dies. I think the new vet (if he/she has good herp experience) is a good idea.
Good Luck,
Jeff C.

>>I have an appointment with a new vet in Albany this week, but what do you mean 'if I'm going to feed at this point'? She has to eat sometime or she's not going to live for more than another 6-12 months at the most.
>>
>>
>>I've been offering weanling rats that are f/t recently and she's just ignoring them. For her these rats aren't much bigger at the shoulders than her head is wide, so they are tiny little snacks for a 4'10" rainbow. Is that small enough or should they be smaller? I think if they are any smaller they will cost more energy to digest than they are worth, but I could be wrong.
>>
>>Bettina