Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all! I got my albino florida king friday of last week, and successfully fed two pinkies on monday. he's about 3 months old. up until the last couple days, he's been very active - always on the move, never hiding. in the last few days, his red eyes have turned pink (today, theyre red again though). he hasn't been active at all except if i pick him up. i thought, because of the eyes, maybe he's just going into shed. but i also noticed that some of his underbelly is sorta gray, not pink (it may have always been this way and i never noticed) and there's a few areas of gray on his side as well. more bothersome i noticed his vent is inflamed and open. the tank was hitting 90 so i unplugged the heat pad and have been monitoring it more closely; now its staying in the low to mid 80s. i plan to get a thermostat or dimmer today for him. he's in a ten gallon tank on coconut bark substrate - perhaps he tore his vent on the bark? im hoping you guys can clue me in on what the problem is and how to fix it, although of course if i have to take him to the vet i will. he also hasnt gone to the bathroom since ive had him, except when i picked him up tuesday night he released a small amount of white fluid all over my jean I have a digital camera if pics will be helpful to anyone. Please help!

Did you wath him eat? i'm wondering if he didn't ingest a piece of bark. The kind i use is supposed to be digestible. Just something to think about, maybe he ingested a piece is blocked. hope he gets better.

yeah, i watched and didnt notice anything. he was ok the first few days after eating. is there some way i can test and/or treat it if thats what it is?

No, unfortunately if he has swallowed some substrate you just have to hope he either digests it, regurges it, or passes it safely.
Keep an eye on him, if he hasn't pooped and he hasn't gotten any better, and you are convinced he's not just going into a shed, I'd take him to a vet in a couple of days, no longer.
If he seems to get worse, or you notice any more strange symptoms (keep an eye on that vent) take him ASAP, impaction is nothing to mess around with, especially with babies.
Best of luck to you, let us know what happens.

If the cloaca is really "open", you need to put the snake on newspaper substrate and make sure it stays very clean. . .also if the vent is open you may want to visit a vet.

good luck,
Ian

im just hoping i can help him at home without having to pay a vet because money is tight right now.
would putting neosporin on the vent help or hurt?

if you have a tank that stays at low to mid 80s WITHOUT heat, you don't need a thermostat, and you don't need artificial heat. you just need to make sure the tank doesn't get any warmer than low to mid 80s in the future. imho, low 80s is better than mid, though others might disagree.

At 90, you may have simply overheated the animal. Depending on where your thermometer is, it may have been much hotter than that at the bottom of the enclosure, where the snake lives. You may find that you need to turn off the light on the cage, as well as removing the under-cage heat, to keep the temps down to reasonable levels. Some lights generate a lot of heat.

Second, the snake may be going into a shed. That would account for changes in the eyes and belly color and behavior change. That's enough of a cluster of coincidences to at least warrant considering the possibility. Their eyes usually change for several days again and then clear up, which also coincides with your description.

Lastly, the fluid he expelled on you is musk, it's a defense mechanism when they're scared. Any new snake that's not been handled a lot (and this may be especially true of kings and milks) will exhibit that behavior when they're young. Along with this, they'll push their cloaca or vent out, so you might watch to determine whether it's just "inflamed and open" when you're holding him, or even when he's calm and just sitting relaxed. If it's all the time, there may be a problem; if it's when you're holding him and he's excited, it may just be normal behavior.

So that we can all learn together, will you let us know later how things progress? Thanks.

Terry

third, the advice about putting it on paper is good. Please don't put that new container on a heat source!

Terry! man.. Thank you sooooo much! i'm having the same kind of thing happening with my cal-king wout any skin -eye color changes ,but the first thing i noticed was dairhea - took care
of that - her enviroment changed and i had to feed her differ than normal food due to unability to obtian feeders locally.
when i cleaned her cage and checked on her daily she was super
MAD! her vent was exposed and she was spewing stuff everywhere!
i thought BLEEP*%$# rectal prolapse or something? contacted
vet's , other snake owners etc. you are the first person to make sense -this is the exact reason! i keep coming back to this board! thanks again so much -i can't belive i did know that?
i have read so many books and they never said anything about this! this is why it's sooo important to be able to get "real world advice" from expirenced folks!
thanks a again -
Dallas Wiebelhaus
Dwiebelhaus@msn.com

That's exactly what I thought when I read the original post. I have a black mexican and it bites and its been a long time since I saw it without it's musker sticking out.
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International Snakes Meetup

I agree I think he was over heated.

yup, my little boy (girl?) is most definetely shedding. so when thats done ill know if that was the only problem or not. was planning on feeding him today, we'll see if he feels like eating. but it looks like everything is ok.

thanks everyone for increasing my snake education!