Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well, i'm sad to say that i lost one of my girls today. being the excited novice as i am, i screwed up. she's been a stubborn eater and i've recently gotten her back on frozen, tho still kind of picky. well, when she at on monday i went a little overboard. i was just so excited that she was eating that instead of giving her small meals more frequently i gave her too large a meal. yesterday she regurged, today she died. i should have known better. thanks for all the help from everyone to get her back feeding, and special thanks to kara for selling me such a great animal, i loved her to death, and then i had to go and screw it all up. but, there's still hope, i've got the other three to deal with yet, and maybe someday i'll get one that was as smokin' hot as she was. i'm going to miss her.

Man that sucks, sorry to hear that.Thats weird though about such a large meal, how big was it that you fed him.I think he was just ready to go and it wasn't your fault with a large meal.Maybe it was something else.Good luck with those other three. Later, Ethan

i fed her a small live rat (large hopper sized) to get her started, and then two medium rats(what she had been eating), she looked suffed afterwards, but not overly, she has been eating one small and one medium as i'm trying to get her on frozen, i forgot to ask a specific birthdate, but she's right around 4 feet, i figured one more medium wouldnt hurt. i was only going to give her the first medium, but my excitement and the fact that i already had the second thawed made me go for it. i guess i let myself down this time. i'm waiting right now for a call from the doctor at the local herp vet to see if i can get in tomorrow for a necropsy, hopefully even tonight yet, but we'll see.... i'll keep everyone posted

Hey,
I'm really sorry that you lost one of your animals today, but with every lost comes experience. And hopefully, you will figure out what other factors, may have contributed to the loss of such a large animal so early on.
-Angel
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Discovered and defeated of your prey, You skulked behind the fence, and sneaked away. --Dryden.

Sorry to hear about your loss... I know all too well what its like. It sounds like she should have been able to take the amount of prey you gave her, but I couldn't say for certian. There could have possibly been something on the rats that shouldn't have been there? Anyways you live and you learn and everything seems to turn out ok in the end.
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior

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Regurge one time isn't going to cause the animal to die. Something internal was going on that you didn't know about. I've never heard of giving a blood to large a meal! I fed my 3fter jumbo rats and he loved em. After he was done still looking for more. Anyways just some thoughts,

John

Regurgitating one time can cause a snake to die. When a snake regurgitates there is always the very real possibility that it can aspirate fluid into the lung & suffocate. And yes, it is possible to give a blood (or almost any other snake) too large a meal if conditions aren't absolutely perfect - i.e. if you pound a snake with a huge prey item & the enclosure is too warm, there's a very good chance the snake will regurgitate, simply because conditions were too warm, between the cage temps & the heat the snake generates while digesting prey.

All food for thought.

K
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"Remember the days of the old schoolyard?" - Cat Stevens

I am so sorry to hear of your loss...I know that snake was very special to you & how much it can hurt to lose an animal you care so much about.

Please let me know if there's anything I can do in the mean time - even if you just need a listening ear.

Regards,

Kara
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"Remember the days of the old schoolyard?" - Cat Stevens

well, just came back from the vet. the walls of the stomach were quite thickened and very red. his thought were that it was some form of cancer or possibly a barcteria or fungal infection there were no noticeable abrasions or anything, so that kind of calmed my nerves a little bit, i was worried that in the process of regurging a tooth or a toenail or something caught or something. so, going to try and get some money together so i can send in a tissue sample to the pathologist. being a broke college kid is such a pain sometimes, especially in situations like this. so anyway, thanks for all the support, hopefully i'll be able to get some money together and i'll have more news for you guys soon.