Saturday I happened to see my eldest female Corucia regurging clear fluid. I took her out and she was emaciated and one of her eyes was gunked shut. I cleaned up her eye and placed her in a hospital tank with temps and humidity at the top end of her range. I was able to get her to drink readily from the spray bottle and to eat small amounts of food without having to force feed her. She was also fairly active and responsive, all of which I took (and still do!) as very good signs.
Today I was lucky enough to get an appointment with Dr. Scott Stahl in Fairfax, VA. He's a well known exotics vet and has done quite a bit of work with PTS.
X-rays showed a solid-looking mass taking up the entire lower left quadrant of her body. It's large enough that it's compressing her lungs and keeping fecal material from passing through the colon, which would account for the vomiting. Dr. Stahl hypothesizes that the solid material is either 1) a slug (possibly infected), 2) a poorly developed fetus (unlikely, but possible), 3) necrotic tissue 4) a large infection or 5) a tumor. He'll do an ultrasound this afternoon to try to narrow it down further. Tomorrow he will probably do exploratory surgery to figure it out definitively. If it is a reproductive problem he will attempt to keep at least one horn of the uterus and ovaries so reproduction may still be possible. Right now she's being started on fluids and systemic antibiotics.
I'll keep you all updated on her progress and post x-rays, ultrasounds, etc. if I can get copies.
