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Dehydration in baby BCC

tcdrover Feb 08, 2005 10:12 AM

I've got a small BCC that regurged a few times back in December.

She has now eaten and held down for 3 consecutive feedings, but
she looks skinny and appears dehydrated.

I tried putting her in a tub with 1/4 inch of warm water
yesterday in the hopes that this would help her but I'm not
sure if it did or not.

Injecting her with saline seems kind of drastic as she IS
eating. Is there something else I can do. I'm very apprehensive
about giving her anything bigger than a small hopper. How long
should it take for her to begin to fill out again?

Thanks for any advice.

Replies (6)

CE Feb 08, 2005 10:29 AM

and how big it may take some time to replenish her fat reserves. Rats are more fatty then mice and may help put the weight back on faster. If you really think she's dehydrated you can soak her in pedialyte or just shoot the F/T prey item up with a little pedialyte at every feeding. Just be patient, it's gonna take a month or two or 3 before she looks big and healthy again.

tcdrover Feb 08, 2005 10:44 AM

Maybe Nutri bac as well, I've got to look into that...

tcdrover Feb 08, 2005 11:10 AM

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drimes Feb 08, 2005 02:39 PM

www.nutribac.com or www.beanfarm.com

tcdrover Feb 08, 2005 02:50 PM

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matthewpope Feb 08, 2005 11:46 PM

I concur w/Charles. I also would not stress her by handling her and moving her around with the soaking and all.

Normally, one would assume that all of the necessary hydration will be absorbed from normal food items and from drinking clean water for a healthy boa. I certainly would not inject such a small snake. Depending on the size of the boa, I would only inject a conservative amount of fluids into the food item. For a neonate boa, just an educated guestimate based on body volume, I’d think that 1cc in a pink would be more than plenty.

Depending on how small the baby is and seeing as it has a past of gurging, I would be highly cautious about giving it any food items larger than what you’ve been giving it. I WOULD NOT graduate the snake to larger food items until several feedings with the currently accepted items have been established without incident. Making an attempt to induce weight gain will likely restart the gurging spree. Be patient, weight gain and growth in BCC can be quite slow.

I don’t know much about the products you’ve mentioned, but I’d reckon that this snake will recover fine without them. Not knowing history on these products, I’d stick to a more basic approach. Try to look at it this way, if she is eating and holding down meals, drinking, defecating, and shedding, she is VERY LIKELY doing just fine. Just my $0.02 worth.

Please keep us posted on what happens and I hope the snake makes a full recovery for you.

Matthew

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