Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I see alot of reference to egg binding and from my expirience the eggs that get bound are usually slugs. Ive been pretty lucky so far with only 2 snakes in my liftime that have been bound (slugs both times) but Ive had friends have it happen and it seems to usually be a slug that gets stuck. Is this the case or are they normally fertile eggs that get bound ?

Keith
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I don't know. By the time I've gotten them out(surgery or manipulated) they looked pretty bad.

I recently had a Western Hog that was bound and she passed them on her own after giving her a nice moist place and slowly working them out with daily massages. Two of the three eggs were infertile but I did have one that was solid with an embryo in it. Supposedly she hadn't been with a male this year as I just purchased her.....so I think she held them over from last year or stored sperm? Not quite sure but I hope that answers some questions.

Well I hoped to avoid egg binding forever, but alas, was unable to avoid it. I've had two cases of this this year!

First is a cornsnake... laid 9 eggs fine, then four more overnight, then five or six more over the course of 27 days. Of the original 13, only nine are still being incubated (the rest turned all ooey gooey bad...) and of the nine still incubating only four appear to be good with veins.

The second (more relevant experience) is one of my first year breeders. 3 years old, with very good weight on her, she laid three eggs without a problem then eventually she laid her next egg and prolapsed her uterus (it was a viable seeming egg too). I put her on some wet paper towels with sugar to help her pull back in the prolapse and she went on to lay four more eggs without prolapsing again. The one she laid with the prolapse might have incubated fine, but while I was concentrating on changing her substrate out and giving her a non-irritating substrate with her prolapse... the cat knocked the egg on the kitchen floor and played football with it. So it was definately not good when that was done! The remaining four that came later were incubated with the first three.... three of those went bad fairly quickly though I believe they did have veins before dying... so they weren't slugs either. The last one from after the prolapse... has the most beautiful and wonderful set of veins I've seen in an egg! None of the eggs were slugs.
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~Sasheena

I have had fertile eggs get stuck. Aspirated them with a needle and you could see the embryo pulled through.

>>I see alot of reference to egg binding and from my expirience the eggs that get bound are usually slugs. Ive been pretty lucky so far with only 2 snakes in my liftime that have been bound (slugs both times) but Ive had friends have it happen and it seems to usually be a slug that gets stuck. Is this the case or are they normally fertile eggs that get bound ?
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>>Keith
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Rick Staub
R&R Reptiles