Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A friend of mine has a kenyan sand boa that gave birth, but she thinks it may have retained babies/birth products. She writes:

"And then the Kenyan sand boas suprised me!! One female had 5 babies, and the
other 6! Which brings me to why I am suddenly writing, it looks like she has
retained 1 or 2. And I don't know what to do about live babies (or not so
live). She ate right after birth, and went it to shed, and I thought
everything was fine. But then tonight as I'm feeding I see this bulge, and it
isn't the mouse she just ate! I think I'll give her another warm water bath.
But beyond that I really am at a loss."

She is a very kind person who does a great job with her animals, and is also a poor college student with little money for vet bills. I've given her what info I know, but not having experienced this problem first-hand, I thought some of you might be able to provide some more direct advice/experiences that I can pass along to her. Thanks very much for your help!

Steve Reiners
BoaMorph

www.BoaMorph.com

BCC retain several(7-8) babies a couple of years ago. Over the couse of 2-3 weeks she passed a few of the babies but not all of them. I had her x-ray'd. she still had babies in her. Ultimately had to do surgery on her and the final 3 babies were removed. If they stay inside of her too long(don't know how long this is)the babies will begin to decompose and she will develop an infection which will be fatal. Give her a couple of weeks max before seeing a vet. If she can afford a vet now, I recommend seeing one.

Mark

I wouldn't wait a week to see the vet. Decomposition begins immediately and this mess of bacteria will spread into the mother. Snakes have an amazing immune system but it's best not to test it.

My opinion on what you should do:
1-2 days offer warm water baths and encourage movement (not just "soaks"

day two get this snake to a vet for an exam. They may be able to help with medications (oxytocin and the like)to further the expellation of dead babies. They will probably also begin antibiotics now, or soon.

Depending on the advice of the veterinarian you should either have success by this time, or be preparing to go for surgury withen the week.

This course of action will give the snake the best possible outcome, being an avoidance of costly surgury. Your vet will discuss other options if cost is a problem, but being a pet owner I'm sure this person has a little set aside for animal care (?).

Good luck with this snake
Ian