Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all. I came home this evening to find a somewhat distended water cobra (B. annulata) in its enclosure. The distension feels like gas, and starts roughly a third of the way down the body from the head, and ends a few inches before the cloaca (this snake is roughly 2.5' in length). The snake was thin when it arrived on Thursday, and since then has consumed 4 rat fuzzies. I've personally never seen a snake swell like this, so I'm wondering if it's possible the snake has actually gotten a case of gas from being malnurished and then getting to eat a good amount of food, or if it's possible there's something more insidious at work here. I noticed while handling it that it began gaping, working its body like it was trying to regurge something, and having a bubbly liquid come out. From what I could tell, it seems as though it was trying to burp, or the snake equivalent thereof. Obviously because it's a Saturday night and the vet will not be open tomorrow, Monday would be the absolute soonest I'd be able to get some professional help with this, so I'm hoping someone here might have witnessed this happening before and could either alleviate or confirm my fears. I appreciate the replies. Here are a couple pictures to illustrate my problem.

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Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com

Chance:

Never saw this before. Obviously the work of bacteria the question is from the rats or were they just inactive because of no food present. Were the rats FT or live? If this was a human they would pass an NG tube an let the gas out and give antibiotics to reduce the bacterial contents of the gut. I would say the treatment would be much the same.

Send an update how it is this morning.

Good Luck..

Al
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Marriage changes passion;
Suddenly you're in bed with a relative.

Hey Al. The snake is still bloated, but it doesn't appear to be any worse than last night. The rats were f/t, and were thawed in clean, warm water, in a clean container. I've fed these same rats to other snakes before and never had this problem. That's why I was thinking it had something to do either with this snake's own intestinal flora or the fact that it was thin and maybe I overdid it by giving it a relatively large amount of food in a short time. The next free moment I get during a weekday, the snake is going with me to the vet. Maybe just a good anti-parasitic is in order. Here's hoping this passes....
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Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com

If it's been malnurished there's the possibility that it may have a twisted bowel which could be causing a blockage. As Al said it could be gastric bloating, try inserting a catheter of some type down into the stomach and see if that relieves some of the problem. Good luck with the vet tomorrow.

John
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"Its no help to hide behind the statement that snake bite accidents are a rarity and that the average Dr seldom or never will treat one. For the bitten patient, it is a matter of life or death, and the rarity of the event is of no interest to him."

I'm guessing that this is going to be somewhat of a product of a thin animal getting too large of a meal and not adjusting to approrpriate meal size accordingly.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that it probably isn't too bad of a concearn, as I've seen some distention in water cobras prior to feeding. In my limited experience water cobras are somewhat, well, droopy animals. From juveniles to adults the water cobras I've worked with tend to droop and feel very gassy at times. I've just always thought this was probably due to where they live.

Just a few thoughts, I hope all turns out well with it, as I really like water cobras and they make excellent captives. I've only had the opportunity to work with 2 adults, but I'll just sum it up by saying that they're amazing animals, very curious, and I think intelligent. I really like my water cobra too

I tend to agree with Bob on this one. Water cobra's in situ seem to retain a lot of water (due to their diet) also feeding it large meals espically when any snake is thin looking will cause bloating. I wouldn't be to concerned with this. Wait a week and see how it is doing. The "gas" should disipate shortly.
Randal

Thanks for the responces guys. I really appreciate them. I was just soaking the snake and he actually regurged two of the rat fuzzies he ate, and they were largely undigested. I'm assuming then that this means it was just too much food, too fast. I'm going to give him a week or so and see how he does.

It's interesting to hear about the fact that water cobras are kinda 'droopy' anyway. He has seemed fairly different from what I'm used to dealing with in regards to other cobras or cobra-like snakes. He's a very neat snake, and I'm very much looking forward to raising him. That's mostly why I was so alarmed at this responce. I'll update this with his progress.
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Chance Duncan
www.rivervalleyexotics.com