Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My 20 month F is having health issues and I'm not sure what caused it. Today she regurgitated the rat she ate yesterday. She just shed a few days ago and ate quickly and enthusiastically. While walking around the neighbourhood with her today (as we sometimes do) she regurgitated her rat. Could this be from motion sickness? Perhaps we went walking too soon after she ate?

She had contracted a nasty respitory infection about 8 weeks ago, got antibiotics and recovered. She's recently starting to show signs of it returning (audible breathing, clear liquid from the mouth, puffy throat). I've increased her heat and have been giving her lots of misting. Her shed was good, and she ate her meal, so I'm not sure if the puking and this cold are related.

Other than her recent colds she's always been very healthy.
Anyone?!

why would you take your snake to walk around the neighbourhood???? when someone who doesnt care for snakes sees that your going to find news laws being proposed that will ban you from owning that snake, taking a snake into any puyblic place other then a EDU setting where people have been warned snakes will be present is not a good thing

as for the puking first off make sure the snake is hydrated and dont feed it for atleast 4wks to give it time to settle down, the acid in the stomach is strong and agitates the lining coming up, if you feed it to soon it will just puke again, after 4wks offer it a small meal and leave it alone to digest it like 7 days atleast, no handing, once you get that straight stop walking it, that would most likely be the reason for its sickness being exposed to cool breezes or possible just the stress is weakening its immune system

>>My 20 month F is having health issues and I'm not sure what caused it. Today she regurgitated the rat she ate yesterday. She just shed a few days ago and ate quickly and enthusiastically. While walking around the neighbourhood with her today (as we sometimes do) she regurgitated her rat. Could this be from motion sickness? Perhaps we went walking too soon after she ate?
>>
>>She had contracted a nasty respitory infection about 8 weeks ago, got antibiotics and recovered. She's recently starting to show signs of it returning (audible breathing, clear liquid from the mouth, puffy throat). I've increased her heat and have been giving her lots of misting. Her shed was good, and she ate her meal, so I'm not sure if the puking and this cold are related.
>>
>>Other than her recent colds she's always been very healthy.
>>Anyone?!
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Breakdown, goodbye America
So long the music's died
Freedom's last hero's wasted
I made you, I'll break you
Breakdown, goodbye America
It's all gone, kiss it goodbye
There on bloody bended knees where
my nation died

B. Lawless

I'll be more blunt than thecaiman. It's foolish to walk around in public with a snake. The only benefit is to your ego as you show off your "cool pet". This type of action hurts responsible snake keepers because snakes, more than other types of pets, elicit fear/anxiety in people. If you want people to get to know snakes better, please set up proper educational programs.

As for the regurgitation and respiratory distress, the advice you received previously is good. For those without an experienced eye, snakes don't show many signs of stress. Please be kind to your animal; leave it alone for at least a couple of days after it eats.

Well I'll be as direct, and disagree with both of you about the "value" of walking with her. Many people ARE afraid of snakes, it's true. But as they see that she is very friendly and harmless, they warm up to her. Many ask questions, and are interested to learn more about snakes. She enjoys it too, as it allows her to be in the warm sun and out of her cage, being cuddled by mom. My vet regularly comments on how nice it is to see someone who handles their snake as a pet, and not for display or breeding only. Her cold could not be related to these walks, as we were not going for walks at the time she was sick, and was actually caused by an issue with a thermostat which is currently being resolved. I've since read some literature that says a common cause of regurgitation is handling too soon after eating -which answers my question of if it was related to handling or the cold. Taking her out of her cage so soon after feeding was a mistake, no matter if we walked or not.

That said, I do very strongly agree that anyone taking their pet out of the house (no matter what that pet is) needs to be responsible for ensuring it is not harming anyone around, and to keep it in a low stress environment.

As for the advice around how to follow up with regurgitation, thank you -it's much appreciated.

ok dude this isnt your little dog foo foo, the snake doesnt care to be walked or cuddled, the snake doesnt care if it lives with you me or in the dirt floor of the forest, those people that ask questions are doing so becasue they dont want to be rude, behind your back they are jibbering I assure you, if you want to educate all those people(which is wonderfull) invite them to your house and let them all play with your snake in your living room, that way you are not exposing people who dont want to be to snakes,

as for the resprotory, reptiles metoblism is alot slower then mammals, Ive seen people OD a snake on antibiotics, blow the liver and due to the slow metabolism it took 5 months to die, upon necropsy it was found that it took that long for the toxins to build to a lethel level after the liver was blown, you could have walked your snake in April and it is just now starting to show the outward signs of sickness you and I see,

I dont mean to be rude but I am going to be blunt if your vet thinks walking your snake is good, is telling you there is some kind of health benifit to your snake from handling it, doesnt realize what I explained above your vet is an idiot and you need to find a new one ASAP, reptile medicine is not as advanced as cats and dogs which means VETs typically dont know what they are doing with reptiles, for the sake of your snake and the others in your area who like to keep snakes please leave your snake at home, and find a new vet

>>Well I'll be as direct, and disagree with both of you about the "value" of walking with her. Many people ARE afraid of snakes, it's true. But as they see that she is very friendly and harmless, they warm up to her. Many ask questions, and are interested to learn more about snakes. She enjoys it too, as it allows her to be in the warm sun and out of her cage, being cuddled by mom. My vet regularly comments on how nice it is to see someone who handles their snake as a pet, and not for display or breeding only. Her cold could not be related to these walks, as we were not going for walks at the time she was sick, and was actually caused by an issue with a thermostat which is currently being resolved. I've since read some literature that says a common cause of regurgitation is handling too soon after eating -which answers my question of if it was related to handling or the cold. Taking her out of her cage so soon after feeding was a mistake, no matter if we walked or not.
>>
>>That said, I do very strongly agree that anyone taking their pet out of the house (no matter what that pet is) needs to be responsible for ensuring it is not harming anyone around, and to keep it in a low stress environment.
>>
>>As for the advice around how to follow up with regurgitation, thank you -it's much appreciated.
-----
Breakdown, goodbye America
So long the music's died
Freedom's last hero's wasted
I made you, I'll break you
Breakdown, goodbye America
It's all gone, kiss it goodbye
There on bloody bended knees where
my nation died

B. Lawless

Just to add...your snake has two issues that you mentioned...reguritation and respiratory. You asked for advice, so don't get all defensive when fellow posters offer you some. Dum's have respiratory problems more frequently than a lot of other boas, and prolonging your snakes esposure to new and stressful environments only increases the likelihood that your snake will succumb to these infections more often.

Snakes are not domestic, and as much as we'd like to think it, they don't enjoy large amounts of handling. You may think your snake loves going out and about in the neighborhood because she is more active, but she is more active because she is in new surroundings, and the new surroundings are making her nervous. That is why snakes often go off feed when you change enclosures. You don't have to believe me, or the other posters...but hey, if you have all the answers, don't bother posting
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Thanks,
Amy
www.myboids.4t.com
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1.16 Normal ball pythons
2.0 Pastel ball pythons
1.0 Cinnamon pastel ball python
0.1 Spider ball python
0.0.1 Sinaloan Milk Snake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
0.1 Normal Kenyan Sand Boa
2.0 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Mid-Baja Rosy Boa
0.1 Leucistic Texas Rat
1.2 Dumeril's Boa
1.2 BCI
That's Just The Snakes!

Caiman is blunt and right on the money! Just my 2cents.

Bill

firstly, to reptilicus81: I love your webpage!

now, to the point:
Since I don't own a Dumeril, I don't spend much time in this forum, but I like to check them all out from time to time. I don't agree with how several people respond to questions in the forums; instead of answering what the person asked, they belittle the person, or always have to throw their "2 cents" in, and usually in an insulting way. I see this in MANY of the forums, and it bothers me because these forums are meant to help. If you don't agree with this person taking his/her dumeril outside, you can say so without being rude. This person obviously wants help, not criticition. You're not doing much to help curve the ignorance of reptiles by acting this way. Just wanted to point this out.
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-David

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
0.0.1 betta fish (Captain Morgan)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)

whats rude? seems to me that everyone was polite but yet very direct, nothing wrong with that, I mean seriously its wonderful that she enjoys cuddling with her snake but the snake gets nothing from it and if her vet is telling her there are benifits for the sake of the snake she need a new vet, I think Amy was completly correct, she didnt want honest answer only to confirm what she already had in her head
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Kill that $$$$ to show him up. Equal his displeasure now.
Stab his $$$, a reminded past of what the $$$$ we live for.

Ourselves.

Half $$$ed for most his life. Piss poor little ham. NARC
boy- A fake $$$$ limp d$$k. Sucking up to the man.
Pantera

The regurgitation was more than likely caused by stress to the snake too soon after feeding. Whether this was through a change in environment, due to handling or a combination of both (the most likely situation), the important thing is treating the snake correctly to rectify the situation and prevent this happening again. Frequent regurgitation can severly samage the lining of the gut, throat and mouth. Treat as outline in the post previous.
As far as the "bring a snake out in public" goes. I personally would agree with the other posting on this thread. Although you may feel it is a beneficial way of education people, it only takes one or two people to get worried, take it to the local residents board and things can quickly spiral out of control. Not everyone wants snakes in their neighbourhood. A good example of this would be the recent court case with Dan and Collette Sutherland (Ballpython.com). After building a breeding facility they were unable to move into it due to backlash from the local community. If you want to bring your snake outside, do it by all means, however keep it to your garden and help prevent future issues. Also, although your vet does not believe the RI could have been caused by your "walks", it actually could have. Check the environmental conditions in your neighbourhood and compare it to the forest habitats Dumeril's are found in the wild. You may be quite surprised.

Good luck with treating the snake.
Regards,
Warren
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Dr Warren Booth
North Carolina State University
Department of Entomology
3309 Gardner Hall
Raleigh, NC 27695-7613