Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I Rescued this guy about 2 and a half months ago, his former owner could not even ID for sure what kind of king he is.

but she had told me he regurged twice for her on mice, but not on smaller pieces of F/T rat. I got him set up and he emedeatly ate after he was here. 2 days later a partly digested mouse was in the cage, I gave hime 10 days to build back up his stomach enzymes and tryed again, with the same results. I followed the recomendations I was given on another forum and got him on a flagyl treatment, after the 2 doses a week apart I started him on a rat pinky, 3 days later another and so on, he's successfully downed 9- 10 pinky rats with no problem, he has not lost any more weight but it does not seem to be coming back either. Yesterday because I had a couple extra fuzzy mice (about half the size of the pinky rats he has been downing) I gave him one. and it is back up today. could it be the hair? or something about it being mouse and not rat? I have plenty of meds left if I need to start over.

Reticulated python
Yellow Anaconda
Anery red tail boa
albino san diego gopher snake
albino sonoran gopher snake
sonoran gopher snake
pueblan milk snake
50/50 banded cali king
breeding pair of cornsnakes 14 eggs
4 ball pythons
and 2 mystery kings that we will just call variable thayers

Interesting. Leave the med's for now. Do what you can to be sure the snake is well hydrated; humid hide, large water dish and what not.
Wait two weeks and try a rat pup again.
Make sure this guy is quarantined from your collection, and continue feeding only rats.

Why is this happening?
Could it be that it's simply allergic to mice? Possibly.
Lots of things cause regurgitation, including several severe diseases. If this is the case, you'll probably see a progression of symptoms, continued weight loss, loose stool, and/or simply continuing as a "poor doer".

If this guy takes off with a consistent diet of rats, has a clean fecal analysis or two, and shows no signs of illness for 3-6 months, then you can end the quarantine period with some confidence.

If he remains iffy, or worsens, then a vet will be able to help you with some diagnostics to figure out why, what the prognosis is, and how to go about treating it.

Ian

ps, it looks like a Pueblan Milksnake to me.

Thanks for the infomative reply. I'll get him back on rat pups in a few days. I already have him seperated from the other snakes. We were told he was a variable kingsnake but they like me saw "flaws" in that. I cant make my camera see what I do, under the black and brick red bands / saddles he is grey with tiny black speckles. I think he is a variable X gray-band hybrid. I have a pueblan milk and comparing the 2, they have almost nothing in common. Even the shape of the head is different

I guess it really does not matter now. I went in to check on him after making my last posting and he did not make it. RIP Zorro

So sorry to hear.
At least you know you did your best.