Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, I dosed him with 60mg Flagyl (body weight 1275) and waited 15 days to feed him 2 f/t fuzzy rats (20gms). I did NOT dose with probiotics. He crapped-out in 3-4 days with no gurg.

So, good start, now for another like meal.

Thanks to everyone for all the help.
Brad
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

That's great to hear Brad!, thanks for the update.

Just be sure to keep the meals smaller and more easily digestable for a while to get the snake's system used to processing food again, and you should be good to go man!

I figured the snake would do well after the treatment!.....cha-ching!!.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Oh "Cha-ching" ...no problema, la checque esta en el corrido.

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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Great news!
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Carl

That is great news, Brad - way to go! Nice way to start the New Year, huh?
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-Toby Brock
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

...still got issues. If feed him again the same meal of two fuzzy rats 4 days after first feeding. Two days later he gurged up some clear viscous goo which I assume is mucous, then crapped-out a half digested mass, part feces, part pinkish semi-digested rat.

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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

I think feeding it again after only 4 days is still VERY much pressing the snake's digestive system Brad. It would be great to visually see exactly what size these meals are right next to your snake as opposed to just the gram weight of these meals, but I think the snake is FAR better off with not taxing it's stomach seeing how much and how often it can eat. This probably brought you right back to square one.

The snake has more than enough robust body weight from what I remember seeing, and keeping it from regurging more and going backwards with more declining issues are far more important than seeing how much it can eat again.

Without actually seeing the size of these meals you are offering compared directly next to the snake, it is hard for me to visualize if they are too much. But SMALL meals not as often are paramount until you absolutely know it is keeping them down for a good while.

Maybe you should dose it again one or two more times and don't feed it AT ALL as before until a good 10 to 14 days after the last treatment. At this point, the snake is better off not being fed ANYTHING than risking more gurges. It has plenty of body weight to afford this. What it CANNOT afford, is it's intestinal tract being taxed more. I know I whenever I needed to use the medication, I made damn sure the meals were so small it wouldn't jeopardize going right back to where it was before, and one small meal to keep the length of the meal shorter in it's stomach would seem much safer and easier to digest.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Very good stuff Doug,

Sorry, don't have a pic right now but will get on as appropriate. His total meal weight was 29gms. That is like a medium mouse, but in two pieces and only lightly haired. He is six foot stem to stern and for him that is about one and a half mouthfulls. Very little stress during ingestion. But then, that's all relative.

Certainly didn't think that a second offering in succession to an apparently healthy defecation would be problematic???

Whatever, he's obviously not right so. ???
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Yeah, I agree. It sounds like what would only amount to one medium sized mouse divided x 2 no less would have been digested with no problem with a big six footer.

Personally I think I would do two more of the same doses of Flagyl that you gave it before and not consider feeding at all for at least a good 12 days after the last dose. Then just ONE tiny offering insted of two for several feedings thereafter for a while just to make EXTRA sure they are kept down and the snakes stomach gets used to processing again normally in "baby step" fashion.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Ok, that sounds good. I'll go for it. About the probiotic, given that he processed the initial feeding post Flagyl, I would assume his gut "flora" is in order?

As for the viscous goop, is that normal in a gurg event?
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

It might have been just in enough order to process the first meal you fed (post treatment), but now that it regurged once again, you are right back to square one as the snake purged everything.

Hard to say what is really "normal" as the snakes intestinal workings are not right and probably very inflamed from all this. I have noticed that the next poop of a treated snake looks very snotty, then gradually gets normal looking, but the one Fagyl dose previously given probably wasn't quite enough to get it back to 100% again.

Two more Flagyl doses and no feedings should kill all the remaining pathogens and help the snakes stomach heal up more and allow the gut balance to get back to a more normal state. I would probably wait at least 12 days afterwards to feed it one small offering too. The last thing you need are any more episode.

If this next treatment doesn't totally take care of everything, a vet visit with it's last fresh poop or regurge should be examined by a vet that is familiar with reptile medicine.

best of luck with everything, Brad........

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

I got him dosed again on Tuesday and will abide.

Thanks Doug for all the support. You're a major asset on this forum and I'm sure I'm not the only one to have benefited from your expertise.
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See all my snakes at SerpenTrack.com

Thanks for the comment Brad. I always try to be helpful whenever possible anyway..LOL!. I certainly hope things work out well for you and the snake with this particular issue too...

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com