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crazysnakeman
Snake Mite
42 Posts |
 Posted - 21/07/2011 : 02:20:40
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Hey guys,
I acquired a new corn from an owner who to be honest had just lost interest.. I probed her as female, and she is around 5ft! I was surprised at her length, but she is rather thin - she weighs 580 grams.. I was going to use her to breed, but she has a slight deformity in her tail, which I'm planning on getting looked at by the vet to see if he thinks it has been caused by genetics, or by a careless owner closing a viv door on her - the scales have grown round what appears to be a hard nodule of bone, the tail then thins out after that. This deformity is located half way down the tail so I can't see that it should affect fertility or the problem I shall now describe!
I got her feeding - "she has never strike fed, keep her in a dark box for an hour and it's usually gone" - within 30 seconds of offering a warm mouse, but next day, there was a small poo in her viv.. and the day after.. and the day after..
Over the last 3 weeks, she has eaten, and then defecated 4 or 5 times over the next 3 days, each time just a small "deposit". I can't see that the tail deformity should have any bearing on this though, and so my mind turned to parasites. I did a faecal floatation, and found pin worm eggs, and so she is now on a 3 week course of Panacur. Even so, we are in week two, and she is still defecating too frequently.
I have done some research and found that the gut flora can play a big part, and that not feeding for a few weeks can help stabilise things when the gut flora is in over-drive. So I have emailed the guy I got her from, to see how long this behaviour has been going on for - if he knows nothing about it, I will try this approach, but if he says, "she's always been like that", or "oh, for a while now", it will be straight to the vet - and I'l get the tail looked at too.
She is also losing weight, only a couple of grams a week, but she is eating, which again, points to parasites..
I want to know your guys thoughts on this, but also if you think I'm being stupid and should just get her to the vet.. I will want to wait till I get a reply anyway so I can tell the vet roughly how long she has been like this for..
She's exceptionally jumpy - that.. ticklish baby corn snake phase they go through before they get used to being handled.. stress can show it'self in loads of ways.. maybe this is one of them.. She came with another female, who is having no such problem despite having been housed with her till I got them, I am also treating her for parasites. However she has no problems that I can find, which again leads me to this gut flora.. that wouldn't be a contagious thing, just one snake having gut issues by its own gut flora.. it makes sense in my head, but I don't know if I should mention it to my vet, and him focus on that and possibly miss what actually caused this, or if I don't mention it to my vet, and he doesn't check that particular thing..
I know I'm playing "amateur vet", It's only to keep vet bills down - he taught me to do flotations, and probing and things! But there you go.. Let me know what you think, she seems OK for now, I'll see what the old owner says too, If he says its an ongoing thing, it's definitely straight to the vet..
Sorry this is a bit verbose!
Cheers,
Josh |
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Poo.. Wonderful..
