Cause For Concern

[guidofatherof5]

Last week I reported that my anery female concinnus as passing jellies/slugs. I just notice that she has swollen belly from her vent up about 4 inches. It feels like a calcified slug. I applied light pressure to it in an attempt to move it along. It didn't budge. She's taking a warm soak right now in the hopes it will break loose.
To say I'm concerned is putting it lightly.:(

[infernalis]

Good luck. Vet visit in order?

[guidofatherof5]

Looks like it.

[EKS56]

:(

[Eddie]

Hi Steve
I have had that happen here. I have had success on more than one occasion by soaking for at least 1 hour and then applying light pressure with my thumb to work the beans out. Its not a pleasant thing to do but it is effective. You may want to consult with your vet before you try it.
Best of luck
Ed

[guidofatherof5]

Thanks Ed.

[guidofatherof5]

No improvement this morning so I'm trying to get a Vet. visit scheduled for today.

[guidofatherof5]

She had a morning Vet. visit. He thinks it is retained ovums. An x-ray was taken. I'll get a full update posted when I get home.

[Tarzier]

Ah, that sucks. Good luck with her.

[guidofatherof5]

According to my Vet. she has 3 or 4 retained eggs(ovum). He thinks the best thing is to give he warm water time and see what happens.
She is also opaque again. She just shed last week so I think she is going though the same thing "Enforcer" dealt with when she had some retained eggs. She is soaking now and hopefully in a short amount of time this will be over. He doesn't think the eggs have calcified which is a good thing.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//743/medium/anery_xray.jpg

[chris-uk]

Glad you have a diagnosis and a good prognosis. I'm not seeing anything in the x-ray, maybe it will be clearer on the laptop rather than the phone.

[guidofatherof5]

I had trouble seeing it at the Vet. office but did see some very faint outlines.
I had to capture the image for posting so maybe some clarity was lost.

[d_virginiana]

I can kind of see the middle one you have circled...
Glad to hear you've at least got a diagnosis and a hopeful prognosis :)

[Foxrun402]

Hope she is doing ok, I wonder if it causes her pain to still have them there? poor girl... Hopefully she will be just fine =) and I learned something new from this... Does this mean if Suzi does not find a mate she will pass jelli beans too?

Edit: Can't believe I've had a female snake this long and never put any thought into this lol

[guidofatherof5]

Hope she is doing ok, I wonder if it causes her pain to still have them there? poor girl... Hopefully she will be just fine =) and I learned something new from this... Does this mean if Suzi does not find a mate she will pass jelli beans too?

Edit: Can't believe I've had a female snake this long and never put any thought into this lol

It's possible but many times the ovum(egg) is just reabsorbed by the body.

[guidofatherof5]

Some good news.....I hope.
The eggs are within an inch of her vent now. Hoping a few more soakings and she'll push them out.
This is the difficult time as the eggs could now cause a intestinal blockage now. I will be monitoring this situation closely.
She is acting normal in every other way.

[guidofatherof5]

She has now pushed the retained eggs to within a couple centimeters of her vent. I'll give her another warm soaking and I hope she'll push them out very soon. This is the most dangerous time as I do believe they are a blockage to the digestive tract now.
I hope this ends soon. She's doing a great job.
I think I could grab the first one with a pair of hemostats but won't try at this time(they are not visible yet) I also don't want to push them out just yet as she seems to be handling the situation on her own.
Come on baby push!

[guidofatherof5]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_seFR5_8wBM

[Foxrun402]

Oh man, she is so gorgeous and docile! I hope she recovers and passes those retained jellies soon ! :(

[guidofatherof5]

Taking her to the Vet. tomorrow for an evaluation for surgery or if waiting is still a better option.

[kueluck]

So how's she doing?? This is why I originally wanted males instead of females. I lost a toad last year because she was egg bound. :(

[guidofatherof5]

She had an early morning Vet. visit yesterday. My Vet. wants to play the wait and see game a little longer. The eggs aren't causing a blockage and she's normal in every other way so he doesn't want to do surgery until he has to. He was happy with the distance she has pushed them already and suggest I continue the warm water treatment and add some mineral oil enemas.

[kueluck]

I guess as long as you watch what's going in and coming out there would be no urgency. But I HATE the waiting game! Hope all comes out well in the end (sorry, had to). :p

[guidofatherof5]

I watch her like a haw......... I watch her very closely:D

[Foxrun402]

Yeah that H word... lol I hope she gets them out soon, I wonder if it causes any discomfort in her :(

[guidofatherof5]

Yeah that H word... lol I hope she gets them out soon, I wonder if it causes any discomfort in her :(


Doesn't seem to be causing any discomfort that I can see.

[guidofatherof5]

*UPDATE*

Today was a feed date. My anery female was partially out of the hide and enjoying some tilapia. I saw a shed in the enclosure so I checked her out. Good thing I did and the last 3rd of her wasn't shed. While she ate I finished her shed. I also checked on the position of the retained ova. One of them was very near the vent so I gave it a push. I was hoping to get a look at it but all I could see was rectum tissue so I put her back in. She immediately started to pushing and I got my first look at the ova. The problem before was she was not relaxing her rectum. Now that she was, I helped her with a little push. The ovum popped out. I saw no blood so I don't think I push too hard. I'm hoping she'll get the other pushed down and I can help her again.

[chris-uk]

Improving a bit at a time Steve.

[EasternGirl]

I just caught up with this thread...I'm glad she seems to be doing better. Keep us posted.

[guidofatherof5]

*UPDATE*

Today was a feed date. My anery female was partially out of the hide and enjoying some tilapia. I saw a shed in the enclosure so I checked her out. Good thing I did and the last 3rd of her wasn't shed. While she ate I finished her shed. I also checked on the position of the retained ova. One of them was very near the vent so I gave it a push. I was hoping to get a look at it but all I could see was rectum tissue so I put her back in. She immediately started to pushing and I got my first look at the ova. The problem before was she was not relaxing her rectum. Now that she was, I helped her with a little push. The ovum popped out. I saw no blood so I don't think I push too hard. I'm hoping she'll get the other pushed down and I can help her again.

Here's a photo of the ovum.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//747/medium/ovum.jpg

[gregmonsta]

I've only seen partial areas on slugs like that before in the flesh. Must be quite an advanced stage of calcification, I think Stefan had a whole batch of this with his tetrataenia female? It's good they're coming easy with gentle persuasion.
I had a partial calcification at the head of a blockage of two fused ovae my Florida blue had to expel this year. I played the waiting game with her and she cleared it much the same - starting contractions after handling that included some exploratory squeezing.

[Foxrun402]

Good to hear she is still doing ok and is almost out of this!

[guidofatherof5]

Worked with her a little today. The final ovum is about 1/2 an inch from her vent. I was able to push it to the vent but wasn't able to see it. She wasn't happy with me so I put her back in her enclosure. A few moments later I saw her defecate which was good to see. I know this egg isn't causing a blockage. I'm hoping this problem will be over in the next week.

[guidofatherof5]

My cause for concern maybe over. I noticed that she had pushed the ova to within a few centimeters of her vent/cloaca. When I lightly pushed on the mass I could see it.
I felt this was a good opportunity for me to assist her in getting what appeared to be the last ovum out. By gently pushing I was able to take a small bamboo skewer and pick the ovum apart. She was pushing and I was picking. After approximately 5 minutes I was able to get the last large piece out. I didn't see any blood at the vent so I think she will be fine. I'm sure her little tush is hurting some so she'll get a nice warm soak.

[chris-uk]

I'm sure she'll be thankful that you broke up the ovum into smaller pieces and saved her vent a bit of stretching.

[EasternGirl]

Glad the whole thing seems to be over and she is doing well.

[guidofatherof5]

Over the last couple of days I saw a change in her behavior and didn't like it. This morning I found her dead. I did a quick necropsy and found 5 other ova inside her. Her lower intestines seemed a bit swollen so I'm guessing there was an infection. She had been off food for about 10 days.
Needless to say I'm not very happy.

[Stefan-A]

So sorry to hear it.

[jwolfe152]

wow that sucks sorry for your loss

[chris-uk]

Sad news. You did all you could for her.

[guidofatherof5]

Sad news. You did all you could for her.

and I'm thinking I did too much.

[chris-uk]

and I'm thinking I did too much.

That's something you can never know, you can't know whether no action would have had the same result. Don't beat yourself up.