Problem... prego shed issue.

[bkhuff1s]

My large pregnant blue Puget Sound female, didn't shed the second half of her skin last time (last Wednesday). I wasn't to worried about it, it's happened before. She usually gets it off within a week. Well today I noticed her bottom part near her cloaca was upside down which was strange, so I went in for another look. Upon taking a closer look I noticed that she seemed to a mass near the cloaca, and after pulling her out it looked like she passed stool but it didn't make it past the second skin. I immediately pulled her out and put her in about half an inch of water in a second container. I pulled all of her excess skin off and looked at it. She was a little squirmy but was limp when I messed with her second half of her body. After letting her soak I was able to pull a Q-tip sized solid rock out of her cloaca, and it wasn't closing. I also felt where the babies were and could feel them moving, at least that's what it felt like.

[bkhuff1s]

There seems to be a space between were the babies are and her cloaca, which feels like compacted stool. It's stiff here. She doesn't seem to mind me massaging this part of her body...

[Stefan-A]

Vet.

[bkhuff1s]

I could be an attempted birth to, it's around that time.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

When a gravid/pregnant snake retains a shed in the later stages of pregnancy it can cause damage to the babies and mother. Her skin is already stretched to the max with all those babies inside and the old skin is like an ace bandage constantly putting pressure on the snake and babies it's like wearing a sock when your ankle is swelling. It's good that you got the old skin off, but now does she have feeling in the bottom half at all. Sounds like she may have a slug / jelly bean lodge and is impacted. You need to continue at this point soaking her in water and maybe she will work it out. I hope she will be just fine, but like stefan said you might need to see a vet.

[bkhuff1s]

Took her to the vet, and she become unresponsive on the way. She would suddenly take gulps of air occasionally. The vet said that it she smelled like an infection. The vet suggested attempting to take out the babies, which I accepted since she was completely unresponsive and not breathing. They pulled 10 plus babies out of her all of which completely reeked. They were nearly fully developed, but looked partially decomposed, she showed me some of them. Her thought was that this was what the infection was coming from, the complications with the babies. She also said that the shed shouldn't have caused this type of decomposition, and that she was most likely having complications before she shed, otherwise she should have spent more time getting it off. This sucks. I'm not sure I want to breed anymore. At least for a while.

[bkhuff1s]

I wanted to skin her since she was such a vibrant blue, but I'm not sure I can do it now.

[guidofatherof5]

I'm very sorry to hear about this situation.
Sorry for your loss.
It tough when we lose them.
Prayers coming your way.

[bkhuff1s]

Thanks Steve.

[drache]

sorry about your loss
I lost a snake with a similar infection, and there were no shedding problems
there was no sign of anything wrong before it was too late

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Sorry for your loss.

[RicMartin]

Sorry for your loss.

[mustang]

sorry to hear it. that must have been rough on you

[flickerfriend]

I wanted to skin her since she was such a vibrant blue, but I'm not sure I can do it now.

What does that mean?

[Mommy2many]

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss of your snake and the clutch.

[ConcinusMan]

This sucks. I'm not sure I want to breed anymore. At least for a while.

Breeding is not the problem in this case. It only complicates an issue that was already present:



My large pregnant blue Puget Sound female, didn't shed the second half of her skin last time (last Wednesday). I wasn't to worried about it, it's happened before. She usually gets it off within a week.

Now that's an issue. A significant one. "within a week" is not acceptable. "it happened before" is also another red flag. If the snake was having these issues, there's much more going on here than a simple breeding complication. Breeding is fine, but when you breed snakes that already have some sort of health issue or problem going on then you multiply the risks. Only snakes that are in top condition, shedding properly, eating well, not too old, etc. should be bred in captivity. Of course, in nature that doesn't matter and a snake will die trying to reproduce in spite of it's own health issues.

I'm sorry this happened to your snake. Don't let it discourage you from breeding. I'm just saying that breeding doesn't appear to be the cause. There was an underlying cause to this which appeared to be ongoing.

[Plissken]

What does that mean?

My guess would be to reproduce the skin color in the offspring.

[ConcinusMan]

I wanted to skin her since she was such a vibrant blue, but I'm not sure I can do it now.

I can tell you it doesn't work very well. Skinning doesn't preserve the color of the snake. Pigments are made of proteins which begin to break down after death. Blue and red in particular just doesn't stay. I've tried it. It fades away.