Sudden symptoms!

[Maleko]

I just noticed these today on Coby, my young Oregon Red Spotted. She's about 3 or 4 months old and on a diet of pinky parts and earthworms.
Today I picked her up to find that part of her tail behind her anus was sunken in and it looked like she had feces lodged in her vent. I took her to a friend who knows a little more on snakes than I do. Coby was passing something foreign. My friend gently pulled it out. It was a piece of bark from her bedding (I use coconut bedding) she had swallowed during a recent feeding. She bled a little bit but the swelling went down a lot. It looks like her anus has been stretched out and there's still some feces thats being passed. During this ordeal, my friend examined her and told me that based on her tail (which appeared slightly deflated) and her scales (some of which were sticking up) she is calcium deficient and dehydrated. I gave her a warm bath and I'm gonna go buy some calcium powder for her.

If her health continues to deteriorate, my local vet will work on garters (this friend of mine recently took one of her's in). Any advice? I'm in a bit of a panic. I've separated her from my other garter (who's doing just fine)

[chris-uk]

If she's been impacted from ingesting substrate that could be why she's dehydrated as she may have stopped drinking as well. When was her last feed? And was that when she swallowed the coconut substrate?
Calcium deficiency would be more common if you had just been feeding earthworms, with the pinky pieces mixed in to the diet she'd be getting more nutrients though. Is she eating all the pinky (ie head as well as smaller parts)? I think there's a lot of nutrition in the head as the skull is one of the more formed bones, and brain is full of good stuff. The section containing the liver is key nutrition as well.
Calcium powder is definitely a good idea, I also have some calcium supplement that is added to their water - I use calcium in alternate water changes, and the powder I'll use every 3 or 4 feeds.

I think you'll find that supplements the diet will help. I haven't experienced an impaction myself so I can't give you pointers of things to do or look out for - give it a couple of hours and you'll get some more advice from the forum elite!

[katach]

A warm water bath can help. Can you gently work some stool out, or is she still blocked?

[guidofatherof5]

It sounds like you are doing all you can at this point.
The warm water soakings will keep the vent moist and may help stimulate the bowl to keep things moving.
Is she still eating?
Please keep us informed on this situation.

[Maleko]

Came back from school. She was gone.
Thanks anyway.

[chris-uk]

Sorry to hear that. The impaction could have caused more damage internally.

[guidofatherof5]

Sorry to hear she passed.

[katach]

Sorry for your loss. That is tough.

[ConcinusMan]

That's too bad. There's not much you can do for a little one that has swallowed hard indigestible substrate. It's almost always fatal. All you can do is make sure that it doesn't happen. (prevention)

I don't think your snake was old enough to be showing any signs of calcium deficiency. I highly doubt this was the case.

[EasternGirl]

I am so sorry to hear about your loss.

[Maleko]

Thank you for your condolences. I've definitely learned from this. Any younger snakes I'll ever acquire in the future will definitely be fed in a separate container from now on.

[ConcinusMan]

Separate container can be problematic for some. Once the snake is moved they tend to freak out and not want to eat. So, I just feed bite sized pieces with tongs right in their enclosure and that seems to work for me. Keeps them from swallowing substrate and allows me to supervise to keep fights from breaking out. Like this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yy_WN1SOok


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pun8hwUJnM&feature=related

[Maleko]

What are you feeding that they swallow it so quickly? I feed my puget pinky parts and chopped worms and she never gets anything down that fast.

[kibakiba]

Looks like tilapia, and he said something about sliced slug. If you make it smaller than their head, it'll go down quite fast.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, doesn't really matter what the food is. I feed them pinky parts the same way. The trick is to dice them into small enough pieces while they're still frozen then thaw them. As long as the snakes are fully warmed up and hungry, they always gulp it down quickly.

[Light of Dae]

Sorry to hear about your loss. I feed my baby in a separate box, she got used to it, I'll normally watch her the whole time, but been real busy as of late n she does fine when I leave her in there with just paper towel n a lid with tiny bites of food n little water :) I too use coco husk for substrate, I'm to darn scared of that happening to my little girl.