Smelly red goop piles on substrate

[cnphilips]

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Sorry this is long, there's a lot on my mind![/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]In December of last year I drove 4 hours to adopt two captive bred (so told) garter snakes I found on petfinder. I'm a first time snake owner, but I am a wildlife rehbabber by profession. I work with reptile medications and injuries a lot (dog attacks, hit by car, stuck in trash, glue traps) but not with breeding or long term husbandry. These guys have doubled in size (now at 45 grams). They saw our local reptile vet in May, the same one we use at the wilifelife hospital.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]I generally feed nightcrawlers every weekend. Friday 10/30 I fed petsmart minnows, they each ate 6, then a worm and a half. We've been swapping fish in once a month since June. I [/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]had asked my vet about supplmenting calcium, since we were only feeding worms and he said "feed live fish." [/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Thursday 11/5 they were out of the hideys and staring us down, which is usually their reminder that its time to eat again. We didn't have the worms until Sunday 11/8 so I expected the extra days to have made them even more hungry. But they each only ate 1 full worm, it's usually about 3, so that's not right. The next morning there were some reddish almost purple hardened goos on the carefresh.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]I decided to move forward with a low dose of panacur (50mg/kg) in an earthworm. I tried last night and got one of them, Stripes, to go for the medicated worm chunk, he/she also ate 2 more worms. Blackie did not eat, ignored the moving worm.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]More fresh,red, wet, incredibly smelly blobs appeared after the handling for feeding. [/COLOR][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]The lack of interest from Blackie alarms me the most. I checked vents and both were a bit crusty, dirty, also something I don't like. Stripes looked to have a tiny amount of the red goo, and was near one of the fresh piles. I soaked both of them.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Is this a run to the vet situation? Is it a parsite symptom or am I jumping to conclusions? Is this a mating/ breeding symptom? Blackie's a girl, Stripes is cryptic, could be male. Anyone seen this before? Almost certain it's from the vent and not regurge but I could be wrong.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]I'm feeling unhappy with thier current vet the more I read on this forum about fish dangers. We've had other problems with him at the hospital including bad surgeries, and he's difficult to get a hold of, but he is a reptile specialist, just maybe not a good one. So new dog/cat vet with reptile experience or not great reptile vet? [/COLOR]

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Attached is all the red blobs from the last three days. No new ones this morning. Both are alert. Variously on heat, on cool side.

Thank you for your time!
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