Stefan's garters

[Stefan-A]

How's the girl doing, Stefan?

Acting as if nothing ever happened. Her appetite is enormous, as usual, but I've been keeping her meals smaller than usual until I'm sure everything is passing through as it should. Which it seems to do.

The vet was convinced that there's no reason to resort to antibiotics (they're not going to dislodge any dead offspring or blockages anyway) and I'm going to trust his judgement for now.

[jitami]

Glad she's doing well. I was thinking the antibiotics would help her fight off the bacteria from babies rotting inside her... I know that sounds grim... sorry. I'm glad it doesn't seem necessary.

[Stefan-A]

Glad she's doing well. I was thinking the antibiotics would help her fight off the bacteria from babies rotting inside her... I know that sounds grim... sorry. I'm glad it doesn't seem necessary.

Don't worry about it sounding grim, I'm not that sensitive. It's a shame there's no way to tell when she's in the clear, though.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

ohh man... this thread sure had a rotten turnout! (no pun intended)

No, but seriously... I've had a snake or two birth babies that were decomposing. The ones that i had seen, a part of their belly halfway up was all black and mushy... while the rest of the snake had not yet decomposed...on all of the dead ones. I think that explains why yours are coming out in two pieces... if that spot gets mushy enough it will just break in half! I've noticed that same spot on a dead snake always tends to go first... really quickly, actually. What is that anyways? Their liver? why does that spot decompose so quickly?! Hopefully she recovers normally, without any complications!

[Stefan-A]

ohh man... this thread sure had a rotten turnout! (no pun intended)

Meh. My typical luck. If I was superstitious, I'd say it turned out this way because I was well prepared for a litter.

No, but seriously... I've had a snake or two birth babies that were decomposing. The ones that i had seen, a part of their belly halfway up was all black and mushy... while the rest of the snake had not yet decomposed...on all of the dead ones. I think that explains why yours are coming out in two pieces... if that spot gets mushy enough it will just break in half! I've noticed that same spot on a dead snake always tends to go first... really quickly, actually. What is that anyways? Their liver? why does that spot decompose so quickly?!

Good question, worth finding out. That's where the "umbilical cord" is and that creates a weak spot, at least on the babies, but that's just a hypothesis.

[drache]

ohh man... this thread sure had a rotten turnout! (no pun intended)

No, but seriously... I've had a snake or two birth babies that were decomposing. The ones that i had seen, a part of their belly halfway up was all black and mushy... while the rest of the snake had not yet decomposed...on all of the dead ones. I think that explains why yours are coming out in two pieces... if that spot gets mushy enough it will just break in half! I've noticed that same spot on a dead snake always tends to go first... really quickly, actually. What is that anyways? Their liver? why does that spot decompose so quickly?! Hopefully she recovers normally, without any complications!

I'm pretty sure it must be the liver because the rest of their digestive system's got next to nothing going on at that point, and the liver is soft to begin with
since they're actually contained in eggs inside the mother's body, their umbilicus is attached to the yolk sac, and that's where they get their nutrients in highly concentrated form
if the yolk was used up too long before they were born, perhaps the chord would deteriorate, but it's really small and tougher than liver tissue, so I'd go with the liver
I wonder what does it though

[ConcinusMan]

Good question, worth finding out. That's where the "umbilical cord" is and that creates a weak spot, at least on the babies, but that's just a hypothesis.

Yup. That's been my experience. That's where it typically happens.

[Stefan-A]

Just weighed half of my snakes for an upcoming deworming (just in case).



This male weighs 90 grams, which is nearly twice as much (44-49 grams) as the parietalis male I used to have, which was about as long. I should measure this one at some point.

[gregmonsta]

Sounds right my males are all around the 75-90g mark apart from Slithers .... he's about the same length but almost half the girth of the others.

[ConcinusMan]

Absolutely fantastic photo. That's desktop wallpaper quality there. Nice. ^^^