Odd regurge...

[guidofatherof5]

Sounds good on the move idea. Blood workups require a large amount of blood volume for a garter to give.

[d_virginiana]

Sounds good on the move idea. Blood workups require a large amount of blood volume for a garter to give.

Yeah, I only want to do something like that if the fecal turns up nothing and his condition worsens.

[Albert Clark]

How old is he? And you said this was the second time partial regurge, correct? And you are highly suspicious bc he was in contact with the female who had a sudden inexplicable death? Also this may or may not be due to overeating? OK, Just know that we all hope it is minor and keep us posted.

[d_virginiana]

How old is he? And you said this was the second time partial regurge, correct? And you are highly suspicious bc he was in contact with the female who had a sudden inexplicable death? Also this may or may not be due to overeating? OK, Just know that we all hope it is minor and keep us posted.

I think he's roughly 5, since I'm not 100% sure how old he was when I got him.

Yes, this is the second partial regurge.

Yes, I am suspicious because of the female. However, as of yesterday I got some info that at one point she overheated by laying on an unregulated heat pad before she came to me. Given how sensitive garters can be, this gives me hope that she may have suffered internal damage from that incident and not had anything contagious. I initially figured she didn't have anything contagious because she made it through a 90 day QT with no symptoms other than basic stress symptoms (soaking often and eating sporadically), and went from acting perfectly fine to dead in less than five hours (made me think organ failure, which would fit with the heat pad narrative).

I do still have some hope that this is due to overeating and then eating something harder to digest (pinkies) right after. I'm going to test this by just offering him small amounts of nightcrawler at his next feeding. They are the easiest to digest, so if he keeps those down I figure I was right about that.

[Albert Clark]

Oh, ok. Cool. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

How long did you wait to feed him after the first regurge? What does his feces look like? You know it could be stress from the other male. I have had snakes together for years that all of a sudden would have to be separated due to stress. I hope it's nothing too bad.

[d_virginiana]

After the first regurge, I skipped a week (I feed every five to seven days depending on how well they ate at the last feeding), then fed him again the following week. It was a slightly smaller meal than normal, but tomorrow is feeding day, so I'm going to try either nightcrawler cut into chunks or one pinkie cut into chunks to make it easier on digestion. If he keeps that down, I'm going to work my way slowly back up to normal meals.

I haven't gotten a good look at his feces recently due to lack of food going through his system (lots of urates, but very little if any feces) combined with the fact that he likes to smear his poo around. In the three years I've had him I've rarely seen an in-tact poo because of this; I know it's not really chronically runny or anything because I've actually seen him do it. He'll be pooping, then kind of panic (by far my most high-strung snake) and kind of smear/fling it around running away. I guess he thinks a predator might smell him or something, idk. It's going to be difficult getting a fecal sample from him for sure.

It could be stress from the other male, and I'll look into that (like if he gets better, then gets worse again once his buddy is reintroduced) but I kind of doubt that's the problem. Starting almost immediately when I separated them, the one who regurged has spent all his time hiding (and his buddy has become very skittish and bitey). They're both acting more stressed now that they're solo.

The one who regurged is getting almost worryingly thin looking. He's a very high-energy guy, and I think close to a month of not really getting any food into his system is starting to take a toll on him.

[Albert Clark]

Man , I hope we can get the etiology of this.

[d_virginiana]

Me too. I'm just constantly a mess when something is wrong with one of my babies.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

It could very well be parasites then or a blockage of some sort. Do you feel any lumps in his body at all?