BHP swallowed something it shouldn't've! Help?

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breqq

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Sorry if this sounds a little panicked-- it's because I'm panicking a little!

I left my BHP (about 2.3m) in her tank along with a snake hook, the sort with a small foam tube around the bend of the hook. In those few minutes, she started chewing on it, and managed to work off the foam tube and swallow it! The tube was about 6cm long.

It's 8.30 at night. I don't have a car, so I'd have to catch public transport up to the local herp vet tomorrow, which would take hours. What should I do? Should I hope I can get an appointment tomorrow and that it won't run me hundreds, or is there a safe way to induce vomiting in snakes?

Any advice would be extremely welcome. I'm in Adelaide, if that matters.
 
Ahhh. Get it to the vets buddy. Might pass it naturally, (fingers crossed), but better to get a professional opinion.
6cm isn't big but what diameter & will it swell up while it's inside, I don't know snake hooks as I don't use them myself so I don't know the product you refer too.
Might cost you an x-ray or 2 but better safe than sorry. IMO.
 
Ah, damn. I hoped there was something I could do for her right now. :cry: I'll run her up to the vet tomorrow and hope she'll be okay until then-- she's really antsy, poor thing. Thanks for the advice, guys.
 
I wouldn't panic at this stage - what doesn't pass through will very likely be regurgitated in due course. If it's a thin plastic sleeve, it will likely be pretty stable size-wise. I'm sure a good vet will just suggest watching and waiting, rather than any potentially dangerous intervention or surgery. A friend of mine in WA once aggravated an Olive with his cloth hat, with the predictable outcome that the snake bit the hat and subsequently swallowed it. A far larger and potentially more dangerous item than you're involved with here. We caught the snake and kept it just to ensure its wellbeing, and about 10 days later it regurgitated the hat without any ill effects. We gave it a rat to make sure all was well internally, and released it some days after that.

It's not something which requires a panic reaction.

Jamie
 
so your advice would be to wait and see what happens Jamie? interesting.

please keep us informed with the outcome [MENTION=42021]breqq[/MENTION] , I'm very interested in this case.
 
I'd wait. The snake is quite large at over 2m (about 8 feet), and the plastic is probably a thin tube of only 6cm, and probably reasonably flexible. Snakes occasionally swallow alien items when feeding in the wild without ill effects, so a bit of flexible plastic a bit over 2 inches (I'm old!) is unlikely to cause a medical emergency - the snake's normal stool wouldn't be much narrower than that. If the plastic was hard, or had sharp ends or edges, I would be a bit more concerned, but I'm guessing this was a piece of PVC tubing or something similar acting as a cushion to make the hook easier on the snake. My guess is that it wouldn't show up on an x ray either.

Jamie
 
i like the idea of waiting to see if she regurgitates, if waiting a day doesn't work then i'd take her to the vet...i know it will be expensive for a vet especially if they tell you they need to operate or they need an xray but its the best thing for your animal :(
 
A day is not long enough - as I pointed out in my post earlier, even a large cotton hat took 10 days to be rejected - a small piece of plastic probably won't even be recognised as a problem by the snake's digestive system. If the snake is behaving normally, I'd wait a month to see if it is passed normally or regurgitated. It's pointless taking the animal to a vet - he/she won't be able to do anything anyway, short of surgery, and that's far too big a step at this stage, and will be a great deal riskier than leaving things to sort themselves out. The vet won't be able to get the snake to regurgitate, and plastic is unlikely to show up on x ray, so you won't even know where it is inside the snake's body. What you could do is talk to an EXPERIENCED reptile vet about whether or not to feed the animal while you are waiting. If it was my animal, I would stick to routine and feed as appropriate to keep the passage of food & wastes moving along normally. BHPs are notoriously messy snakes anyway, my guess is that the small foreign body will be passed normally along with the usual wastes.

Jamie
 
Thanks to everyone for your advice, especially Jamie-- hearing the hat story made me feel a lot better!

I finally got to see a herp vet yesterday. I know wait-and-watch was the most probable outcome, but I wanted to check in with a professional, you know? Just going "eh, she'll probably be right" was a bit of a scary idea when I haven't had this happen before.

He checked her out, tried to palpate the object (couldn't), and told me to see how she goes, keep feeding her, and to bring her back if she doesn't pass it with her next meal or regurgitate it. There was the option of x-rays, but since they weren't necessary right now I declined-- he did give her a dose of contrast stuff, so if there does turn out to be a problem, he can see how it's moved through her system and get some info off the bat with that.

Not a very exciting update, I'm afraid! Hopefully it'll come out of one end or the other.
 
Sorry about the long delay, I forgot about this post. A few weeks later, she passed her foreign object out the other end, with no harm done except for her being more stroppy than usual! All in all, a good outcome. :)
 
Good news, thanks for coming back and sharing so that some other keepers can learn for the incident
 
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