Constipated Jungle

[mysnakesau]

OMG I just realised my jungle boy was constipated. I haven't seen him for nearly a week. He's been hiding way because he was going to shed. He started shedding this morning so pulling him out this afternoon to make sure he got it all off, he was very swollen in the back half of his body. Running my hands along his belly I could feel hard lumps that have obviously distressed him. So I took him outside and held the ungrateful bugger around the top half and dangled his lower body in the air. Then I took him out onto the grass and massaged his belly. I could feel the crap crumbling in him. It almost felt like I'd crushed his bones. Its a very scarey thing to massage them like that. I continued massaging until I got almost all of it out of him. Gosh he's been saving that up for a while Poor Zan . Six bites later the swelling is gone. His body is back down to normal but his under belly is sucked inwards. So now he is soaking in a nice warm tub to see if we can move the remaining little lump I know is still there, and retained shed.

I am not sure what caused it. I know too cold enclosures can cause this, and when they spend all their time on heat and don't move, the crap becomes like rocks. Except he was in his cool end, hiding because he was in shed. He took a larger than normal weaner rat prior to me realising he was coming into shed. Then refusing just a few days ago made me check him out and found blue eyes. Poor bugger. Think I will let him recover for a couple weeks before offering anymore food, and downsize his feeds from weaner rats back to adult mice.

I should have gotten some photos to share but I was too busy trying to help him while he was busy biting me, and rearing up with his mouth open just waiting for my fingers to fall into his mouth...lol....he got my thumb, elbow, ankle, butt, and twice on my leg.

 

[abnrmal91]

My male Bredli went through a phase of becoming somewhat clogged. He would never come out of his hide so just sat still all day everyday, I think this caused it to not be moved through due to lack of activity.

It never got as bad as yours sounded but you could definitely feel that it was solid. I found that a nice warm bath worked really well as it softened it up. I know snakes don't pull faces but he definitely looked releaved/relaxed once it was out. Only problem is it makes a mess.

 

[Raddy318]

you can try vasoline on a cotton bud and just clean his bum out with that, he wont like it but it usually does the trick.

 

[GeckoJosh]

Hey I know this sounds gross but how moist was the poop?

 

[hugsta]

Surprised it didn't get rid of the backlog while you were removing the retained shed. Normally a bit of stress and a lot of movement pass the load on and send it all of the floor and you...

 

[mysnakesau]

Thanks Hugsta I heard it before I saw the swelling so I was on the ball. At first I thought the swelling was worse when his tail looked dark brown and rotten but thankfully it was just retained skin that quickly soaked up some of the mess. He looking his beautiful golden self again. All my snakes are in bad moods tonight. Three others had stinken tanks so had to clean them out, and all three of them bit the hell out of me - another jungle, intergrade and GTP. My young intergrade latched on and wanted to eat my finger but I pelted water at him and he let go. Then I covered his head with a tea towel while I attended to his tub.

Goldmember some of his poop was normal but the first couple that come out, and quite large ones, too, felt very dry. He had no chance of getting that out without assistance. Now he is really peed off at me so its lights out and destress time.

 

[GeckoJosh]

Poor snake, sounds like he went through hell lol.

Good luck with him

 

[hugsta]

You wouldn't be a reptile keeper without getting bitten every now and then Kathy.

 

[mysnakesau]

sure does make a mess, abnormal, that's why you do these things OUTside.

My snakes don't bite . Oh yes they do...lol...I could have got some awesome photos of Zan, sitting there, reared up, mouth wide open. Their mouths are such a pretty blue. Can't believe how cranky he was, he should have realised I was only trying to help him. But lucky he is still only little, so not too much damage, just pins piercing my skin everywhere. I just checked in on him to see what he is doing. He looks relaxed sitting up on his box - well he was until I looked at him, then he started striking again. But the sucked in look to his belly has come out. I will leave him in peace now.

 

[Jay84]

I have a GTP that always gets constipated. His poo is always nice and normal, however the urates seem to crystalise as go in a hard clump. I have to massage them out, not fun for me or the snake!

 

[deebo]

One of my BHPs always seem to hold on and hold on and hold so whenever i see her starting to build up i make sure i let her go for a roam around the yard etc and run her through my hands and generally make her work pretty hard and normally with about 5-10 mins of that and putting her back in her tub with her tail hanging down so she has to pull herself back in she will go pretty soon afterwards......At least she doesnt bite so im glad none of my jungles suffer from it! haha!

I also find that misting my snakes - like I would my GTP promotes a bit of activity which may be something you could try - a bit of moisture and activity might help.

Glad you got it sorted....

Dave

 

[mysnakesau]

What am I doing wrong? I now have an intergrade with an impaction. I haven't had this problem before and suddenly after the last feed two of my snakes have hard impactions in their gut.

Can this be caused by feeding too big a food item? I have been purchasing my food from the pet shop last 6 weeks, and the last time they had no small rats so I bought medium size rats. And the weaner rats I fed my jungle last, was bigger than usual. I've always been worried about feeding too big, now I dared to upsize a little, and it seems something has jammed up inside them.

I have my intergrade soaking in warm water at the moment. Am about to take him out to wander on the grass and see what my new book says about it. Maybe that might shed some light on my problem.

Ok, referring to my book "What's wrong with my Snake", thought I'd share some information that could turn out useful for someone else.

Overfed and under-active snakes are prime candidates for constipation. Other factors include too cool, too dry environment, and feeding too big a food items. They say to increase the cage size, things for them to climb on, and reduce size of food item

So my first thoughts were that I've upsized the food too much. As far as exercise is concerned, I believe my enclosures are big enough but the snakes choose to stay in one spot. They have plenty of branches to climb on, and large water containers. So I'll attempt to solve the problem by leaving the feeding now for a week or two, and downsize the food item.

And now I gotta get the impaction out of my python

Nice warm bath and a stroll outside yesterday did the trick. He got rid of it on his own during the night

 

[carterd]

Try feeding Quail or chicken. It helped one of my Coastals to loosen up.

 

[wokka]

you can try vasoline on a cotton bud and just clean his bum out with that, he wont like it but it usually does the trick.

I would be reluctant to apply vasoline internally. Better to use something which is made for the job like KY jelly.

 

[mysnakesau]

I'm not buying a tube of that. People look at you and think naughty things. But lucky for both my snakes, I didn't have to go that far.

 

[mikey_mike]

I'm reasonably certain that when you buy your tube of KY & announce to the shop assistant that you're planning to lubricate a cotton bud prior to inserting it in a snakes cloaca they won't be looking at you and thinking naughty things.