A little worried...

[xFenrir]

Recently we had a little mix-up with Satin's schedule and we forgot that she was supposed to eat last weekend instead of this one. She usually eats on Sundays and we noticed Monday night that we had mixed it up, so my boyfriend (who keeps her at his house) said he'd feed her on Tuesday. She's a huge pig so I wasn't that worried about being off by 2 days.

But she refused the meal.

Well, I thought, maybe she's gonna be a stickler and only want to eat on Sundays since that's what she's used to. But she refused AGAIN today. And we've noticed her yawning and breathing heavily lately, and I'm beginning to worry that she's got something. In the 2 years I've had her she's NEVER refused ANYTHING that's food, which is what worries me the most. I don't see any mucus/bubbling around her nose or mouth and no clicking, but...

She's going into the vet regardless, but have any of you had an adult BCI that just suddenly stopped eating? Either in general or around this time of the year? And what were the reasons? Or had these symptoms before? I'm just trying to narrow down the possibilities myself.


After losing Loki to an RI and infection, I'm a lot more paranoid...

[Evenstar]

So, your feeding was only off by 2 days? Or was it off by a full week and 2 days?

It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but I got a little confused, lol....

Anyhow, I doubt that the fact that you were off schedule was the cause of her not eating. Boas are usually garabage disposals and will eat whenever. And with their slower metabolisms, it isn't going to hurt her to have skipped a meal.

But coupled with the yawning is a bit concerning. You are right to take her to the vet. Hopefully, it'll prove to be nothing. But if I remember correctly, wasn't she just moved to your boyfriend's place? The recent move may possibly have stressed her enough that she developed an RI. If that's the case, then that would explain her sudden loss of appetite and the vet visit is the best choice. But I'll keep my fingers crossed that it turns out fine!

[xFenrir]

It was only off by 2 days for the first refusal (which I wasn't there for), and a week by today's. I wasn't worried about the extra week as well, as she's gone that long before. We've seen her yawning before, and we just thought it was cool to see. It was just that she usually ATTACKS the rat as soon as she smells it, and two refusals coupled with the yawning and heavy breathing started the warning bells in my head.

Oh, and she was moved to my boyfriend's house back in October. Although we have noticed there have been some trouble with keeping a constant temperature recently, it hasn't dropped lower than 86 hotspot/76 ambient and it's only been happening recently, but could it be enough to tip her over the edge if she had been fighting something off?

[Evenstar]

It takes a long time for a snake to show illness. A move in October could have unsettled her enough that she is only now showing signs of it. And the lack of consistant temps could have contributed. I am still hoping that it's just a fluke. You'll have to let us know what the vet says.

[xFenrir]

Yes. After everything Loki went through, I'd much rather be safe than sorry. I'm hoping that even if it IS something, we'll catch it very early and it'll be no problem.

[WifeOfSlasher]

Could it be that the rats were "bad"? Possible...

[Salamander Rising]

Could it be that the rats were "bad"? Possible...

I once bought a bunch of mice from a guy who got them from [big name company deleted] and actually started a thread about them.

They were scabby, creepy looking, kind of frost-bitten/anemic, had tattoos on their tails and none of my snakes would touch them except for one garbage disposal BP.

He didn't regurge but went off feed for two weeks.

Hubby said they didn't smell odd to him but snakes no doubt smell things more acutely than we do.

I threw them out.

[xFenrir]

That crossed our minds too. We're going to a show this weekend to pick up more aspen (we buy in bulk lol) and while we're at it were going to pick up a new batch of rats.

Either way she's still going into the vet, because even before we were having these concerns, because the only very she's ever been to told us that they were saying she was a girl (we got get probed since we got her from a rescue) because the further the probe goes in, that means it's a male. The probe went in I think slut 4 ventral scales.

>_>

She's eaten all the rats from the first bag andmost of the one's from the recent there are only like 6 left and they're in vacuum sealed bags, but they could've gone bad...

[Daybreaker]

If she's suddenly decided to go off feed and is otherwise acting "off" I want to say it's most likely an RI over "bad" rats. Though I've never had to deal with an RI in boas I have a new addition ball who's been having a hard time kicking an RI and when he was sick his feeding response was so different than when he was getting better (ie: he would act very scared of his feeder and would recoil from it when ill and strike within a second when feeling better). Good luck!

[WifeOfSlasher]

I'm not saying that the rats are truly bad. Maybe they just don't smell right. We had this with a a couple of rats. Our BP refused and our boa took some enticing. They just didn't smell as fresh and clean as others.