Ball python vomiting?? Please help

[Samantha94lynn]

I don’t know if I’m putting this in the right forum, so forgive me. My boyfriend and I have an about two year old ball python female. Our first snake; we’re no experts here. Perfectly healthy, never been ill once in her life. She ate 6 days ago. She usually eats every 1-1 1/2 weeks one small rat. She came out from her hide tonight and was just slithering around like she normally does. She opened her mouth real wide just she sometimes does to unlock or adjust her jaw. But then her whole body started thrashing. It lasted about 20-30 full seconds that she thrashed her body with her jaw wide open. It was terrifying to watch. I couldnt tell if she was having a seiure or what. Then she coughed a few times and closed her jaw and started slithering around again like normal. I thought okay maybe she’s becoming ill, because of the coughing or maybe she just had something stuck in her throat. About two minutes go by and she does it again for about 20 seconds, then she vomits. It looks almost like her poops do. It’s about the size of the small rat she eats and it’s brown and kind of thick. My best description would be it looks like on of her poops, but looser, like a human who has soft stools from being sick maybe. Not completely runny like a diarrhea. I don’t know what snake vomit looks like. My boyfriend said it looks kind of like the rats skin? But I can’t tell. It also smells awful like fecal matter I’ve just noticed. We really can’t afford a vet bill rent now but if she keeps doing it I’ll of course bring her. Has this ever happened to anyone before? My boyfriend wants to feed her tomorrow, but I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. I’m just really worried about her. Thanks, everyone. Sorry it’s so long

[cchardwick]

You should post a photo of her, does she have good body weight? If so, I wouldn't feed her for a couple weeks. Also make sure she has a hot spot of about 88F - 90F. If they eat and can't warm up on a hot spot it can kill a snake. It can also be from handling a snake too soon after they eat. I would wait at least two weeks to feed again, then feed a smaller rodent and wait at least 3-4 days before handling. I have a few snakes that regurgitate real easy, I'm pretty sure they are sensitive to handling or being moved after eating. Personally I'd feed at two week intervals for awhile, then wait a full week after feeding before handling. If you are feeding frozen thawed make sure the rodent is thawed all the way through and is at a temp of about 90F - 100F before feeding. Feeding too hot or too cold or half frozen can cause major problems. The normal body temp of a rat is about 99F.

[CALM Pythons]

Great reply above.... Also at 2 years old it wouldn't hurt to feed a Ball Python every other week. At this point they don't need or use all that food they once did when they were in the growing faze.

[bcr229]

For an adult ball python I would wait four weeks before offering another feeder, it won't starve and it will need time to recover from regurgitating. In the meantime double-check your heat sources and make sure they haven't failed, if your snake is cold it can't digest its food.

After four weeks offer a feeder a size down from what it normally gets, dusted with NutriBAC probiotic powder (you can get it on Amazon). Wait three weeks and if it hasn't regurgitated then offer another small meal. If that's ok then offer the same small meal after 14 days, then put her on a 14 day feeding schedule.

If she regurges again take her to the vet to be checked for parasites, crypto, etc. If her fecals are clean you may be looking at an internal physical blockage that would require surgery, one of my retics had that a few years ago.

[Craiga 01453]

You DEFINITELY DO NOT want to feed tomorrow. As the others have said, wait at LEAST 2 weeks prior to feeding again and offer smaller prey than the typical size rats she usually eats.

Also, like the others said, double check your husbandry, heat sources, etc...

What are your temps? How do you heat the enclosure? Are heat sources regulated by a thermostat? How are you reading temps? And where are you measuring temps?

Hopefully, all your husbandry is solid and this was just a fluke, it happens. If husbandry is on point and it continues, definitely see a vet.

[Samantha94lynn]

Thanks, everyone. It was really scary to watch but I guess when you don’t have arms or legs, you’ll kind of have to contort and thrash your whole body to get the food up. I’m hoping it was just temperature related. We have both a hot and cool side, plus an under tank heater and temperatures never been a problem but it was been extremely cold in our New York area the past week or so and i found out my thermostat (my house thermostat in my living room) had a glitch and was reading higher than the temperature in my home actually was so I imagine this could have affected the tank temperature a bit as well. I will wait a bit to feed her again. Does it take longer than a week for them to digest and full breakdown their food? I wasn’t sure if this counted as regurgitation or vomiting from other causes.

[Craiga 01453]

Is your tanks heating equipment regulated by a thermostat??

[SDA]

Did it get really cold in your house or something? Often if you odn't have the enclosure properly regulated and adequately heated you can get it to drop suddenly in temps causing distress. If that is not the case, did you either feed larger than normal or was there anything abnormal about he smell or look of the food item? Sometimes an excessively large food item can cause issues or rancid food can.

Sounding from your description that you had an issue with temperatures. Get those under control and in the mean time wait 2-3 weeks before trying to feed again. You may also want to look into a supplement called nutribac. It helps with recovery from regurgitation.

[bcr229]

Is your tanks heating equipment regulated by a thermostat??

This is a very important question.

[Aedryan Methyus]

I have been battling with one of my Blood Pythons regurgitating and what i've learned is, you DO NOT want to attempt feeding again for at least 4 - 6 weeks after the first time the snake regurgitates. Unfortunately, before I knew this I fed him two more times and he regurgitated both times. So, my poor guy ended up regurgitating 3 times within a month. What i've learned is that when snakes regurgitate they lose Gastrointestinal Flora, which is a bacteria in their intestines that is important for digestion. Regurgitation can also cause them to become dehydrated, which is also a very bad thing for the digestive process. So, what i've been doing is treating his drinking water by thoroughly mixing in about a tablespoon of Nutribac per apx. 2 cups of water for about the past month and a half and I replace his water with fresh treated water every 2 - 3 days. I took him to the vet last week and he confirmed that the snake wasn't dehydrated, so it was good to find out that he has been drinking the water and getting the Nutribac, which is said to replenish Flora levels. I also had the vet syringe 1 gram of the Nutribac mixed with water directly down his throat to ensure that he got a nice big dose of it. This snake has been eating small rats, but next week will be my first attempt in 5 weeks at feeding him again. So, I am going to dust a fuzzy rat with the Nutribac, which is significantly smaller than his usual prey size. If he keeps that down, the following week I will dust a weanling size rat with the Nutribac. Finally, if he keeps that down, I will dust a small rat with the Nutribac the week after that. If he keeps his usual size prey down I will discontinue the Nutribac treatment...

As far as the cause for the initial regurgitation when this problem began, I had been battling temperature and humidity issues in my snake room for a week or two when it got really cold outside and I had discovered some very cold drafts in the room, which were most likely blowing on/in the rack that this snake is in. I had immediately weatherized my snake room at that point and everything has been perfect ever since, but the vet confirmed my suspicion that cold temperatures/drafts are the #1 cause for regurgitation in snakes. Fortunately, I didn't witness any convulsions any of the times he regurgitated, but I didn't see him regurgitate any of the times. So, I don't know if that's normal or not...