Bad Day.

[Allysen]

I woke up this morning, got ready for school, fed the birds, tended to the bunnies, goats, chinchillas, etc. I always check the snakes last because they usually require the least.

I opened Fiesta's tank to discover her proudly lording over 11 slugs. She wasn't due until September/October.

Unfortunately, I still had to go to school. And our vet is out of town at the ARAV conference until Monday. All I could think of was the last time we bred BRBs, and how Ember, our female, went full-term and then gave us several slugs and two stillborns. We took her to the vet the next day and found out that she had retained a few ova from the previous year's breeding that nobody had caught, and they'd gone septic and screwed up her new litter, and when we had her put under for surgery, despite the bloodwork looking good, she was far too gone to save. We didn't wake her up from the surgery. She was the first snake I ever lost and it was just so incredibly heartbreaking. She's still in our freezer, actually.

My first thought was that the same thing was going to happen to Fiesta. She'd never been bred before she came to us, and we attempted it last year but it didn't take. Just didn't ovulate, things happen, etc. But then I was thinking "What if she DID ovulate and they were stuck and went septic, and the SAME THING is going to happen??"

Luckily, Katie works at a clinic, and although they don't see exotics, she pulled a few strings so that Joey could bring Fiesta down and get a few X-rays taken just to make sure there weren't any slugs left up inside of her. Luckily, there weren't, but apparently they could see the rat she ate on Sunday....

So Fiesta seems fine. We're going to take her to our regular vet on Monday to make sure, but oh my goodness am I disappointed. I feel so awful that I put her through all this for slugs. I was so excited for squiggly little rainbows, I can't even convey it. Ugh.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

[littleindiangirl]

Sorry to hear.

[Neal]

Sorry to hear, but look on the bright side you know? Atleast Fiesta is still living and doing good.

[Allysen]

I wanted to post a little update on Fiesta. She's going into a shed and has one more dose of ceftazidime to go, just as a precautionary measure. She saw our regular vet, and although I personally suspect the male's sperm isn't up to snuff, he's concerned about a possible uterine infection.

He'd just come back from the ARAV conference and had learned a new technique that picks up on bacterial infections quicker and better and more accurately than the old standard methods, so we sent a blood sample out to be cultured, and so far, nothing's growing. She's not in the clear yet, but everything looks good. She's even going into a shed!

[rjk890]

Sorry about the slugs, but glad to read the positive update, and that the almost momma' seems to be fine.

Better luck next season.