Advice needed.

I need some help. I have a 2011 female yellow-belly. She is now impacted for the second time. The first time was caused by a huge urate. Not sure why this time yet. Anyone have any advice on how to keep this from happening? Thanks for the help.

Hi,

I'm not sure - depends on what the initial cause is really.

What is the humidity like in the enclosure? Are you in a very hard water area? What did the vet say the last time?


dr del

I am in Florida which has hard water. Tons of iron and lime in the water. When this happened last time, I was feeding 2 rat pinkies at a time. The vet said it was caused by feeding more than one food item so I switched her to 1 rat fuzzy per feeding. Now it has happened again. I have 4 other 2011 hatchlings and they don't haven't had any problems. The humidity in her tub stays around 60%. The temps are 87 F hot side and 80 F on the cool side. I feed them once per week. She sheds with no problems and no sign of mites.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reesy

I am in Florida which has hard water. Tons of iron and lime in the water. When this happened last time, I was feeding 2 rat pinkies at a time. The vet said it was caused by feeding more than one food item so I switched her to 1 rat fuzzy per feeding. Now it has happened again. I have 4 other 2011 hatchlings and they don't haven't had any problems. The humidity in her tub stays around 60%. The temps are 87 F hot side and 80 F on the cool side. I feed them once per week. She sheds with no problems and no sign of mites.

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I don't have any experience with impactions, but get a new vet. The statement that it was caused by feeding multiples is ridiculous. My bet is that you could actually increase the prey size again, too - my 2011s started on rat fuzzies and are now taking 50g small rats, so it depends on the size of your snakes (mine are all 350-700g now).

Hi,

Yeah a new vet sounds like a plan.

I would think about bumping up the hot hide temps to 92f and trying some kind of water softener or bottled water.

But the above depends on the following answer - what do you use to measure temps and humidity and wherabouts in the tank do you take the readings?


dr del

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,

Yeah a new vet sounds like a plan.

I would think about bumping up the hot hide temps to 92f and trying some kind of water softener or bottled water.

But the above depends on the following answer - what do you use to measure temps and humidity and wherabouts in the tank do you take the readings?


dr del

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x2.

Remember not all vets are good. I had to go through FOUR and spend almost $1,500 to finally get a "okay" one. who is ironically a regular animal vet, he just has experience with reptiles. The hard water and all that, I'll let the other people cover! When it comes to vets though remember not all of them are the best... :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,

Yeah a new vet sounds like a plan.

I would think about bumping up the hot hide temps to 92f and trying some kind of water softener or bottled water.

But the above depends on the following answer - what do you use to measure temps and humidity and wherabouts in the tank do you take the readings?


dr del

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To add to this, and I apologize if it's a dumb question, but how do you know she's impacted? Could it just be the sausage butt that they get right before passing urate/feces?

Exactly! Why is the diagnosis impaction. Is it just because she's not defecating??


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Originally Posted by Annarose15

To add to this, and I apologize if it's a dumb question, but how do you know she's impacted? Could it just be the sausage butt that they get right before passing urate/feces?

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Very good question indeed. :bow:

Could be sausage butt. I just get a little worried about her due to her previous impaction. I'll keep a close eye on her. Got to go to work now, I'll post up pictures of her later today. Thanks everybody for your comments.