Possibly ill Spider??

Hello all,

New to post but reading for some time now.

We have a male spider we bought about a month ago and at the same time we got 1 female pastel and 3 normal females all from the same person and all with hopes to breed this upcoming season. All the females are fine but the spider arrived with what I thought looked like a RI. I took him straight to the vet (good snake vet) and she said he had mouth rot not RI. She prescribed an antibotic via injection once every other day. After 7 shots (2 weeks) he wasn't better so she wanted 4 more shots and added nebulizer then after a few more days added mouth rinse. She then drew fluid from his cloaca area and wanted to do an x-ray; she injested barium for the x-ray and found what she thought was an obstruction in the intestines. After 3-4 x-rays over 6 days she could see some movement of the obstruction but not alot. The spider has pooped since we got him and it seemed normal. He has not eaten since we got him a month ago. The vet posted the x-rays on a vet web help site and she got one response and the other vet said the x-rays look normal and our vet is at a loss as to what to do...she has referred us to University of Tennessee Exotic Vet School that accepts walk-ins.

I feel that his last meal with his previous owner he got some bedding in with the feeder and this is slow to work its way out. If this is the case then he is not sick but just a little constipated. We are also soaking him in warm water daily.

I can get the x-rays and everything from my vet, is there anyone that is trained in reading x-rays that might be able to help out?

I hope I did not miss anything but if so ask I will try and answer...Sorry for the long post and thanks for any help!!

Chris

By the way we also have 1.1 Pieds and 0.2 normals that range from 120 g to 240 g. all the others listed above are breeder size or close to it.

Sorry, can't help with the x-rays, but I think you should contact the person who sold you the snake and find out what kind of conditions this snake was kept in. Also if you truly noticed that something was wrong upon arrival, the person who sold you the snake should have been contacted and become involved in this situation immediately.
Good luck with everything, I hope you can figure out what's wrong.

I have contacted the seller with the initial visits but not in the last week or so. My vet did say that the seller probably did not know there was anything wrong with the snake upon delivery. I do need to contact him and keep him posted but none the less we want to keep the spider...we just want to get him healthy.

I am really wanting a second opinion of the x-rays before I go to the expense of taking him to UT Vet School. If the x-rays look normal then I might try and wait out the impaction if need be.

Thanks!

I agree with Jeff... have you contacted the person you bought them from? You spent a lot of money on an investment, and are now spending---I'm sure---loads more money on keeping that investment alive. If he came to you in this condition, the original owner needs to be contacted and made aware... he/she might also be a good resource to find out if this snake is a habitual non-eater, ever had problems with RI, etc.


If this breeder sold you an animal with mouth rot.... that's so not cool!

---EDIT: LOL, posted after you! But you might want to see if Becky---SatanicIntention on here---can take a look at the x-rays.

Lynn,

looks like I answered as you hit submit.

You beat me this time.

I will try and contact her.

Thanks!

We have a couple of very knowledgeable vet-techs among our little community here: SatanicIntention (Becky) as has already been mentioned....and slartibartfast (Jess). I have NO idea what sort of experience either of them have at reading x-rays, but maybe they can help.


(And if we have any other vet-techs that I didn't mention, my apologies!)

That being said....how is the mouth rot healing?? You sort of skipped right from that to the possible impaction issue. Is it getting better with the new round of treatment?

I hope he gets better for you.

The mouth rot seems better as he does not gurgle like he did at first, nor have the slimey mucous discharge. I have increased the temps in his tank...and of course it is kept very clean and fresh water. We care for our snakes very well...as well as all our breeder rats.

I truly feel this is mostly injested bedding that is slow to make its way out. The only problem is from the x-rays there is really not a outline of any type of obstruction...all you can tell it the outline of the barium in the intestines and we have followed it throught the intestine with the different x-rays.

Our vet did mention possible surgery to remove the obstruction but when she got the second opinion from the vet forum and the other vet said the x-rays looked normal she was at a loss and did not know where to go from here and that is why she directed me to UT Vet School.

Thanks!