SOS! Need help! Vomiting...

Hello everybody.

I have 10 ball pythons and I breed my own rats.
I have bought 2 new babies (balls).
I have given them newborn rats, everything ok
Second time I try to give them pinkies and after one day they vomited.

Today an adult ball vomited also after two days.

I must mention that 2 female adult rats have suddenly died.

What should I do first? :confused:

I am scared and I believe that sth is wrong with my rats.

What are the temps? How are you measuring them? Do you have them in tanks or tubs?

Most importantly, are you quarantining your new snakes as you get them?

sounds like you may have a problem with your rats. they could have some chemical on them or around them that the ball pythons are ingesting with the rodents. Might actually be a good thing they threw them up if the rats are "contaminated". Do you have anything around the rats that might have gotten into their enclosures?

Like said....

Did you QT?

Check your temps

Make sure ther rats didn't get into anything. I'd also take a look at what I was using to clean cages/rat bins with.

I have them in a rack system.
The new ones were QT as they had mites.
I have used Provent-a-mite everywhere just in case.
I was very careful when I used it.
No mites at all, now after 12 days.

warm side about 28,5 C.

air temp in the room about 21 C.

The rats are at the same spot years now.

I have noticed that sudden deaths were noticed when I bought some new rats to complete my sets.

Hi,

If you are measuring those temps correctly with a digital thermometer inside their hides then your hot side temps are only one degree more than we recommend for the cool side. :weirdface

We normally recomment a cold side temp of 80-82f and a warm side temp of 92-94f.

What heat sources are you using and how long have the animals been in the same conditions - and were there no problems with things like this before?


dr del

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vag

I have them in a rack system.
The new ones were QT as they had mites.
I have used Provent-a-mite everywhere just in case.
I was very careful when I used it.
No mites at all, now after 12 days.

warm side about 28,5 C.

air temp in the room about 21 C.

The rats are at the same spot years now.

I have noticed that sudden deaths were noticed when I bought some new rats to complete my sets.

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Temps are TOO LOW. you want a 90F warm side or 32c and 80-84 cool side 26c

My snakes are in the same conditions for about three months.
I use the digital therm from lucky reptile.
It is a 27 boxes rack with 2 cables 17m-150W.
I use them because my snake room is outside the house.
Every box has two lines of cable under.

Bingo

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flameethrower

temps are too low. You want a 90f warm side or 32c and 80-84 cool side 26c

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What about the rats that are dying?

Sounds like the new acquisitions had something on them or are ill in some way.

Definitely do get the temps up on the snakes though. That could be the reason for the snakes regurgitating.

If all has been well up until now with your stuff, and then you got the rats and it went downhill.....

There could be a problem with the rats as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vag

What about the rats that are dying?

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Is there anything that I can give my rats?
A medicine in the water?

About the only thing you can do is get those temps up where they need to be. Make sure the humidity is correct. Give those snake that regurged the rats at least a week to 10 days rest before offering anything else to eat. Offer a different rodent from different stock in case yours are sick. Offer something a little smaller than the snakes are use to. This gives the digestive system time to get over the regurge. But do not try to feed them again before at least a week and make sure the temperatures in your rack are correct.

Ok!
I am raising temp and keep a close eye to everything.
Thank you all for replying SO fast!

One other thing - for the snakes that regurgitated, do NOT feed them for about 2 weeks, they need time to re-build their gut flora. If you feed them too soon, they're going to regurgitate again, which is not good them.

It probably wouldn't hurt to try to take fecal samples in to your vet to test for internal parasites as well.

Good news is that if a snake gets sick it can throw up, bad news is rodents do not have this ability. With that said, if there is something wrong with the rats, obviously stop feeding them to the snakes first, then I would get all new breeding stock. I would bring a dead rat to the vet. The ones I know would most likely test it for free for you, just to see if they can figure it out.

Yes, I know.
The only bad thing is that I live in Athens, Greece and we rarely have vet!

And I was beggining to start breeding.....
That's why I had lowered temps...

Stop feeding your snakes any of your rats. QT your rats to see if any others die. You may have to kill off your rats if there's any issues.

Make sure your snakes are kept warmer.

Do not feed ANY of your snakes for at least 2 weeks. Give their systems time to recover in the event your rats have a problem.

At this point you need to get everything cleaned up. Use a 10% bleach solution and wash everything. Rat and snake racks, tools, anything associated with your snakes.

Having 2 rats die for no reason, then having 2 snake regurg is surely a sign of a problem. Treat this as a seriious sutuation or you could lose all of your rats, but more importantly all of your snakes.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith