very worrying behaviour

Hi,
Last night my 4 month old BEL ate 2 rat pups which is the norm. She went into her hide where she normally stays for the night. But then suddenly about 20 minutes later she shot out of her hide and started twitching and jerking around, this lasted a few minutes, then she went up onto her branch where she stayed until this morning.
I haven't taken her out because i don't want to handle her after feeding but i've been looking in on her and she seems ok this morning. Anyone experienced this themselves or got any ideas????????
Thanks

With out seeing the action it would be hard to say. With that said I've seen my sakes do some strange things, nothing quite like that.. Keep and eye on her just in case..

Wow I have never heard of that before...that is very concerning. I don't have enough experience to comment but me personally....I'd be making a trip to the vet.

Hi,

What are you using as bedding, have you double checked the temps inside the hide and what kind of hide is it?

Have you recently treated for any mites or insects or anything in either the reptile colony or rodent colony if you breed your own?

That should help us rule out a few of the scarier or more common possible causes.


dr del

I agree on checking the hotspots. Maybe it got too hot for that little beauty?

Who knows maybe it was a 1-time episode? A friend of mine almost drawned due to a severe cramp - it has never happen before nor after.

And where is she placed, and what is she placed in (plastic box, terrarium, ect.)?

Her hide is one of those exo terra cave hides, the temp at the time was only 26 (celcius) The bedding is Aspen, i did wonder if she had maybe swallowed some of it and it got stuck?
Haven't treated for mites etc
It was just really wierd and very worrying, it seemed as though she was having some kind of fit, i said she was jerking and twitching but she was moving around real fast when she was doing it, it was so odd, she fell in her water bowl then fit up the sides of her viv.
She does seem ok today, she's been out a couple of times and had a drink and a look through the glass then gone back in her hide.

Hi,

So it was her cool side hide she went into?

It is definately possible to get aspen stuck in the mouth after feeding but they normally rub and gape to get rid of it - is it quite sharp?


dr del

No she didn't really go into her cool side she was just throwing herself all over the place, although afterwards she did go up into her branch for the night which is on the cool side.
Her aspen does have sharp bits in it so i'm now going to change that for something else tomorrow when i can get her out.
It's more worrying because nobody else seems to have experienced this!

Wait,

Theres a worrying point here and I'm hoping it's a miscomunication.

Are you telling me the temps in your warm end hide are 26C (78.8F) ?!?!?!???


dr del

That's totally what I read, too...I hope that was the temperature in the room, and not the temperature on the hot end of the cage. I don't think odd behavior is very mysterious if the poor snake is that cold right after eating.

Sorry my mistake, that was the cool side, her warm side was 30/31 celsius.
One thing i have thought of is that she will only take her food if it it quite warm, do you think that if one was maybe too warm it may have burnt her insides and caused that reaction?

Well first of all I would like to preface this with .....I have not been doing this long. With that being said....what worries me is that it could have been a piece of aspen or FT mouse/rat claw and it scraped or cut her on the inside. And could potentially cause bleeding or an infection. That is what instantly came to mind when I read this. Again....I am a bit of a worry wart though.

I am sure that Dr. Del or some of the other members could chime in on this with much more of an educated opinion.

Hi,

You really want the warm end hide to be about 33c if you can. How are you heating the enclosure? And what control method do you use for the heaters?

How and where are you measuring the temps by the way just in case I'm making silly asumptions again.

But if those temps are accurate then you can hopefully rule out overheating of the enclosure.

As to the heating of the mouse, how are you doing it? I tend to defrost on a heatmat and then blast the head with a hairdrier. This means the core temp is never hot enough to burn and you still get the strike aimed at the head ( saves fingers :D ).

And, just to rule out the scary elephant in the room, how long have you had the snake and have you added any new snakes recently (especially boas ). If you have added any new stock what quarantine regime did you use?


dr del

Her viv is heated with a ceramic heat bulb with digital thermometers, one near to the ground on her cool side and one near to the ground by her hide on the warm side.
Heating her food i hold it under the ceramic bulb! Is that the wrong thing to do? Do you think maybe it heated up the inside of the rat too much?
No new snakes have been added recently.
I really appreciate your advice.

Hi,

No I don't think that should overheat the rat unless you really overdo it - I was more worried you were dunking it in boiling water or something just before offering. :)

I would try and put the probe form one of the digital thermometers inside her hides to get an idea of the temps she is actually experiencing most of the time - but the fact you are using the ceramic means the inside of the hides will be cooler rather than warmer as they could have been with an under tank heater.

No new animals does hopefully rule out the scarier diseases so that's definately good news. :gj:

I think thats all of the easily diagnosed or worrying causes of twitching and thrashing ruled out - which just leaves the "keep an eye on it and go to a vet if it happens again" option. :)


dr del

Thanks very much for all the help and advice.
She does seem back to normal now, hopefully it was just a one off but i'll be keeping a close eye on her.