Hairballs???

Does anyone else have a problem with hairballs??? My poor girl..She hadn't pooped in over 6 months... I tried everything. Soaks, more excersize. The vet gave her an enema... She still had a good appetite and was quite active.
I cut back on her feeding as ny herp vet directed, and evenbtually gave her nothing for a few weeks... her activity drooped a bit, so I finally gave her a fuzzy injected with 3 cc's of water and 10 mg of colace. All husbandry issues
correct, temp, humidity etc. and I observe her drinking quite often. Finally she pooped, rock hard and dry. As requested by the vet, I took it in for parasite anaylsis. It was clean. Vet told me it was one solid mass of Fur and nothing else!! She predicted everything would be fine now.. Has anyone else experienced this, and does anyone know of any prevenative measures I could take (besides feeding her a gazillion pinkies??) Any input would be appreciated.:confused:

I know this is probably a dumb question....but I am putting it out there anyways. You do have a big water dish for her in the enclosure and not on the warm side?? Reasoning for not on the warm side is maybe she isn't using it due to it being too hot. ?? Other than that I got nothing!! Sorry!!

Sounds like your not feeding enough

Temps possibly too high, though you said your husbandry was "correct"

What ARE your temps and humidity etc etc exactly?

Temps: Warmside substrate: 92 Cool side substrate 81 humidity between 60-65%

Water dish is on the cool side of the vivarium.

She is about a 1 1/2 yrs. old, and this is her second bout with constipation. The first was prior to this, and it was of 3 months duration. Prior tho that she had been pooping once amonth like clockwork. At that time I had just increase her to small adult mice (still smaller than her maximum girth. When she did finally poop it was of normal consistency, but about the entire legnth of her body... The vet suggested that I go back down to fuzzies.... when I rought her back in after 6 months, I asked him If it was a possibility that i was underfeeding her.. ( one fuzzy every week) and if that was why she was not deficating.. he said "no-way" and told me not to feed again until she pooped..... well, I waited another 3 1/2 weeks and then took it upon myself to feed her a "hydrated" fuzzy. Then she pooped this brick of fur... When he x-rayed he at the 5 month mark he said he saw stool, but no concretions. If there was normal stool, I wonder why the "colonic irrigation" didn't work?! I've also noticed that she prefers the cool side of the vivarium, I almost never see her baking her belly, when she is on the warm side it is always in her "mountain lair" which runs between 80 and 85. I move the hides around just to see if it's the temp she prefers or the actual hide, and it seems to be the temp..I was wondering if this preference for cooler temps is impeding her digestion.

Not feeding enough

Feed her rats that are as big around as the widest part of her

Feed her once a week

Thanks so much! So hard to find a good herp vet!::snake:

It is hard to find a good vet...where do you live?

Oh wow... I wouldn't listen to that vet anymore.

I'm in southwestern Virginia.
Thanks for responding! Washington DC is about 4 hours away..
next time I'll make the trip!

You don't live far from one of the best Herp Vets in the country, Scott Stahl.

http://www.seavs.com/

Feed appropriate sized meals and she will defecate...If the meal is too small they use it all and there is no waste.

Yes.. He's about 4 hours away...If she hadn't of pooped, that is where I was going to take her. I wanted to have experience with someone close by in case I ever had an emergency... but now I will take her there for everything!! How long
would you guys let your snakes go without taking a dump before you became concerned???

Thanks again,
Susan

The longest I have waited in between poo's was 5 weeks.

I guarantee you the reason why she isn't pooping is because she isn't eating enough.

To give it some perspective, hatchling ball pythons right out of the egg are started on hopper mice, which are larger then fuzzy mice. They quickly move to adult mice.

An adult ball python normally eats a small rat once per week.

At 1 1/2 years old, that snake SHOULD be eating small rats. If I were you, I would invest in a good digital gram scale to track her weight. A year and a half female usually weighs around 1000-1500g if it is eating consistently.

Since your snake is probably much smaller then another snake of the same age, I would start with feeding her 10-15% of her body weight once per week until she can catch up to small rats. At that point, a small rat once a week is plenty.

Kinda funny.....

Some of my Bloods have gone over 6 months without pooping and I dont sweat it

Just bump the food up to the recommended amount and see how she does, I think you'll be relieved

Thanks to all.. You guys are so kind to us newbees

Virginia
here is a list of vets in VA that are recommended from another site!! Hope it helps.


Eastern Exotic Veterinary Center
Kelley McDonald, DVM
4001 Legato Road
Fairfax, VA 22033
(703) 654-3100

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Virginia Beach Vetrinary Hospital
Dr. David Morris
2013 Pleasure House Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
(757)460-3308