Need all your prayers, well wishes and good vibes!

This has been a really bad start to our 2012 ball season. We lost our first egg a little over a week ago, a tiny little black pastel. That was a bummer in itself, but we all lose eggs occasionally. We've tried to remain optimistic and let nature run its course with our remaining eggs. Then last night we lost another, which turned out to be a beautiful fire. Anyways, tonight we finally made the call after exhaustive research online (including a LOT of helpful information on countless posts on here!), speaking to other breeders and our vet that we must intervene if our remaining 3 eggs are to have a chance at life. We've never done this before, but I have a little formal medical training and my wife and I have both cared for many injured animals over the years so we gave it a go. It was about all we could do for these guys, even the vet said he couldn't offer much more than what we were going to have to do.

The issue we were having with these guys is they were not absorbing their yolks at all even after pipping almost a week ago and they were getting weak. We could see the yolk and it was completely solid and the babies had giant masses in their bellies. The smell was absolutely horrible and the fluid in the eggs kept turning brown and scummy almost immediately after cleaning it out. There was no progress being made naturally. So we made a makeshift ER room, washed up really good, gloved up and went to work. The short and simple description of what we had to do is tie off their umbilical cords, cut them away from their rotten yolk and express the mass inside their bellies. My poor wife (aka my nurse) was bawlin' the whole time.

I feel so horrible for the little guys as I know this had to have been unbelievably traumatic for them. They are very small and look deflated, but I'm hoping now that they are out of their eggs and aren't contending with that mass of hardened yolk in their bellies that they have a fighting chance.

Black pastel #1. Weighs 20 grams. Both this one and the second black pastel seem to have some sort of neurological disorder, similar to a spider wobble. This one appears very active and curious.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/SANY0602.jpg

Black pastel #2. Weighs 21 grams.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/SANY0604.jpg

Pastel. Weighs 27 grams. This one is the largest and outwardly looks the healthiest.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/SANY0608.jpg

Sorry to hear about this. Hopefully they pull through for you.

Good luck and praying for you to the Ball Python Gods:bow:
Travis

Was it something like the procedure Robyn outlined in the new sticky in advanced husbandry?

Poor little things. :tears:

I do hope they pull through for you.

Gale

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Originally Posted by angllady2

Was it something like the procedure Robyn outlined in the new sticky in advanced husbandry?

Poor little things. :tears:

I do hope they pull through for you.

Gale

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I do believe it was Robyn@SYR who posted it. I couldn't remember off hand who had posted it, but it helped us a lot. We've never experienced anything like this. Very scary stuff! We don't really know what to expect from here on out.

Sending good vibes!

Good luck. That's the saddest thing. I hope those poor little babies all make it. Babies have survived things like this though, I remember reading about the 'Miracle Ball' on Markus Jayne's site

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2

I'll pray that they will live a long a happy life!

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Originally Posted by Coleslaw007

Good luck. That's the saddest thing. I hope those poor little babies all make it. Babies have survived things like this though, I remember reading about the 'Miracle Ball' on Markus Jayne's site

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Yup, I read that one too! She is gorgeous! :gj:

I hate hearing stories like this, but it sounds like you and your wife are taking care of the situation. I hope they have a 100% speedy recovery. These little guys are lucky to have people like you and your wife to take care of them. All the best to the both of you and to the little guys as well!!!!

Sorry to hear about this, and we wish you all the best, please keep us posted on their progress.

You've got all the good vibes I've got to give. I hope those little guys pull through. They're so tiny, the poor things. Don't give up on them and keep us informed!

Awww, the poor little babies :tears: Good job doing what you did. I hope they make it ok!

I hope they make it, sounds like you both are doing all you can.

Disheartening to hear, but I"m glad you decided to share with us. Everyone with any intentions of breeding at any point needs to be aware of situations like this.

People must realize that breeding and bringing life into this world isn't always pretty nor easy.

So, again, thank you for sharing this, and I hope you do keep us all up to date on your little ones.

Here's hoping for a fast recovery. :gj: