Egg recovery from eggbound female **GRAPHIC PICS**

WARNING: This post contains GRAPHIC pictures. Not for the weak of stomach...

In case you didn't see my first thread, here is the link to the backstory.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-out-right-now...

Basically, my gravid female apparently became eggbound and passed away with the eggs inside her. I made the decision to try to extract the eggs from her so we didn't lose them too. I decided to cut from the cloaca up rather than trying to push the eggs out. I didn't want to risk breaking any in the process. Here are some of the pictures we took to document this...

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I didn't get a picture of the first cut, but I carefully inserted the tip of the scissors into the cloaca and made a cut along both sides of the belly scales. Here's the first egg we saw.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/01.jpg

More cutting...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/02.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/03.jpg

Now you can see the second egg...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/06.jpg

Extraction...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/07.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/08.jpg

More cutting. The eggs didn't slide down easily so I decided to keep cutting rather than risk it.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/10.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/13.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/14.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/15.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/17.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/25.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/26.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/28.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/31.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/34.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/35.jpg

All five eggs out...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/39.jpg

Candling before the second disaster...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/43.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/44.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/45.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/46.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...ecovery/47.jpg

Now it's just a waiting game to see if the eggs make it. Thank you to everyone who has been watching this post unfold. Hopefully I will be updating this on my birthday (July 31st) with pictures of the "miracle clutch" coming out of the eggs...

Thank you for such an informative post and again I'm ever so sorry about your loss, I hope you get 5 beautiful babies on your birthday. Please keep us updated, I hope your keeping the whole clutch though.

Im so sorry to hear about your 1st BP. I saw your 1st thread. i wish you luck on the eggs..

Thank you for such a carefully documented event. Again, I am so sorry this happened to you. I also hope you get 5 gorgeous babies on your birthday and that there is a happy ending to this sad story. Positive thoughts sent your way!! :please:

You got some stones man! Mad props of that!


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Fingers crossed for you..

I'm sorry to hear about your female in the other thread, I really hope the eggs make it for you.

Sorry for your loss, I hope the eggs pull through for you.

Unfortunate situation, but fascinating development. Thanks for posting.

Very well documented thread thanks! I am sorry for your loss but hope you have some nice birthday babies!

Thank you so much for posting this. I am so sorry for your loss, the down side to breeding is there is always a risk of loosing animals :(

Good luck with the eggs I am sure they will do fine :) I will be watching for hatchling pics!

Wow, that must have been tough. Thank you for sharing, though. May help somebody else down the road. Fingers crossed for your miracle babies on your birthday. What a sad story, hope it has a happy ending.

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I'm so sorry you lost your female. I hope the eggs hatch into healthy babies you can remember her by. :C

So sorry for your loss, that must really suck. I hope the eggs make it for you though!:please:

Thank you very much though for all the pictures too. (Im assuming the wife may have taken them? If so thank her from us too.) While i dont particularly enjoy seeing dead snakes cut open, i do appreciate the experience that can be gained from viewing the pics. These pics are good enough to be put in a book to show how to handle a similar situation imo. I would have done the same thing if i was in your situation. You handled it perfectly imo!:gj:

I wish I could say I took the pictures, but for the first part of it, I couldn't be in the room. The roommate took them. It was definitely fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time. We're going to have fingers crossed for the next couple of months. Thanks for all your kind words!

Sorry again for your loss, i know the task couldnt have been easy since she was your 1st. Thank you so much documenting this for all of us! I hope everything goes well with the clutch!

This was an amazingly documented occurrence, and I am so so sorry for the lose of girl. Thank you so much for posting this and doing what you did. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all your eggs will make it :please:

Again, so sorry for your loss but thank you so much for documenting this for others that may come across the same tragedy.

The veins look strong in the eggs so hopefully you'll have a nice healthy clutch to remember her by.

I wish you all the Best!!! Hope the eggs pull thru!

Wow thanks for sharing this experience. Good luck.

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Fingers crossed for the miracle clutch.

I know this must be hard for you, but I wanted to thank you for sharing your experience with us and the photos. I hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel and you get some healthy babies after this is all said and done.

I am so very sorry dear.

To have many of us, including myself, tell you it would be alright and then this happened. I wouldn't blame you if you never trusted anything we say again.

I also want to thank you for having the nerves to do what you did. It could not have been easy, I doubt I could have done it. It is very encouraging to see such strong healthy veins in the eggs, and I hope they hatch for you.

Gale

Very good documentation, and good luck with the clutch.

Sorry for your loss.
Props for you taking the steps to save the eggs. :gj:
And great photos of your process.
I hope they all survive and you have healthy hatchlings on your birthday!

Praying for your miracle clutch, I hope all of them make it through.

So sorry to hear that hope that they all are healthy and you did an awesome job on this very informative

Your beautiful snake had lovely eggs. I'm positive they'll be gorgeous!


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Thank you for the documentation of this, it is very informative and I am sure will be useful to many.

So sorry for the tragedy and for your loss. I hope the babies arrive safe and sound. RIP Momma snake!

It is never easy losing an animal, here's hoping you get a few females to do her justice! It was nice to see the pics of viable eggs after reading the whole story.

I am so sorry for your loss and I wish you the best of luck with the eggs. Thank you so much for the very detailed post :)

I'm sorry for your loss, but thank you for the photos--though very sad, they were informative and fascinating to me. I've never seen the insides of a snake before and it's absolutely incredible to see what is in there as opposed to people's insides which I know plenty about. Thank you again, I'm sorry your snake passed away but I think she'd be happy to know you are trying your best to keep her legacy going. :) Somewhere in heaven is a smiling snake. :salute: Three cheers to you for your amazing efforts!

Sorry for your loss! That must be hard...

And thank you for documenting the process,

Crossing our fingers that the eggs pull through

Sorry for your loss. that had to suck that your bp passed while gravid and then having to cut her up.. hope those eggs hatch

Nice work! Sorry for the crappy situation but good job taking the initiative to save the eggs. Hope I'm never in your shoes but I'd have made the same decision. Good luck with them. I think you should name each and every hatchling "Lucky".

Regards,

B

Im so sorry that your girl passed :( she was very beautiful!

The pictures were very interesting. And I'm glad you managed to get the eggs.

I don't know much about breeding, etc, but I can't wait to see them hatch. ;) you should name one Miracle :)

Hope you get some healthy babies man, sorry about the mom and keep us posted.

You did an amazing job handling this situation and saving the eggs. I don't think I could have done this. Good luck with those babies. You are in my prayers.

Thanks for posting Kevin. I hope those babies make it!

Best of luck to you. I had some surgically removed tortoise eggs hatch last year, so it's definitely worth a shot.

My deepest condolences... loosing an animal is terrible.

I hope your eggs turn out. That would be at least something positive from this tragedy.

sorry for the loss:( i hope the clutch hatches for you so you have something from the female who passed to remind you of her.
tom

Thank you for documenting the process to share with everyone! It's such an unfortunate situation that you lost your first let alone any snake, but in the end I believe your girl has taught many people some lessons. I'm rooting for your clutch to be healthy and to hatch successfully. What did you breed her with by the way?

Thanks again everyone. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed at this point...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Landen

Thank you for documenting the process to share with everyone! It's such an unfortunate situation that you lost your first let alone any snake, but in the end I believe your girl has taught many people some lessons. I'm rooting for your clutch to be healthy and to hatch successfully. What did you breed her with by the way?

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She was bred to my male Mojave and my Pastel Yellowbelly. I was hoping for multi-sire clutch, so hopefully we'll find out in 58 days or so...

Truly sorry for your loss. :( I hope this is a multi-sired clutch for you.

Wow! This just popped up on the Reptile Report on my facebook feed. Sorry for your loss! I'm glad I read through both threads, as this was very informative. Being a first time breeder myself, stuff like this can give me confidence that if something like this ever happened to me, I could do the same thing. Thanks. And thanks to Robyn for posting it on the Reptile Report as well!
-Matt

Wow....just read through all threads. I am so truly sorry for your loss. We get so emotionally attached to our snakes. I hope all the eggs pop out healthy worms for you

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man you got an iron stomach and even a better help for being able to take those pictures while it being done, I hope that all the eggs make it and you get a start to a lot of baby mouths to feed

Liquid courage.. I envy your determination. I can say I would have done the same.... but wow it would have been a toughy. Big time props brother. Cheers to the best of luck.

Thank you for posting. I have to say that when i first read, i thought she looked too stressed out, but then everyone seemed to say it was fine and females get in all funky positions.
This is where the internet sucks sometimes.
It's hard to tell when you're not actually there.
I'm sorry about your snake!

Have you tried to candle the eggs since the crash? Was it a full on smooshing or were they just jiggled around?
Man, that sucks so much more. The whole thing sucks, but you did the right thing in getting them out of her. Just sucks they may be damaged now. I think if there was no damage when they fell they would make it.

THanks for posting all this even though i know it was hard. Please keep us updated. I know i got a rock in my stomach hearing about her death, and then after all that...the crash! I'm emotionally invested *lol*

I wish you the best of luck hatching all ^ babies out. And that was the noblest thing you did...not only cutting your much loved pet open, but to do in order to save the babies...a true hero :):salute: