» Site Navigation
3 members and 610 guests
Most users ever online was 47,180, 07-16-2025 at 05:30 PM.
» Today's Birthdays
» Stats
Members: 75,909
Threads: 249,113
Posts: 2,572,170
Top Poster: JLC (31,651)
|
-
A little worried...
Recently we had a little mix-up with Satin's schedule and we forgot that she was supposed to eat last weekend instead of this one. She usually eats on Sundays and we noticed Monday night that we had mixed it up, so my boyfriend (who keeps her at his house) said he'd feed her on Tuesday. She's a huge pig so I wasn't that worried about being off by 2 days.
But she refused the meal.
Well, I thought, maybe she's gonna be a stickler and only want to eat on Sundays since that's what she's used to. But she refused AGAIN today. And we've noticed her yawning and breathing heavily lately, and I'm beginning to worry that she's got something. In the 2 years I've had her she's NEVER refused ANYTHING that's food, which is what worries me the most. I don't see any mucus/bubbling around her nose or mouth and no clicking, but...
She's going into the vet regardless, but have any of you had an adult BCI that just suddenly stopped eating? Either in general or around this time of the year? And what were the reasons? Or had these symptoms before? I'm just trying to narrow down the possibilities myself.
After losing Loki to an RI and infection, I'm a lot more paranoid...
-
So, your feeding was only off by 2 days? Or was it off by a full week and 2 days?
It doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but I got a little confused, lol.... :D
Anyhow, I doubt that the fact that you were off schedule was the cause of her not eating. Boas are usually garabage disposals and will eat whenever. And with their slower metabolisms, it isn't going to hurt her to have skipped a meal.
But coupled with the yawning is a bit concerning. You are right to take her to the vet. Hopefully, it'll prove to be nothing. But if I remember correctly, wasn't she just moved to your boyfriend's place? The recent move may possibly have stressed her enough that she developed an RI. If that's the case, then that would explain her sudden loss of appetite and the vet visit is the best choice. But I'll keep my fingers crossed that it turns out fine! :gj:
-
It was only off by 2 days for the first refusal (which I wasn't there for), and a week by today's. I wasn't worried about the extra week as well, as she's gone that long before. We've seen her yawning before, and we just thought it was cool to see. It was just that she usually ATTACKS the rat as soon as she smells it, and two refusals coupled with the yawning and heavy breathing started the warning bells in my head.
Oh, and she was moved to my boyfriend's house back in October. Although we have noticed there have been some trouble with keeping a constant temperature recently, it hasn't dropped lower than 86 hotspot/76 ambient and it's only been happening recently, but could it be enough to tip her over the edge if she had been fighting something off?
-
It takes a long time for a snake to show illness. A move in October could have unsettled her enough that she is only now showing signs of it. And the lack of consistant temps could have contributed. I am still hoping that it's just a fluke. You'll have to let us know what the vet says. ;)
-
Yes. After everything Loki went through, I'd much rather be safe than sorry. I'm hoping that even if it IS something, we'll catch it very early and it'll be no problem.
-
A little worried...
Could it be that the rats were "bad"? Possible...
-
Re: A little worried...
Quote:
Originally Posted by WifeOfSlasher
Could it be that the rats were "bad"? Possible...
I once bought a bunch of mice from a guy who got them from [big name company deleted] and actually started a thread about them.
They were scabby, creepy looking, kind of frost-bitten/anemic, had tattoos on their tails and none of my snakes would touch them except for one garbage disposal BP.
He didn't regurge but went off feed for two weeks.
Hubby said they didn't smell odd to him but snakes no doubt smell things more acutely than we do.
I threw them out.
-
That crossed our minds too. We're going to a show this weekend to pick up more aspen (we buy in bulk lol) and while we're at it were going to pick up a new batch of rats.
Either way she's still going into the vet, because even before we were having these concerns, because the only very she's ever been to told us that they were saying she was a girl (we got get probed since we got her from a rescue) because the further the probe goes in, that means it's a male. The probe went in I think slut 4 ventral scales.
>_>
She's eaten all the rats from the first bag andmost of the one's from the recent there are only like 6 left and they're in vacuum sealed bags, but they could've gone bad...
-
If she's suddenly decided to go off feed and is otherwise acting "off" I want to say it's most likely an RI over "bad" rats. Though I've never had to deal with an RI in boas I have a new addition ball who's been having a hard time kicking an RI and when he was sick his feeding response was so different than when he was getting better (ie: he would act very scared of his feeder and would recoil from it when ill and strike within a second when feeling better). Good luck!
-
A little worried...
I'm not saying that the rats are truly bad. Maybe they just don't smell right. We had this with a a couple of rats. Our BP refused and our boa took some enticing. They just didn't smell as fresh and clean as others.
-
Well we got fresh rats at the show yesterday, and she still didn't eat. She would tongue-lash and nose it for a bout 30 seconds to a minute, then slowly back away. Tried leaving the rat in there with her, again got the same thing; she came over, tongue-lashed it for a bit, then backed up a few inches and just sat there. It's like she wants it, then changes her mind and doesn't.
She's got a date with the snake doctor next week.
-
I've noticed that when we start getting to the tail end of the rat supply the picky eaters will turn their noses up. Must be the freezer smell or something, because they're fine as soon as we get the new food in
-
Glad you're taking her to the vet. Is lack of appetite the only symptom you're seeing?
-
Re: A little worried...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evenstar
Glad you're taking her to the vet. Is lack of appetite the only symptom you're seeing?
That, heavy breathing that sounds on the better side of a wheeze (like when you close your throat then breathe out strongly) and she'll spend days in the same spot (although while I know that's not what she's done, I COULD chalk that up to her being an older snake maybe?). I've also caught her just "staring" upwards recently, and I'm not jumping to serious things like IBD yet, but it makes me think that maybe she's trying to "drain" mucus or something out of her mouth/throat? I haven't seen any but then again I can't see down her throat.
She's just not acting like the snake we know, and I'd rather take her to the vet and have them tell me it's nothing PHYSICALLY wrong with her. What with Loki having been sick, even though we were very thorough in keeping them apart, using separate equipment and washing our hands before doing anything with Satin, I'm sure there's always a chance that Satin got sick and is just now showing it. Going to the vet will take some of the worry off our minds (hopefully).
-
UPDATE: Satin went to the vet early this morning (where they kept reading her name as "Satan", which got us worried looks until we got it corrected) and the vet couldn't find anything wrong that he could see. Mouth and throat were clear, breathing was a little heavy but he couldn't hear anything that made him think there was an RI just from listening. Stomach felt empty but normal, heart sounded good.
Her belly was pretty red though, and we explained that it DOES get red before she sheds. I don't know if it was the fluorescent lights or what, but it looked redder than normal. He couldn't say that it was in fact anything without bloodwork (which she's getting later this week), but it did worry him a bit so he sent us home with 4 injections of Amikacin (he administered one at the office too to show us how to do it; I can't remember the dosage but I believe it's 0.5) JUST IN CASE she does have an infection so we can start fighting it sooner than later. We are also bumping her temps up from ~78F ambient/88F hotspot to ~80F ambient/90F hotspot and giving her enclosure a thorough clean. We might also try getting her a different or smaller prey item to see if that changes her mind about it, but I'm torn between waiting until all her injections are done to try offering any food or trying between injection days. I'm just concerned that her being poked by needles/meds will make her unwilling to take anything and we end up wasting it.
Satin is a huge grumpy gus right now, she's only ever been to the vet once and this is the first time she's ever been "manhandled" and restrained. She was super unhappy and spend the remaining time in the room after the examination around my boyfriends' shoulders, s-curved and huffing at anyone that moved in her line of sight. It was funny though that when we brought her in the room, they had a little scale out (for small animals) on the table and when we pulled her out of her bag, the vet tech went "... Yeah wasn't expecting her to be THAT big. Let me go get the pounds scale." :P
|