When to worry? Hognose laying eggs

Yesterday I found an egg in my hognose cage. A slug, I don't have a male and she's never been bred. She looks like there's another right by the vent. Is there anything I need to do to help this along? Should I be concerned about her being egg bound?

Can you feel more than one egg?

Like any snake that is egg bound you really don't want to delay things, I would give her 48 hours, in the mean time try soaking her.

It is possible that the egg will need to be aspired which can be done by a vet or at home depending on your experience.

If there are more eggs and the first one does not pass or get aspired and the other still not pass surgery might be required.

I had a female this year that was egg bound with 32 slugs, first 2 had to be aspired before everything could pass.

Thanks for the quick reply, judging by the size of the lump I would guess there is probably more than one, but haven't felt around as I wasn't sure that was safe. I did soak her for a short period tonight thinking if it worked for stuck waste, why not eggs, but decided I better ask. I will try another soak and give my exotics vet a call in the morning if she hasn't laid anymore. Unfortunately locally there is no herp vets, my out of town vet can handle some reptile stuff but often refers to others, I don't feel comfortable trying it myself so I might have to do a lot of calling around tomorrow to get her in somewhere.

Went up to try another soak and she had passed a small amount of waste with a very tiny spot of bright red blood. No eggs.

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Still no eggs this morning


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Called around Duluth a bit, one place has one reptile vet, booked up through the 22nd. Another place has three reptile vets who recommended I up her heat, get some perlite for her to lay in and add a uv bulb, along with some other very random advice about injecting calcium, feeding frogs and how substrate is bad. My only options for time off work are the following Monday and Tuesday, any other time we can set up my fiance would have to take her which isn't ideal since he doesn't know anything about snakes.

Feeding a meal might help move things along, not the first time I hear it and I have tried it myself, sadly without positive results.

No suggestion of oxytocin?

While you are waiting I would keep soaking her in warm water and massage her gently, not much you can do until they get a look at her.

My guess when they do if she has not passed her eggs yet they will likely aspire the first one (this is the least invasive option.)

No suggestion of meds or surgery yet, I asked what kind of timeline and they said 24 hours if they were at the vent, they are pretty far down in her body but I don't know how to tell how urgent it is myself. I'll try another soak this evening with a massage and offer her a mouse after, see what tomorrow will bring. I took off those days next week just in case and am asking around for other vet options.

Watching youtube videos on pushing eggs out and aspirating them for eggbound snakes, fascinating! I did get another vet recommendation, a little closer too. Going to give them a call.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoingPostal

Watching youtube videos on pushing eggs out and aspirating them for eggbound snakes, fascinating! I did get another vet recommendation, a little closer too. Going to give them a call.

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It is fascinating a little nerve wrecking the first time you ever do it but whether it's BP or Hognose or any other type of snake it can be done very easily.

Anyone that keep Colubrids is usually familiar with it, first time I had to do that was a few years back with a female Honduran Milksnake.

Hopefully your girl will pass it.

Today's update: no eggs :(

Been soaking twice a day and making her crawl around the room a bit. Massaged and felt around but can't really tell how many eggs are there, it seems like there's either a large one or a couple? She didn't touch the mouse I offered.
Spent more time calling around and getting referred to more and more vets (I had two clinics refer me to each other), none of which seem to have any availability. I did finally manage to get her an appt at a vet for Monday and took the day off for the road trip. Hopefully she will be ok until then.

Good luck, I hope she passes the eggs!! :/

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Well we hit the vet yesterday, very nice guy who usually owns snakes and was a big fan of my little hoggie. One of the techs came in holding and asking about her after xrays too. They did a couple xrays since she was wiggly, there are a bunch of uncalcified eggs (follicles?) and then two by her tail that are causing the problems so he drained quite a bit out of those, gave her a greasy enema and gave me some calcium supplement to give every other day. She passed one on the ride home, nothing on the others yet. I'll add pics and more info once I have time later.

Yay so good to hear that shes gonna be okay!

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My little pea pod lol


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Home and the egg she passed, it's huge!


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That's great news!

To update more eggs moved down, more eggs got stuck. She went back to the vet today, he drained two more and she laid five. He thinks there's one more inside but couldn't massage it down.

Finally an end to the saga. She still had one egg stuck in the middle not going anywhere, the vet said give it a month in case it reabsorbs or starts to move down before worrying about surgery. Naturally, immediately after I talked to him again since there was no change for weeks, the next day it started moving down. Friday it looked like she was finally ready to lay but again having trouble getting it out, I massaged her on Friday and Saturday and figured we would be headed back to the vet on Monday. Got up this morning and found it in her dirt box! She's been taking food again now which is good since she looks so thin, she was 177 grams after the last appt. So happy we didn't have to do surgery on her.

Glad to hear it is finally over, it's definitely not a fun experience.

It's been a roller coaster for sure! I am glad to have found a good herp vet, this place is about two hours away so not terrible. Very reasonable in price also, first appt was $132 and the second was $31.

Well she decided to lay some more slugs this year, 10 so far but she is much larger so without any difficulty at least. I think this is why I prefer to own males lol.