Please help me... this cannot be good right?

I have a year old corn snake... female and beautiful. Her name is Sierra. This morning I awoke to my kids talking about a mouse in my sons bedroom.

I breed my own ASFs and mice for my collection. I quickly got out of bed to notice that three of the adult mice were missing and the tub open. I found the male scurrying in my room but two females were missing. I started screaming and the kids brought me one of the females but one more was still missing. My husband woke up to my fury and it did not take him long to find this...

http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/a...0/IMG_1378.jpg

It obvious now where the mouse is and it is also obvious that the pregnant adult female mouse is way too big for my little corn snake. Sierra can hardly move or get the mouse down to her stomach. It keeps moving up and Sierra keeps pushing it down. I am really worried for her. She looks like she could rip open, if she doesn't regurgitate first. Will she be fine? Is there anything I need to do to make sure she doesn't end up injured?

And please do not judge. My kids have never done anything like this before. And they are being severely punished for it right now. All I want to know is if Sierra will be okay and if there is anything I need to watch for until either the mouse is digested or regurgitated? If everything is fine an by a miracle Sierra is able to digest it, when should I feed her again. The mouse she was given by my children is almost 4x larger then she can take comfortably.

She will be fine. Looks and sounds like a good possibility of a regurge. But you never know with these guys.

If she does regurge, wait at least two weeks before feeding. Her alimentary canal has been abused by severe stretching and digestive liquid.

If digestion takes place, you can easily skip a feed or two. You know your snake better than anyone, she'll let you know if you waited too long for another feed. :)

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Originally Posted by Reinz

She will be fine. Looks and sounds like a good possibility of a regurge. But you never know with these guys.

If she does regurge, wait at least two weeks before feeding. Her alimentary canal has been abused by severe stretching and digestive liquid.

If digestion takes place, you can easily skip a feed or two. You know your snake better than anyone, she'll let you know if you waited too long for another feed. :)

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Thank you very much. I should have also mentioned that I fed her a small mouse yesterday, so she also has that digesting. And what is a alimentary canal? That way when you say abused, I may know what part of the body you may be talking about.

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Originally Posted by lunasjy

Thank you very much. I should have also mentioned that I fed her a small mouse yesterday, so she also has that digesting. And what is a alimentary canal? That way when you say abused, I may know what part of the body you may be talking about.

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The alimentary canal is just the gut.
When they regurge, those powerfull digestive enzymes and acids end up attacking the throat. They need some time to heal after that.

If her temps are good, she will probably keep it down just fine.

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Originally Posted by lunasjy

Thank you very much. I should have also mentioned that I fed her a small mouse yesterday, so she also has that digesting. And what is a alimentary canal? That way when you say abused, I may know what part of the body you may be talking about.

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The alimentary canal is your esophagus. The alimentary system is your mouth to your stomach. Sorry about that.

Well, I always thought it was just the lower end, however a quick Google check on the definition shows the entire span, mouth to anus.

Learn something new every day.

Huh, never knew that. You learn something new everyday. The mouse has finally traveled to her stomach and seems to be staying there. She seems to be completely normal. Her temperatures are fine and she is on her heat pad half way out of her hide since her enlarged gut is preventing her from curling up.

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Originally Posted by distaff

Well, I always thought it was just the lower end, however a quick Google check on the definition shows the entire span, mouth to anus.

Learn something new every day.

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Glad you looked that up! I forgot about the lower end. Haha :)

BTW Distaff, looking back at posts, it looks like that I was correcting you. I did not see your previous post before I had posted.

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Originally Posted by Reinz

Glad you looked that up! I forgot about the lower end. Haha :)

BTW Distaff, looking back at posts, it looks like that I was correcting you. I did not see your previous post before I had posted.

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Oh, not at all...the discrepancy just made me question if I was mistaken (which indeed, I was).

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Back to the OP, ...not the first time I've heard of a snake keeper discovering in horror the the size of something their pet just ate.
It happens.
Sierra proved herself as a huntress.

I don't know what temps corns are kept at, but if she will tolerate it bumping them up a few degrees could help her process that meal a bit faster.

Her heat pad is sitting at 86F right now with an ambient temp of about 72F. She seems fine but I will keep a very close eye on her for the next week or so.