need help quick is this IBD?

I began my cleaning day on my cage sand happened upon my breeding pair of lessers. the female seems to be very sluggish and almost comatose. she can move her head and neck but the lower body has no muscle tension at all it's a limp noodle and the middle section is so stiff i can't straighten her out. i thought at first maybe she was low on food because she hasn't eaten in 3 weeks. however she locked 3 times last week and had no trouble then. she is about 1800 grams. and produced 7 eggs last season. the male i found her with is currently in shed.

No one can diagnosis IBD over the internet. Are you sure she isn't ovulating, that could explain her middle section? Also, why would you breed her three times in one week? Sounds like it could be an ovulation and a very stressed ball python.

Can you post picture/video ?

But like Dave said, you can't diagnose IBD this way. There are so many things this may be.

Have you recently acquired any new snakes ? If so , were they quarantined ?

i recently acquired a ball python from petsmart as an adoption because they couldn't get it to eat. it has been in its own bin away from the rack and others but in the same room. she locked three times in one week because the male was in all week. i have quarantined the afflicted female and have her soaking in warm water right now in case it was just a blockage. pictures are hard because my phone is in for repairs.

Well, all you can do for now is set her up by herself and try to keep it low stress. Is she still "limp" ?? The middle that is "stiff" ..is it also swollen ? (like for ovulation)

I hope this was just a weird fluke and she will recover quickly.

For future reference, you are better off doing strict quarantine, esp. if you purchase a snake from a store. Stores are constantly buying and selling, and usually have some mites that have fed on different animals. The chance for cross contamination of some nasties is higher then elsewhere. Its best to keep new animals in a different room and to handle the new snake last, or wash hands and change clothes if you need to handle your established snakes AFTER you handled the new snake.

Keep us up to date and best wishes..

she is limp in her tail end and stiff in the middle she has a little bit of play in her neck area. the middle that is stiff is a little swollen. also she is in a warm bath at the moment but when i move her every know and then to chekc i cna here air escaping her mouth quickly. and she's gurgling on some water.

So I believe in the end it wasn't in that was killing her though I can't be a hundred percent sure she seemed to have a mild swelling in her middle that is stiff while the head and tail are limp. At this moment her head is drooped over and shows no movement however when I touch her her middle will slowly flex a very tiny bit. Not sure if this is her response or if it's just the muscles settling. I did notice towards the end that at a certain spot in her belly it looked like rippling waves under the skin. She was all belly up last night but now most of her body is back on its stomach aside from the head which I notice does change position every few hours.

Stop poking, prodding, and soaking this poor thing. If you think she's sick get her to a vet.

If it turns out she is sick then the male(s) you paired her with are also compromised, as are any other females they were paired with.

Take her to the vet, sounds like something isn't right. Experimenting on your own won't do any good.

Common sense.

If it was me and I had limited experience and/or was not able to discern whether there was something going very wrong with the snake or not then I would take the snake to a vet, and not ask questions on a forum where no one can diagnosed your snake based on YOUR description.

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Originally Posted by dracowing14

So I believe in the end it wasn't in that was killing her though I can't be a hundred percent sure she seemed to have a mild swelling in her middle that is stiff while the head and tail are limp. At this moment her head is drooped over and shows no movement however when I touch her her middle will slowly flex a very tiny bit. Not sure if this is her response or if it's just the muscles settling. I did notice towards the end that at a certain spot in her belly it looked like rippling waves under the skin. She was all belly up last night but now most of her body is back on its stomach aside from the head which I notice does change position every few hours.

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I can't understand what your saying "So I believe in the end it wasn't in that was killing her"???
It sounds to me like she is just about dead? Why havent you made a apointment this morning or taken her in Emergency? Nobody needs common sense to think this Snake might be suffering.. Snakes dont gurgle water, soaking and moving her around will surely stress her more & push her over the edge if she hasnt died yet. What ever she has you can almost Guarantee the rest of your snakes have now too

I couldn't make any sense of the last couple of posts, either.

One makes it sound as if the snake had passed away already, yet the next one (last one) mentioned her moving slightly if touched..

Did she make pass away ? Make it ? If she is still alive, how is she doing ?

Sorry previous post was supposed to say that she did not have ibd it turns out it was a retained egg. For the previous breeding season that got stuck and eventually ruptured. She passed away yesterday and a local pet reptile store will take her to be preserved and displayed. She was one of my first snakes and will.be missed as for taking her to the vets. Non of the emergency clinics around here deal with reptiles and the vets that do couldn't see me for another 4 days.

Sorry previous post was supposed to say that she did not have ibd it turns out it was a retained egg. For the previous breeding season that got stuck and eventually ruptured. She passed away yesterday and a local pet reptile store will take her to be preserved and displayed. She was one of my first snakes and will.be missed as for taking her to the vets. Non of the emergency clinics around here deal with reptiles and the vets that do couldn't see me for another 4 days. I believe she had passed earlier and the movement I was seeing was her body still trying to move the egg seeing how the large swollen lump did move further down.

Sorry to hear that.. :(

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Originally Posted by dracowing14

Non of the emergency clinics around here deal with reptiles and the vets that do couldn't see me for another 4 days.

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I wouldn't be pairing any more snakes. When emergencies crop up the animal needs a vet immediately, not in a few days, and unfortunately breeding is an activity that can create an emergency health issue for your snake.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dracowing14

Sorry previous post was supposed to say that she did not have ibd it turns out it was a retained egg. For the previous breeding season that got stuck and eventually ruptured. She passed away yesterday and a local pet reptile store will take her to be preserved and displayed. She was one of my first snakes and will.be missed as for taking her to the vets. Non of the emergency clinics around here deal with reptiles and the vets that do couldn't see me for another 4 days.

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Sorry to hear that...

....:o

Really sad....Sorry for the loss.