Regurge :(

I checked on Pax this morning, and saw that she had regurgitated her meal from Sunday 5/19. Our temps have been fantastic and very stable: 89-90* in the hot spot, cool side/ambient temps have hovering right around 79* and humidity at 40%. She weighed in last week at 564g, so we bumped her up to a small rat (live...don't worry, we supervise VERY closely and carefully to make sure nothing goes awry). I didn't grab the weight on the rat but it was narrower than the widest part of her body, and she took it down without any issues. She hasn't been handled since Saturday 5/18. Aside from the rat just being too much for her, I don't know what would cause this. She's a phenomenal eater and she's only missed two meals since January (one refusal due to shed and we chose not to feed her one week also due to shed). I'm a super anxious snake mommy and I'm terrified that something might be wrong.

This may seem like a weird question but how digested was the prey and how bad did it stink?

As far as the size of the prey you don't have anything to worry about there. Small rat should be fine for 564 gram female. Was she handled more than usual after eating on Monday or Tuesday? Also, does she have belly heat? Or is her tank heated by lamp? I would tend not to worry about a regurgitation until it becomes a consistent problem. I don't think the size has anything to do with this though.

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Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

This may seem like a weird question but how digested was the prey and how bad did it stink?

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It honestly didn't have much odor (I stuck my head in the enclosure) and it didn't look very digested...mostly just wet and slimy.

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Originally Posted by Moose84

As far as the size of the prey you don't have anything to worry about there. Small rat should be fine for 564 gram female. Was she handled more than usual after eating on Monday or Tuesday? Also, does she have belly heat? Or is her tank heated by lamp? I would tend not to worry about a regurgitation until it becomes a consistent problem. I don't think the size has anything to do with this though.

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I haven't touched her since Saturday 5/18. I check the snake room 1-2 times/day after they eat just to make sure temps are good and they have enough water, etc. She has a UTH on the hot side (thermostat controlled, usually hovers around 89-90*), and then we temp control and humidify the entire room to maintain cool side/ambient temperature.

hmmm... That rules that out.. No other new snakes or reptiles introduced into the same area? What was she eating before the upgrade to small rat?

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Originally Posted by Moose84

hmmm... That rules that out.. No other new snakes or reptiles introduced into the same area? What was she eating before the upgrade to small rat?

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Nothing new in the snake room! She was eating 1 weaned rat every 7 days prior to switching to small rats. I track every feed, weight, BM/urate. shed, etc. in a notebook so I'd be happy to take pictures of that when I get home tonight if it would help.

Sounds like you are doing everything right to me.. Could just be a fluke. I would probably leave her alone for a week and then go back to the previous size prey for a couple weeks and see. If she throws another one up I might have her checked out. Keep an eye on her in the meantime for anything out of the ordinary. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by mandymg86

It honestly didn't have much odor (I stuck my head in the enclosure) and it didn't look very digested...mostly just wet and slimy.

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Ok, since I am not there and did not observe the feeding here is my experience. I may have had one or two "true regurgitations" in my entire time screwing around with reptiles. I have seen a couple in the wild, i live in Florida and saw an entire possum regurged and laying in my back yard. A true regurge stinks to high heaven. These types of regurges are normally caused by sickness, stress or temperatures.

What it sounds like in your case is the snake swallowed the prey and then spit it back up within a couple hours. This does occasionally happen if there is a sudden increase in prey size and sometimes because the snake thought it was hungry and really wasn't. I will see about two or three occurrences a year of this out of thousands of feedings. It is why I always recheck the tubs in the morning after a feeding.

Common advise would be to drop the prey size back down a bit and wait a few weeks to try again. The prey size from what you say, was not too big but may have "surprised" the animal. There is probably nothing to worry about unless it happens again. I would be far more worried if the prey had been partially digested.

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Originally Posted by Moose84

Sounds like you are doing everything right to me.. Could just be a fluke. I would probably leave her alone for a week and then go back to the previous size prey for a couple weeks and see. If she throws another one up I might have her checked out. Keep an eye on her in the meantime for anything out of the ordinary. Good luck!

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Thank you! We have a fantastic exotics vet less than 5 miles away so if I notice anything weird, I'll be certain to give him a call.

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For a regurge do not feed again for three weeks. In the meantime get some Nutribac from either Amazon or The Bean Farm. It's a reptile probiotic.

When you do feed again, offer a feeder half the size of what she had been eating (so, a rat pup). Since she eats f/t offer the feeder damp and dust a bit of the Nutribac on the damp rat; it will stick nicely.

Wait two weeks and again offer a damp f/t rat pup dusted with Nutribac if all goes well.

Wait another two weeks and offer a damp f/t wean rat dusted with Nutribac.

If everything is ok after all this, I'd offer another weanling at 10 days and then again on a 7 day schedule for a few weeks before putting her back on the small rats.

As bcr229 already said: no food for 3 weeks, to give her time to build up digestive enzymes again, otherwise another re-gurge is likely & very detrimental.

I also second the use of probiotics in or on the next meal: I've found that I get more Nutribac into a snake, not by dusting it on damp fur, but by using a small tool*
to pry open the rodent's mouth as wide as possible & putting the powder in their oral cavity where it will not fall off while the snake is swallowing, nor will the odor
cause a finicky snake to balk & not accept the prey. (*rodent teeth are sharp & germy- you don't want to damage your fingers doing this, a small screwdriver or
most anything works better...rigor mortis usually makes the jaw muscles stiff but this is do-able. Push the mouth closed once you fill it with the powder.)

Your snake might just be going into a shed and the larger meal just didn't "feel right"...snake's bodies use extra hydration both to shed and to digest. Some have
trouble doing both at the same time, & snakes seem to know (feel) a shed is coming before we can see any tell-tale signs.

As posted above, subsequent meals should be much smaller while your snake gets back on track.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

For a regurge do not feed again for three weeks. In the meantime get some Nutribac from either Amazon or The Bean Farm. It's a reptile probiotic.

When you do feed again, offer a feeder half the size of what she had been eating (so, a rat pup). Since she eats f/t offer the feeder damp and dust a bit of the Nutribac on the damp rat; it will stick nicely.

Wait two weeks and again offer a damp f/t rat pup dusted with Nutribac if all goes well.

Wait another two weeks and offer a damp f/t wean rat dusted with Nutribac.

If everything is ok after all this, I'd offer another weanling at 10 days and then again on a 7 day schedule for a few weeks before putting her back on the small rats.

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I normally agree with BCR however in this case I believe it to be overkill. I have never had to go this far, but I would if I believed the snake was ill and or was on antibiotics. That said, what BCR recommended will not hurt.

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Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

I normally agree with BCR however in this case I believe it to be overkill. I have never had to go this far, but I would if I believed the snake was ill and or was on antibiotics. That said, what BCR recommended will not hurt.

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The snake might be in a shed cycle by then anyway...guess we'll see? Wouldn't worry too much anyway...as you said earlier, it would be worse if this was a nasty stinky
partially-digested regurge, but it wasn't.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

The snake might be in a shed cycle by then anyway...guess we'll see? Wouldn't worry too much anyway...as you said earlier, it would be worse if this was a nasty stinky
partially-digested regurge, but it wasn't.

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It wouldn't surprise me at all if she sheds in the next couple of weeks. While I know snakes don't really have a schedule to how they grow, she's been pretty steady with a shed every 4-6 weeks since I've gotten her.

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Did my evening peek into the snake room, and Pax has apparently decided to try her hand at being an arboreal snake. (I had a photo of her perched on her "tree" but my phone decided not to save it). Temps and humidity were still great, she had a nice urate, and no obvious signs of distress or illness. [emoji1695][emoji1695]

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Just wanted to give everyone an update....we skipped a few feedings, dropped down to a rat pup for one week and then did a few weeks on weaned rats. (there was a shed somewhere in there too, would have to check my notebook at home for the exact date). Fed a small rat this weekend and Pax handled it beautifully! My big girl is weighing in at 636g and will turn one on August 20th. Thanks to everyone for your great advice!