Impacted carpet python

So my girl Alice is a little over 3 years old and I've had her almost that entire time with no issues, until recently. About 3 weeks ago I noticed what looked like sausage butt to me while offering her a meal. As snake owners when we see sausage butt we tend to just look past it because we've seen it so many times and we get complacent about it.

Fast forward two weeks and I saw that it never went away so I started soaking her. I soaked her for 2-2 1/2 hours in 85 degree water and got only a little urate out.

Which brings us to today. She has been soaked 4 times and I put some warm water in her cloaca with a syringe and nothing's happened. I have a vet appointment scheduled for her next Tuesday to get this taken care of before it gets worse but I was wondering if anyone had any useful tips and tricks in the mean time to help her get the proverbial ball rolling.

Not really- it's best to keep your interventions on the conservative side when you don't yet know the cause.

I totally agree with the soaks- especially if she has room to do swimming motions- with your hand supporting her mid-body so she can swim in place. That often helps the most.

But the cause could be anything from simple dehydration + inactivity, to swallowing something she cannot digest, to one or more urate stones blocking her cloaca, to something like a tumor.

It must be the season for "sausage butt"- you're the second one today! :confusd: > https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...d-constipation

Maybe because with the heat on, the air in our houses is much dryer & our snakes are more prone to dehydration.

I thought about dehydration but it didn't make a lot of sense to me. I change waters every 2-3 days to make sure it's fresh and to make sure they have plenty. When I feed I thaw in water so the rodents are wet when I offer and I keep my humidity it their room around 50%. Not saying it couldn't be hydration just saying it would shock my if it were. I was thinking it was more of a urate stone problem but who knows really. Hopefully the vet visit will go well and they'll be able to fix her right up.

When you soaked her, did you do this where she could stretch out & do swimming (in place) motions (with your hand for support in shallow water)? Because that helps a LOT more than just sitting still to "soak". Try the bathtub. ;)

As far as keeping the "humidity in their room around 50%"- what's the actual humidity IN their enclosures? That's what matters, & that's where additional heat might be drying her out. (Unless you're one that heats the whole room? Just trying to brainstorm with you...)

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

When you soaked her, did you do this where she could stretch out & do swimming (in place) motions (with your hand for support in shallow water)? Because that helps a LOT more than just sitting still to "soak". Try the bathtub. ;)

As far as keeping the "humidity in their room around 50%"- what's the actual humidity IN their enclosures? That's what matters, & that's where additional heat might be drying her out. (Unless you're one that heats the whole room? Just trying to brainstorm with you...)

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I wish I had a tub big enough for her stretch out and swim but she's probably close to 6ft long. As far as the tub goes she is way to flighty and ill tempered for those sorts of activities lol.

As far as humidity. The snakes have their own room that is temperature controlled and they're in racks. The ambient room temp is 78-80 with a hot spot for her around 89-90. Since it's a small room (it's basically a glorified utility closet, about 5x8) it's pretty easy to keep it at a constant temperature. And since she's kind of an arid species anyway I would be even more confused about the dehydration.

Yeah, I hear you about the size & "personality" issues, lol. Just a suggestion, & you might be surprised at some snakes I've done such things with.

How much easier is the vet visit going to be, anyway? ;) Sometimes you just can't take "no" for an answer from a :snake:

Anyway, good luck- let us know how it goes?

Hopefully it’s nothing serious. Can you take a picture of your snake? If she’s well hydrated then she might just be prepping for a big drop. How many times has she eaten in the last month? Could she be going into shed? I’ve never experienced impaction with any of my snakes so I’m just grasping at straws. Best wishes.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

Hopefully it’s nothing serious. Can you take a picture of your snake? If she’s well hydrated then she might just be prepping for a big drop. How many times has she eaten in the last month? Could she be going into shed? I’ve never experienced impaction with any of my snakes so I’m just grasping at straws. Best wishes.

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Ill try to get a picture of her (not even sure I still have the Tapatalk app lol). I originally thought it was a poop but it's pretty clear to me that it's an impaction of sorts. She shed on the 21st of November and ate a couple days after that. She's a pretty big girl so I only feed her a large rat every 3-5 weeks depending on her. She tells me when she's ready to eat.

If it feels hard- like a rock or a marble- it could be a urate "stone" (one or more) & vet help is the safer way to get them out. I've dealt with them before.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

If it feels hard- like a rock or a marble- it could be a urate "stone" (one or more) & vet help is the safer way to get them out. I've dealt with them before.

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That's what my money's on. I've seen it done a bunch of times on YouTube but it's not something I'm going to try myself. Last thing I want to do is cause her pain.

I had similar concern with my jungle girl after her last meal of the year. Hadn’t defecated for probably close to a month if not more (2-3 feedings?).
Eventually she left the largest bowel movement I’ve ever seen from an animal that size. Rockhampton female also held on to a bowel movement for about a month after her last feeding this year as well. Both I could palpate and feel semi hard urates just before their vent. Vet visit is never a terrible idea, but hopefully it’s nothing.


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Update

Went to the vet today and she's constipated/impacted. They did x-rays to confirm. The vet gave her a liquid laxative via tube down her throat (can't remember for the life of me what she called the stuff). She had some sort of reaction to either the laxative or the tube because she was producing really thick mucous afterwards that they were worried about and couldn't get to stop for 30-45 minutes but she kept the medicine down, most of it anyway.

I was sent home with syringes and antibiotics just in case it was an allergic reaction the antibiotics will fight it before it becomes a problem. Now I get to give a shot to a 5 1/2 - 6 foot python. Yay me! The vet said to keep trying to soak her and hopefully it'll pass on it's own since it's not big enough to require surgery unless it just doesn't pass at all and in that case surgery will be a last resort. Poor girl had a rough day and now she's resting and relaxing.

Hope she hangs in there and comes through well.

Keep us posted!

A vet gave me the suggestion of using a length of pvc pipe or sturdy cardboard shipping tube slightly larger than the girth of the snake with a hole cut in it for administering injections. Certainly provided at least some assistance when I was administering antibiotics unassisted to an uncooperative 10’ retic a few years back.


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I actually do have a piece of PVC I was going to try to use to keep the bitey end occupied lol. If that doesn't work I'm sure I can find someone to help hold her while I poke her. I just hope she passes the poop and doesn't require surgery!

You want to use tubing that is only just a little bigger than the widest diameter of the snake- otherwise, they might turn around inside it. Have a ventilated cap for the one end, so they don't keep going, lol. I haven't used this process for giving injections, only for avoiding injections, lol. (I tube-fed a rattlesnake for a while, until she recovered fully).

*update*

The lump is now uniform with the rest of her body so I'm hoping that means it's broken up a bit. And it's moved down next to the cloaca so now it really does resemble sausage butt. I'm going to continue to soak her and hope she just pushes the rest out since it's literally right next to the exit!

Fingers well-crossed for her success. :gj: