I may have a sick snake :C

[Misfit]

I have a pastel, presumably a female, and she is a few years old (I believe 3) and wieghs around 1400g. I got her six months ago about, and she hasn't eaten for me yet. I'm guessing this is because she was off feed for the prior owner who had been breeding her, and when on feed she was hooked on ASFs. A habit I haven't broken yet, but that's a separate topic. She hasn't eaten for close on a year now, based off the information from the prior owner.

Recently she had an issue with her shed, and it masqueraded as the beginnings of scale rot. Kinda-sorta. I was just overly freaked, I think and once she shed (with some assistance, poor girl) her belly is clean and she looks much healthier. For whatever reason my humidity is through the ROOF and she was running 70s to 80s, and I had issues lowering it. I'm not positive, but I'll admit, it may have been that way for a few days to a week. I hadn't checked her humidity for a little while and did after she started showing signs of shed. It's back down now and I'm checking it faaar more regularly. Post-shed, her belly was all clear and still is to right now... but here is the weird part..

She has peed nearly every day for like a week. I might be exaggerating out of memory, but I swear she's peed 4-5 times in recent time. I don't know if this is irregular or not, but the urate this evening is thick and not a solid white rock. It's yellow-ish paste almost. I'm not certain if this is a sign of infection or not, or if it's even a urate at all! I have pictures, which I can upload. She hasn't pooped since she hasn't been -eating- so I'm unable to run a fecal on her. (I'm currently interning at a Vet clinic) My knowledge is limited, and the vet I work for has no knowledge when it comes to snakes. Without poop I can't do a darned thing and I'm fretting on how else there may be to check for the possibility of parasites.

What I'm asking you guys (other than just a chance to vent out my over-worrying) is would this constitute an infection/parasites? Is this something I should worry about and bring her to an actual exotics vet? (there's a chance my vet may be able to call people and try and figure it out.) As everyone knows a vet visit isn't easy.. and the nearest one to me is an hour away and I go to school full time and when I'm not in school I'm working every hour my vet is open. I'm willing to bring her, but don't want to if it's unnecessary and I'm just being ridiculous about frequent peeing. Because I -had- been soaking her frequently so she may just have had a lot of water to drink lately.

Thank you for reading. Her temps are solid, her humidity is back to normal now and she's on paper towels. She's active, acting normal, and has no signs of redness or irritation. She appears healthy. I probably forgot to add details, so ask away!

[evan385]

I don't actually know anything about the frequent urinating. But I will tell you that you can find ASFs even if you have to have them shipped to you. Get a male and a few females and they will breed for you. You should have a constant supply of ASFs for her with 1.3 or 1.4 don't quote me on those numbers I know ASFs don't grow as fast as domestic rats but it's something you might want to think about because she needs to eat.

[Misfit]

The reason I don't have ASFs is because they are illegal in my state, so unfortunately I cannot have them shipped to me. I've been working on switching her to mice instead.

[dr del]

Hi,

Couple of ideas.

Urates come out as a paste and then harden - it may simply be you are finding them before they "set"

I'm sure I have read about vets doing a wash from the cloaca to test for worm eggs and things. It won't catch everything I suspect but it might be worth asking about.

You should be able to buy frozen asf's online and have them shipped to you.

Have you triple checked all the husbandry? - it may simply be you are keeping her in a way she doesn't like.

Have you palpated for follicles recently? Just in case she is in breeding mode.

Can you increase the ventilation in her enclosure? This may bring the humidity under your control a bit more reliably.


dr del

[Misfit]

I'll have to palpate for follicles and see, but I guess she could just be in the mode again. My last ditch effort is going to be ordering ASFs online, since the last couple of times I looked I couldn't find a darned supplier with them in stock for some reason! It was bizarre.

I have her in a rack system, so it could be that she's not fond of it. I'll try moving her back into a tank. The humidity will be better controlled there for sure and I'll be able to keep a better eye on it.

Update as of this morning: not a pee or a poop exactly..but two little brown spots on her paper towels. Like she tried to poop, but didn't have any in her system really except these little bits. I'm most likely overthinking it, but I wanted to make sure that's what I was doing just in case something was happening that I missed.

[Misfit]

Another update:

So it turns out she's down 300g in weight. I haven't been able to use my scale since it's been broken and I just got a new one. She dropped that weight in two months.

I'm going to talk to my vet on Monday and see if she can see my snake or at least prescribe an appropriate dose of flagyl to help stimulate her appetite, and if she has worms or a bacterial issue, this will get rid of it. If there is nothing.. well at least it will stimulate her appetite!

My other option is the vitamin B 12 shot, which I believe is available over the counter. I don't know dosage on this, and am a liiiittle more iffy because of that. I'm leaning towards flagyl. I'm not bothered by injections or oral meds, as I've done it with many a cat and dog... but any tips on how to do it with a snake would be greatly appreciated. :]

Thanks everyone for their help and input. <3 I want my girly to be happy. She's the most gorgeous pastel I've seen at her weight and she deserves to feel good and eat!

[jbean7916]

I'm interested to see what you find. I have a female pastel that has been of feed for 9 months now and we have tried everything! She shows no interest in nice, rats, asf's dead or alive. Shes about 300g lighter as well.

sent from my EVO

[Charlie And Lucy]

I had a male pastel go off feed for 9 months. We gave him oral meds just in case, and he still didn't eat. I finally gave him to a 12 year old with a lot of snake experience, and he got the pastel to eat within a week. Lucky kid!