Twisted umbilicus 101 - Lucky's Story - Graphic Pics

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It all started on June 20th 2012

Within 24 hours of cutting my Pied X Albino clutch one of the hatchling started emerging but it was obvious that there was an issue.

As you can see the hatchling had a twisted umbilicus (it’s rare but it happens and if left unattended the animal will die a slow death)





The hatchling was already very weak so I decided to intervene. I pulled him out of his egg (he was already half way out) and proceeded to see if it could be untangled without having to cut of the egg sac off. As there was no possibility to untangle the umbilicus the only thing left to do was to cut the egg sac of and free him.

I went and grabbed some dental floss (without flavoring) something any breeder should have in his snake room and proceeded carefully sliding the dental floss under the umbilical cord.



Next step I tied up a knot to prevent the hatchling from bleeding out once the egg sac will be cut off. It is important not to tie your knot up to tight otherwise you could accidentally cut the cord and have the hatchling bleed out.



I then proceeded to cut the egg sac off.



After the procedure I decided to leave the hatchling alone rather than feed it it's own the yolk, he was very weak and I did not want to add any unnecessary stress as I was already doubting that he would make it through the night.

I placed him in a deli cup with some moist paper towel and put him back in the incubator to keep him nice and warm and to restrain his movement.

The next day he was still weak but improving, the day after that he had regain some strength and I decided to assist feed him since he obviously had not absorbed any of his yolk.

At this point it was still a gamble and there was no way to tell if he would make it or not, only time would tell.

When his siblings had their first shed and were offered their first meal I decided to do the same with him even though at this point he had not shed yet. To my surprise the rat pink was gone the next morning. He was now on track and already eating on his own.

On July 23rd he had his first shed (a little over a month after hatching) and he has now ate 2 meals on his own.

Here is Lucky (DH Albino Pied) on 07/25/12



I fully expect Lucky to do as well as his other siblings.

....to be continued