suspected mild poisoning on my dumerils boa... need advice

[redshepherd]

I can't find info on this by googling. I suspect my dumeril's boa Vigil has been mildly poisoned. I brought her into the yard for some pics maybe 5-6 days ago and didn't realize my family had someone come treat the whole yard with pesticide almost 2 weeks ago. But it's a type of pesticide that's supposed to last a couple months after drying, similar to PAM, but obviously much stronger since it kills spiders and ants too and lasts so long.

I just saw her randomly twitching/flinching her body a bit every 15 seconds or so, a couple days ago, and didn't know why. She stopped twitching after that day, so I only saw her twitching for a little while. She's now in shed.

I only just found out about the pesticide treatment and put two and two together that it's probably from poisoning, after reading that someone experienced the twitching too after using a strong mite treatment directly on their snake- in which their snake died within 24 hours. It has been a few days, so I think Vigil's poisoning is much more mild.

So I assume this would be similar to if someone had some PAM get in contact with their snake, which is probably the most similar situation to the snake community.... Does anyone have experience with removing poisoning/PAM from a snake?

[zina10]

Even though it has been a few days, put your baby in the bath, with a mild soap like a baby shampoo or so. Something that can break up oils. Let her slither in it for a bit and then "rinse" her off with clean water and dry her with paper towels, rubbing her down with them.

Also remove all bedding from that cage. Wash all deco, walls, water dish, hides. Put fresh / clean bedding in there, then the snake. There really is nothing else to be done at this point. Hopefully it is something that gets metabolized out of her system. Its very encouraging that she hasn't had worse symptoms yet..

Hope she will be just fine !

[Bogertophis]

I would encourage hydration too...and find out exactly what chemical & run it by your vet. Probably not much you can do besides wait, but in case you can't
tell, that's not my strong suit either. Hope she recovers OK...

And beyond that I agree with zina10's posts (obvious by my 'thanks').

[zina10]

If you don't have baby shampoo, just use Dawn dish washing liquid. Just don't keep her in there long. You can make sure she doesn't drink it (don't think she would). You just want something to break up any oils that may be used to bind the product to whatever it was sprayed on. Rinse her well, and rub her dry well, to get everything from between the scales. As good as you can.

I would do that asap, incl. the cage makeover and clean up. A good soap and scrub should do it, follow with a clear water rinse. You don't need to sanitize anything, but you need to get any possible residue off, that may have been transferred from the snake to the cage/hides/dish/substrate.

[zina10]

I forgot to say, keep a close eye on her during all this. Esp. in the water. With possible neurological damage, she may not be as coordinated as normal. And you don't want to get her in distress or panic.

Neurological symptoms can also appear worse during stress, so try to get all this done thorough but quick and then let her relax while keeping an eye on her.

[redshepherd]

Thanks for your comments zina, washed her and am cleaning everything now. I do have baby shampoo thankfully. I hope she is okay and hopefully the shed will help.

[zina10]

I truly think she will be ok. It really is very promising that she has only mild symptoms and this far out.

To be safe, I wouldn't feed her until all symptoms have been away for at least a week. Let her body concentrate of ridding itself of that stuff. Digestion is hard work on a snakes body, and she should use all her energy on getting better.

Please keep us up to date, she is such a beauty, and its great that you are so observant and noticed the slight symptoms.

[Sonny1318]

Very sorry to hear that happened to you, hoping for the best!

[cletus]

Really sorry to hear this Red. I hope everything turns out ok.

[RickyNY]

Same here Fiona, sorry to hear about this. Wish your boa the best!!