Maggots in my BP poop

[jdoc2000]

So recently I had just taken my ball python to Cornell to get some tests done because he's been doing a corkscrew like action. As I was getting him back I looked in the cage and realized he was pooping and at that moment I saw this worm come out from the poop and go into his hide. I immediately showed the vet and they took him back in and tested the poop and found out it was maggots. After finding out it was maggots they said there's nothing they could really do so I decided to reach out on the forums to see what I should do.

I feed him frozen rats and these rats have been frozen for 2-3 months so I'm not sure where the maggots came from.

Thank You

[Bogertophis]

I think you're confused. Sounds like intestinal worms to me, not maggots. Maggots are fly larvae, & there's no way that flies can lay eggs inside your snake, so if these are truly maggots (not worms), eggs were laid on the snake feces that has been left sitting in the cage for long enough that they developed into maggots. Only live worms of some type could be freshly coming out of your snake or out of freshly expelled feces. And there's plenty they can do to treat a snake with intestinal worms...it's called deworming.

[303_enfield]

If the Vet did the float test he/she should know what was in the poop. Time to find another Vet for a second opinion. You can even find an online lab to send a sample to.

Your bill should show what test was done an what was found. Worms happen an they are easy (for the most part) to get rid of.


Good luck!

[jdoc2000]

Yea that’s part of the problem we were having we have no idea how the “maggot” got there. And the worst part about it was the vet at Cornell said that it was a maggot and that we saw him poop out the worm with the rest of it and immediately they took him right back inside to collect samples. So I’d rather it be a worm rather than a maggot because at least we’d know what to do about it. Our best guess right now is that it came from the rat when it was alive and some how got in the rats stomach so when we eventually defrosted the rat and feed it to our snake the worm/maggot came alive inside of our snake and a week later was pooped out at the vet.

[Caitlin]

I'm not trying to be difficult here but Cornell has one of the best veterinary schools in the world, so if you were working with a reptile vet I would just stick with their advice. If you were not seeing a reptile specialist, ask for one.