Hardened yolks, hard belly, mass in Ball python hatchlings

[JLC]

Herpsss does have a good point. Although I appreciate Robyn's thread in that it describes this unfortunate occurrence, I don't agree with Robyn's comment :

I recently had to deal with my first hard-belly, and chose to operate on the snake myself. I believe most knowledgeable vets would be more skilled and better equipped than dealing with hard-belly than I was, but I still managed to save his life and he is currently thriving. If I had followed the advice given in this thread, my snake would most likely have died. The hard-belly lump that I extracted was quite a bit larger than the one in the picture and never would have passed through his cloaca.

I'm not opposed to people trying to gently pass the mass out of the cloaca, but if it doesn't work I wouldn't suggest forcing it to the point of tearing the snake. Instead, I would advise seeking out professional help to surgically remove the mass.

Here's the link which describes my experience.

I have a bit of confusion about your argument, Lawrence. On the one hand, you disapprove of Robyn's statement saying that a vet probably can't help....then you turn around and tell everyone about how YOU also did not seek out a vet, but chose to operate on the animal yourself. ....because you knew a vet couldn't help? How is slicing open an animal, removing something from its insides, and then sewing it up any less risky than the procedure that Robyn illustrated here?

This article is not going to start an epidemic of people splitting open baby ball python bellies. But maybe it will help those RARE folks who run across this phenomenon for the first time and come looking for information. They can read what is there and then decide for themselves how much risk they want to take. Robyn does not downplay the risk involved...in fact, he spells it out very graphically.

Some will follow "Herpsss" lead and just euthanize right off the bat.
Some will try what Robyn has shown.
Some may try to operate themselves.
Some will seek out a vet to help.
Some will just let the animal die on its own without any intervention on their part.

It's ALWAYS going to be down to those choices, and all this thread does is give folks more information to help them choose their path...it does nothing to encourage or discourage any one of them.

That is how I see this thread.