A couple nights ago I discovered that one of my Blood Pythons - "Dexter" had severely impacted urates that were poking out against the sides of his tail. So, last night one of my local breeder friends and I soaked/swam him in warm water while trying to massage the hardened urates out of him and after about an hour they finally started working their way out. I couldn't even believe the amount of crap that ended up coming out of that poor little guy's behind! Here is a photo:



There was even more hardened urates, which dissolved in the water. Two terds, which were about the same size as the urates shown in the photo also came out, but they weren't hardened. This poor fella must feel sooo much better now!

Can any of you guys possibly tell by looking at the photo about how long these urates might have been being backed up? This snake hasn't taken a dump since clear back on 12/09/17 and as some of you might recall, I had started having regurgitation problems with him back on 12/05/17. I would say it's pretty obvious that all of this backed up urate must have been the cause of his regurgitation issues, wouldn't you guys? Can you guys tell me what causes urates to become impacted and how it can be prevented?

Just to give a little more history... This snake came into my possession on 5/10/17... Since then he has only defecated 4 times - On 9/14/17, 10/23/17, 12/09/17 (massive) and a tiny little bit on 12/26/17.