Violent indigestion?can it kill?

[Meltdown Morphs]

I'm really confused and worried about my girl who maybe about and hour ago seemed like she was about to die.

Out of all my snakes she is one of the perfect ones, always healthy appetite since a hatchling,and no prior strange behaviors.No bubble breathing or whistling except during shed time, shes had no history of being sick and only snake I've ever have a respiratory infection was about 2 years ago and none since.

Earlier this week I had a major power issue , after feeding everyone on Saturday something in our meter box burned out and left sections of the house without power, this was all while I was sleep, so my couple racks were without power for a good 8 to 10 hours. A few extension cords later I made sure I got heat back to my snakes first but I wasn't sure if that time without heat would affect their ability to digest as the temps had dropped to mid/low 70's. I kept a close eye on everyone and all seemed fine but my one Enchi girl still seemed like she had a lump in her, but it was a bit farther down her body and I kind of assumed it was just a feces mass.

Tonight I started hearing noise in her tub, first the usual knocking over of her bowl, then a few minutes later sounded like choking noises.
When I opened her tub she came shooting out like she was trying to escape something, and her belly looked bigger , at least from the angle I was holding her.
I filled the bathroom sink with very warm water and tried to set her in it, she seemed bent on trying escape and seemed a bit uncoordinated in her efforts like panicked flailing, and every few minutes she would pause, open her mouth and make like a forced belching sound as if trying to regurge, she seemed to be straining as well.
I got her to calm down a bit but I think it was her own exhaustion. she laid in the water and just seemed very limp and unresponsive, I rubbed down her belly gently feeling for any hard lumps but it felt mostly normal, almost airy, but I did manage to work some feces out of her system but she didn't really seem to improve much.I could pick her head up slightly and she would just hang there, maybe slightly pull back.
What scared me the most was when she seemed to be having the snake equivelant of a seizure , she coiled up really hard on herself, her mouth open and turning deep pink from the strain before she relaxed again but this time she was completely uncoordinated and for brief moments her tongue would hang out her mouth. I literally thought she was going to die right here and now. She went limp again and just laid there with her mouth partially open, I kept most of her body in the water except her head and she just laid there for bout 20 minutes, slowly regaining her bearings. Once she finally came out of it all she seems back to normal. Normal tongue flicking/alertness as f nothing happened.

I've been keeping her around my neck and she doesn't seem in a hurry to leave. I'm trying to keep her a bit warmer for a while without having to turn the whole racks' heat up on everyone else.

Sorry for this huge text block but I'm really not sure what just took place here. I have never had a issue with her since I've had her and this just happening out of the blue is a major curve ball. I'm thinking of skipping a feeding for her just so her system can completely empty out.

[Mike.P]

Wow. That's really scary. Glad she came out of it... I have no idea what to tell you, other than it sounds pretty serious. I would definitely get her to a vet, and get it checked out. You may be right with thinking seizure though. I'm a med student, and if I saw a human present with such symptoms, that's the road that I would go down. No idea what may have caused it. Have you recently treated for mites by chance? Exposure to high levels of permethrin (common ingredient in pesticides) could cause such a reaction in a person. But again, I don't know if that would apply to a snake.

I think you should get her in as soon as you can. Really hope it's nothing serious. Poor girl.

[Jessica Loesch]

Scary. Hope you figure it out.

[Meltdown Morphs]

Wow. That's really scary. Glad she came out of it... I have no idea what to tell you, other than it sounds pretty serious. I would definitely get her to a vet, and get it checked out. You may be right with thinking seizure though. I'm a med student, and if I saw a human present with such symptoms, that's the road that I would go down. No idea what may have caused it. Have you recently treated for mites by chance? Exposure to high levels of permethrin (common ingredient in pesticides) could cause such a reaction in a person. But again, I don't know if that would apply to a snake.

I think you should get her in as soon as you can. Really hope it's nothing serious. Poor girl.

Actually yes, yesterday I cleaned her tub, I used reptile relief on her tub and on her, since that kind says you can apply it to the reptile directly without hurting them, I usually give her 1 or 2 spritz and rub her down and thats it.
Guess I should not use that on her directly anymore..

[Mike.P]

Hmm... Reptile Relief doesn't have permethrin in it. From what I know about it, it is indeed safe to apply to snakes directly. Have you used it on her before, or was this the first time? Could be an allergic reaction... A strong one could cause symptoms along those lines as well.

But again, hard to pin down without testing. Even if it wasn't the first time using it, allergies can develop over time... Then it just takes one more exposure to trigger it. Again though, coming from the human side of things. I think a vet is the solution here.

[Meltdown Morphs]

This isn't the first time I've used reptile relief, pretty much anytime I clean my snakes tubs they get a spritzs and rub down just as a preventative measure.
I guess I could lay off that for a while.
I'll have to wait for her to give me a good poo sample to take to the vet.

[llovelace]

She seems like she needed to have a poo.

[dr del]

Hi,

One possibility not mentioned yet was the temperature of the water.

What exactly did you mean by "very warm"?

We don't recommend using water any hotter than 86f - which should feel cool to your hand. Too high temperatures can cause neurological damage which would also match the symptoms you describe.


dr del

[snakesRkewl]

I have witnessed what your describing and in my case it was bad gas that resulted in runny poo.

[mpkeelee]

check her for RI. the rescue that i lost to RI was doing some simialr things in the advanced stages. without seeing her its hard to say for sure but it is possible. do you have any snot on the sides of her tub?