Hardened yolks, hard belly, mass in Ball python hatchlings

[Robyn@SYR]

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 can see how that would rub you wrong, my apologies for casting such a broad net. I thought it was already getting too wordy.

There are some great vets out there, and some with solid reptile experience, no doubt. But the majority of vet visit stories I see are with vets that have little to no reptile experience, and end up performing procedures (for a fee) that have little relevance to proper captive husbandry or reptile recovery.

The local vet we use takes the same approach we do, and would have a solid chance of success, as you did. But I think he (and you) are the exception, not the rule.

As for Herpsss- awesome first post! What is your other user name here at BPnet?