Regurge :(

[mandymg86]

I checked on Pax this morning, and saw that she had regurgitated her meal from Sunday 5/19. Our temps have been fantastic and very stable: 89-90* in the hot spot, cool side/ambient temps have hovering right around 79* and humidity at 40%. She weighed in last week at 564g, so we bumped her up to a small rat (live...don't worry, we supervise VERY closely and carefully to make sure nothing goes awry). I didn't grab the weight on the rat but it was narrower than the widest part of her body, and she took it down without any issues. She hasn't been handled since Saturday 5/18. Aside from the rat just being too much for her, I don't know what would cause this. She's a phenomenal eater and she's only missed two meals since January (one refusal due to shed and we chose not to feed her one week also due to shed). I'm a super anxious snake mommy and I'm terrified that something might be wrong.

[JodanOrNoDan]

This may seem like a weird question but how digested was the prey and how bad did it stink?

[Moose84]

As far as the size of the prey you don't have anything to worry about there. Small rat should be fine for 564 gram female. Was she handled more than usual after eating on Monday or Tuesday? Also, does she have belly heat? Or is her tank heated by lamp? I would tend not to worry about a regurgitation until it becomes a consistent problem. I don't think the size has anything to do with this though.

[mandymg86]

This may seem like a weird question but how digested was the prey and how bad did it stink?

It honestly didn't have much odor (I stuck my head in the enclosure) and it didn't look very digested...mostly just wet and slimy.

[mandymg86]

As far as the size of the prey you don't have anything to worry about there. Small rat should be fine for 564 gram female. Was she handled more than usual after eating on Monday or Tuesday? Also, does she have belly heat? Or is her tank heated by lamp? I would tend not to worry about a regurgitation until it becomes a consistent problem. I don't think the size has anything to do with this though.

I haven't touched her since Saturday 5/18. I check the snake room 1-2 times/day after they eat just to make sure temps are good and they have enough water, etc. She has a UTH on the hot side (thermostat controlled, usually hovers around 89-90*), and then we temp control and humidify the entire room to maintain cool side/ambient temperature.

[Moose84]

hmmm... That rules that out.. No other new snakes or reptiles introduced into the same area? What was she eating before the upgrade to small rat?

[mandymg86]

hmmm... That rules that out.. No other new snakes or reptiles introduced into the same area? What was she eating before the upgrade to small rat?

Nothing new in the snake room! She was eating 1 weaned rat every 7 days prior to switching to small rats. I track every feed, weight, BM/urate. shed, etc. in a notebook so I'd be happy to take pictures of that when I get home tonight if it would help.

[Moose84]

Sounds like you are doing everything right to me.. Could just be a fluke. I would probably leave her alone for a week and then go back to the previous size prey for a couple weeks and see. If she throws another one up I might have her checked out. Keep an eye on her in the meantime for anything out of the ordinary. Good luck!

[JodanOrNoDan]

It honestly didn't have much odor (I stuck my head in the enclosure) and it didn't look very digested...mostly just wet and slimy.

Ok, since I am not there and did not observe the feeding here is my experience. I may have had one or two "true regurgitations" in my entire time screwing around with reptiles. I have seen a couple in the wild, i live in Florida and saw an entire possum regurged and laying in my back yard. A true regurge stinks to high heaven. These types of regurges are normally caused by sickness, stress or temperatures.

What it sounds like in your case is the snake swallowed the prey and then spit it back up within a couple hours. This does occasionally happen if there is a sudden increase in prey size and sometimes because the snake thought it was hungry and really wasn't. I will see about two or three occurrences a year of this out of thousands of feedings. It is why I always recheck the tubs in the morning after a feeding.

Common advise would be to drop the prey size back down a bit and wait a few weeks to try again. The prey size from what you say, was not too big but may have "surprised" the animal. There is probably nothing to worry about unless it happens again. I would be far more worried if the prey had been partially digested.

[mandymg86]

Sounds like you are doing everything right to me.. Could just be a fluke. I would probably leave her alone for a week and then go back to the previous size prey for a couple weeks and see. If she throws another one up I might have her checked out. Keep an eye on her in the meantime for anything out of the ordinary. Good luck!

Thank you! We have a fantastic exotics vet less than 5 miles away so if I notice anything weird, I'll be certain to give him a call.

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