- Joined
- Aug 19, 2002
- Messages
- 1,328
Thought I'd give an update on the last greyband to lay as well as some pointers for anyone who comes across the egg binding thing in their breeding efforts. Believe me when I say there is very little info to find on the subject and locating a vet to give advice is like getting someone to give up a kidney for ya. I figured perhaps this could be of some help to folks in the future as it's no funski trying to figure it out on your own.
Female number 1 ( the light colored one ) started to lay on 5-29-03 while I was at work as I checked that morning and had no eggs yet. That evening at 6 pm when I got home she had laid 3 eggs. Later at 10 pm the fourth egg came out and was significantly larger which was the cause of the delay. The next morning still no more eggs so I went to the reptile show and upon returning at around 5:30 pm she had laid 2 more bringing the total to 6.
Sunday 6-1-03 came and went with the remaining 2 eggs still not passed so my concern grew steadily. Finally Monday 6-2-03 in the evening after several hot water soaks to relax the muscles and several attempts by myself to massage it free the 7th egg which was right by the cloaca finally passed. By Tuesday the 3rd she still had one large eggs stuck at about 8 inches from the tail tip that was not budging at all. The window of time was rapidly closing to save the snake and since surgery with snakes is always risky I chose to aspirate the egg.
To do this you need a large gauge needle as the egg contents will be rather thick and you need to sterilize the area to be punctured as well as the needle itself. The idea is to go between the scales on the side of the snake between the 3rd and 4th row of scales from the belly scales. Any higher and you run the risk of hitting a vein. Once the egg has been punctured you draw out all the liquid you can being careful not to get any egg contents into the cavity of the uterus as this can cause infection and kill the snake.
I drew out 5cc of fluid which is a good bit for a colubrid egg.
After doing this treat the puncture wound with neosporin and hope that the egg remains pass or the snake is most likely ruined as a breeder.
Finally today 6-8-03 she passed the last egg. As you can see from the pic even though 5cc were drawn out it's still quite big in comparison to the female which is what causes them to stick in the 1st place. Along with other factors.
The moral of the story... sometimes captive bred snakes have problems and when they do if you wait too long to take action you can lose the snake. Hopefully this can prove useful to someone in the future if they ever have the same thing pop up. I am just very relieved that she has passed it and is ok still and am truly glad I did something about it in time. Not only is she fine health wise but should still be quite breedable as well.
Phil
Female number 1 ( the light colored one ) started to lay on 5-29-03 while I was at work as I checked that morning and had no eggs yet. That evening at 6 pm when I got home she had laid 3 eggs. Later at 10 pm the fourth egg came out and was significantly larger which was the cause of the delay. The next morning still no more eggs so I went to the reptile show and upon returning at around 5:30 pm she had laid 2 more bringing the total to 6.
Sunday 6-1-03 came and went with the remaining 2 eggs still not passed so my concern grew steadily. Finally Monday 6-2-03 in the evening after several hot water soaks to relax the muscles and several attempts by myself to massage it free the 7th egg which was right by the cloaca finally passed. By Tuesday the 3rd she still had one large eggs stuck at about 8 inches from the tail tip that was not budging at all. The window of time was rapidly closing to save the snake and since surgery with snakes is always risky I chose to aspirate the egg.
To do this you need a large gauge needle as the egg contents will be rather thick and you need to sterilize the area to be punctured as well as the needle itself. The idea is to go between the scales on the side of the snake between the 3rd and 4th row of scales from the belly scales. Any higher and you run the risk of hitting a vein. Once the egg has been punctured you draw out all the liquid you can being careful not to get any egg contents into the cavity of the uterus as this can cause infection and kill the snake.
I drew out 5cc of fluid which is a good bit for a colubrid egg.
After doing this treat the puncture wound with neosporin and hope that the egg remains pass or the snake is most likely ruined as a breeder.
Finally today 6-8-03 she passed the last egg. As you can see from the pic even though 5cc were drawn out it's still quite big in comparison to the female which is what causes them to stick in the 1st place. Along with other factors.
The moral of the story... sometimes captive bred snakes have problems and when they do if you wait too long to take action you can lose the snake. Hopefully this can prove useful to someone in the future if they ever have the same thing pop up. I am just very relieved that she has passed it and is ok still and am truly glad I did something about it in time. Not only is she fine health wise but should still be quite breedable as well.
Phil
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