Probiotic use

Sorry for all the medical questions, but just had a few come up lately.
Do any of you give your boas pro-biotics? One of my little ones just re-gurged and I was thinking about giving him some probiotics to help him stomach recondition itself and replace some of the lost bugs. If you do use probiotics, how do you mix it and administer it? Thanks again!

We have it in powdered form. For a snake that regurged: wait 2-3 weeks after the regurge, then use a very small prey item (for a baby that would take a rat fuzzy, use a large mouse pink or small mouse fuzzy) and dust it with the pro-biotic. The idea is to give the gut flora something to feed and reproduce on and not nourish the snake so much with this feeding. The following meal, 7 days later, offer something a little bigger than the mouse you dusted and work your way up again to the normal sized prey item. This gives the flora a chance to reproduce on it's own to accommodate the prey. The subsequent meals should not need dusting at this point.

Double check your temps and try to figure out why it regurged in the first place. A fecal test might be in order as well.

And just for fun... for an animal that was eating then decides to just stop for no apparent reason: If the fast goes on for a while and there is no health issues causing the snake to not eat, I'll mix some of the pro-biotic with the drinking water. About a week later I offer a very small prey item. This method has worked for me in getting some snakes eating again.

Good luck!

I use NutriBac, the stuff works wonders. Just dusting the rodent before feeding is all you need. I offer food to my snakes 5-6 days after a regurge and it is rare to see them regurge again.

I reckon I am lucky as I have yet to experience a regurge!

Griz

i'm thinking the rat might have been a bit big. I'm trying to transition him from fuzzies to weaned and it's a big size jump between the two and I'm having trouble finding someone with an inbetween size. My rodent supplier tries really hard though. His temps are great, about 83 on the cool side and 92 on the warm. I do need to get a fecal run though.

So even though boas soak in their water you'd still put the probiotic in there? Thanks for the info and suggestions guys!!

Yes, in the water works great also, the snake will drink the water and take in the probiotic. Being that the probiotic does not cost that much at all, using it in water with every change is just a good idea. Having dealt with wild caught snakes, I highly recommend using the stuff.

Where do you find this stuff? I can only find the gel form locally.

http://www.beanfarm.com/cgi-bin/stor...f&user4=Health

if that link doesn't work it's www.thebeanfarm.com it's under health care and it's called nutribac