Boa Does Not Feel Right

Odd thing I noticed with one of my baby boa constrictors. She is bloated and feels extremely soft around the lower midsection of her body. I have her in a sweater box with temps at 90 on the hot end and 82 on the cool end. She was just fed 6 days ago a rat pup, she ate fine and when I checked on her this morning she looks as though she has just eaten. She is about 16 inches long, which seems short, eitherway she has not shown any signs that she is sick other than this bloat. She is active and moving as she normally does, she does have muscle strength in her body, when I gently squeeze the bloated part of her body I can feel her ribs. It is as though she has water under her skin, also most of her belly feels the same way being very soft. I am concerned, I am not waiting any longer than Monday to see a the vet. As he is now closed till then.

I am waiting for her to defecate so I can get a fecal test done, which should be any time now. Any ideas on what may be going on? This is a new one to me.

Michael -

Sorry to hear about your ailing boa.

Is the bloating diffuse or are you able to appreciate a mass upon palpation?

The bloated mass does diffuse when pressed upon.

This mornings update. She did have a bowel movement that was really runny but of a normal color. The bloat is gone and she is still just as active as normal moving around as I open the cage licking the air, though she seems a bit dehydrated. So I added some wet sphagnum moss to her cage to help raise the humidity. My guess is she had over filled her body with water because she was dry. I do have the feces saved to have a fecal test done, I will let everyone know of the test's findings.

Side note, her brother in another cage who is doing extremely well, has mistaken my left hand's pinkie for a rat pinkie.

Okay, due to odd circumstances we were unable to get her in on Monday, but we are going in to the Vet's today. Cross your fingers.

Fingers crossed. Let us know how she's doing. Art

She had pneumonia. I checked on her just before my last post, when I pulled her out at 11am to take her in(appt @ 11:40am) she had already passed away. I took her in and paid for a necropsy, the pneumonia was very advanced and spread pretty far. The vet gave me some tissue in formalin so I can process, which I will do on Tuesday so I can see myself. He said their was still food in her stomach that looked to have been digesting properly. He figured she had drowned from the amount of fluid that was in her lungs. He offered to culture her, but that was unnecessary as the cause of death was evident.

Michael, I am so sorry to hear about her passing.
I was hoping for a good outcome, for you and her.
It is difficult to lose our scale babies. My thoughts are
with you.

Sorry to hear, Michael. I would have thought she would have showed a lot more outward signs of such a severe pneumonia....what a shame.

Sorry Michael. That really blows!