Need advice on constipated Boa

I posted the below in the Boa forum but just now noticed this particular forum and felt it was more appropriate of a question to be asked here. Here is my original post:


[quote=griz]My 4 year old albino dwarf boa is constipated. I noticed a week or two back that there was a slight swell just above her vent. After a few days this swell was bigger so after having a friend come look at her we decided that it was best to get her in. I took her to a local state of the art vet (client of mine) and he sono'd her as well as x-ray'd her. After reviewing the pics and having the University of Illinois exotic animal vet come in, we decided that somehow she was constipated. I keep her on newspaper and only newspaper so she did not ingest anything.

We proceeded to get her an enema which helped lube things and the vet then inserted his finger in and slowly massage a rather large piece of feces to her vent. He then used a very blunt pair of scissors to decrease the size of the feces which worked. 3 very hard pieces of feces came out. These were VERY hard chunks as I could barely make an indentation in them. The xray showed that the other pieces remaining were smaller so we thought it was best to see if she could pass those on her own. I took her home on Friday and soaked her for an hour or so several times a day. As of this morning she has not passed anything.

My question is this, where do we go from here? I do not want to have surgery performed due to the risk of contamination since we are dealing with feces. Is there a stool softener that I can give her orally? My snake room is inbetween 50-60 in humidity and I have her water dish on the flexwatt tape. I have always had great sheds from my animals. I am simply at a loss as how to proceed. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Griz [/griz]

UPDATE: I did, on advice from my vet, load a f/k small rat with 3cc of mineral oil and fed it to her a week ago. Nothing as of yet. She does still pass small bird like droppings but nothing sizeable. She still acts fairly normally and appears healthly other than the noticeable swell above her vent. What should I do from here? A buddy suggested tubing her and administering mineral oil straight to the stomach but I don't know if this is the best result. I could do the enema again and see what happens but what I do know is that if I do nothing she will die. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Griz

Hey Griz, my response is kind of taudry and I know other will have much better thoughts.

I'm curious about her activity level. If the smaller pieces can be passed, getting her moving around would naturally help move these out.

I was thinking about the mineral oil before I got to that part of the post....they use it in horses with colic and they tube feed it to them.....but obvously these horses are not snakes.

I am also thinking of something you could possibly feed to a feeder mouse and then feed to her that might ease passing the poop. Perhaps feeding up a mouse on some kind of squash and bird seed?

There are also many human laxatives out there that are just in pill form...perhaps upon confering with a vet you could pop a pill into a mouse and send it down. I had major abdominal surgery a number of years ago, and they gave me laxative pills so that I would not bust my sutures going potty. (not that anyone would want to know that!!)

I'm thinking that the best thing to do now is heat, soaking, and get her moving around as much as you can. Even if you can get her climbing up and over things....all that movement should help move stuff a bit.

I'm sure someone else has better suggestions. Kelly

Trying the enema again is not a bad idea, if the clog is near her vent it may help.

I remember reading this about iguanas and it may be worth a try; soak your boa for at least 20 minutes in warm water, then for about 10-20 minutes, while she is still in the warm water, gently rub down her belly to help pass the clog. This may even be good to do with the enema, all this at once may just plop the mess right out.

The squash is a natural laxative in lizards, so it might help too. I would suggest injecting some of the squash in a mouse just before you feed your boa. Good luck.

Any update on the constipation? I hope all is well.

I have used mineral oil with success in the past. You can even do an enema with mineral oil as it is compeltely inert and it will lubricate more the lower G.I. tract. Try lukewarm water baths, that usually works very well.

Good luck!

Quick update. I administered 5cc of mineral oil via stomach tube and within 2 days and 2 warm baths she passed 5 golf ball size stools. Very hard ones too. She is now well on her way to recovery. Thanks for the advice and concern!

Griz

Awesome, that is great.

Glad to hear that Bob!

Regards.

Outstanding!