Need advice on a constipated boa

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

Do you soak her on a daily basis? Interesting delima, I have not incountered such a problem before. The only thing I can think of that you can do would be to soak her in warm water every day.

None of my animals have dishes large enough to soak in. I have never seen nor felt the need. I have never had this issue either. I am soaking her twice daily since Friday but I really need her to pass these before I even remotely feel better.

Griz

try putting her in a sterilite box with water, and putting the box in her cage (half on the heat). leave her in there for about 12 hrs. that usually seems to get them to *ahem* release.
Hopefully, no damage was done during the exam, exploration, and massage. If there had been a perforation prior to the xray, it should have been noticed (unless, perhaps, it was new and/or small). I did have a similar experience a number of years back with a young tiger retic. (I hope your outcome is better than mine was)

Harald, did you mean actually allowing her to soak in the water for 12 hours or did you simply mean to make sure that I put a dish of water in the sterilite with her? Just trying to figure out if you are implying for me to soak her for 12 hours or to simply make her enclosure much smaller for 12 hours.

She still has not eliminated and I am at a loss. I do not want to have surgery done. My vet thought that by feeding her that this might stimulate her to eliminate but if it does not then we have compounded the problem. Just at a loss.

Griz

Originally Posted by dutchoven

Harald, did you mean actually allowing her to soak in the water for 12 hours or did you simply mean to make sure that I put a dish of water in the sterilite with her? Just trying to figure out if you are implying for me to soak her for 12 hours or to simply make her enclosure much smaller for 12 hours.

Griz - the 12 hrs was not necessarily a specific thing, but yes - enclosed in a container of water (not too deep) for an extended period of time. (it really isn't much different than a snake soaking in its water bowl overnite) I put mine in during the afternoon, and out when I get home from work in the morning.

Originally Posted by dutchoven

She still has not eliminated and I am at a loss. I do not want to have surgery done. My vet thought that by feeding her that this might stimulate her to eliminate but if it does not then we have compounded the problem. Just at a loss.
Griz

You need to be careful - if the snake is impacted, and you put more food in the other end, you could end up perforating the bowel. it kind of depends on the degree of obstruction - if it will move, the feeding may help, but if it doesn't move... There is something you can give to help "lubricate" the tract, hopefully when I wake up later I'll be able to recall what it is.
Good luck

Griz,
A book titled "What's wrong with my snake" by John & Roxanne Rossi has a few other options for your situation such as a small quantity of mineral oil (one milliliter per kilogram of body weight) administered through a stomach tube. Or even injecting a Dead rat with the appropriate dose of mineral oil - commonly called "Rat Lax".
Their is more information on how to prevent constipation. It's a small book ,but a good one.
Hope this helps, Mike Derks

Mike, I appreciate the advice! I will have to check it out.

I tried soaking her for the 12 hours and nothing. She is still giving off everynow and then bird like droppings but nothing solid. I have thought about the mineral oil administered through an oral syringe but have been nervous about doing so. I have to do something as it's starting to be way too long.

Griz

Griz,
The book is only about $20.00
Copyright 1996 by "Advanced Vivarium Systems, Inc."
Rossi and Rossi
"What's Wrong With My Snake?"
Part of the "Herpetocultural Library"
I don't know how big she is but if you do feed, I'd feed smaller than usual food items. I also read somewhere that F/T food items are dryer internally than Live. I feed mine F/T and have not had any constipation problems, But if your cool side is too cool and the snake spends most of its time on the heat, that can bake the fecal matter turning it into a fecal stone. The warm water soaks for 20 - 30 minutes and raising the humidity within the cage may help. Hope she does well for you.
Mike Derks

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