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Eggbound Hognose, help!

S

skinofsin

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My females first time breeding has resulted in 4 healthy eggs, 1 slug, and 1 eggbound egg. We have tried leaving her alone for a few days in her nesting box, we have aspirated the egg (it was HUGE), we've given her a small meal, and taken her to the vet who gave her calcium and oxytocin injections. None of which have worked. She is still active and alert, she passed her meal no problem, if anything it's almost as if she's forgotten it's there! Does anyone know of anything else we can try? Surgery is an obvious last resort.
 
You can try letting her swim, in bathtub with warm (not hot, just a wee above lukewarm) water, a few times in a day.
It could encourage the passing of the egg (shell).
If this does not help, after what has already been done, surgery just may be your only option.
 
We tried baths but she's not to fond of them. The egg was not fully aspirated, we took 3oz out of it and it's still a visible bump. Egg is about an inch and a half from her vent. We have tried gently massaging it down but it's not moving, how long does it take for the egg to fuse? Also, I've heard stories of eggs being re absorbed, but also of them decomposing and killing the snake. Either of these happen to anyone and how long did it take?
 
You could try the following:

* Get a sexing probe and highly lubricate it with KY Jelly.
* Stick the probe slightly into the cloaca and make small, gentle, circular movements with the probe. This is to open up the cloaca.
* After the cloaca relaxes, & opens up, carefully stick the probe in until you reach the egg.
* Gently go all around the egg, with the probe, to lube up the egg.
Note: Even better is if you are able to get a catheter where you can, Also, inject some KY around the egg & passageway.
* With the probe still inserted, against the egg (be sure, by feel, it's against the egg and not against membrane), gently massage the egg down toward the cloaca.
* When at the cloaca, the egg can just be popped out.

If this is unsuccessful, or egg will not move down, get her to a vet. Surgery will, very likely, be in the cards if this procedure fails.

As an aside, I do worry about an infection if any egg contents leaked out inside of your girl.
You may want to get antibiotics, from your vet, as a prophylactic measure.
 
We did see a youtube video of someone doing that but didn't have the probe to attempt it. We're taking her back to the vet tomorrow and will ask if they could try that for us. XX
thank you
 
Good News!

Well we took her back to the first vet. She said they didn't have the experience to attempt an extraction confidently, gave me a recommendation of two other vets who specialise, and didn't charge me for the visit. She was lovely and told me to keep in touch and let her know how it went.
Took my girl to another clinic, the vet on that day wanted to get her into surgery right away, while she was still so healthy. She said to bring her back in the morning so she could spend all day there. The next day I had work, so I brought her in the day after. There was a different vet on that day, he took one look at her and said he could extract it easily, no surgery needed! Lucky! An hour later the egg was out and she was ready to bring home!
So instead of costing me $2k and having her reproductive tract taken out in surgery, It cost $500 all up with a perfectly happy and healthy snake :)
Now I know, ALWAYS GET A SECOND OPINION!
Thank you everyone for your recommendations and advice xxx
 
I'm glad to hear that everything went well. Did the vet aspirate the contents of the egg to allow it to pass?

By the way, kudos to the first vet for admitting that she didn't have enough reptile experience to attempt the procedure!
 
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