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Milk snake not acting well

S

Snoopysmom

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I bought a baby pueb. milk snake a few months ago. I noticed a couple days ago that he is not acting like he usually does. Acting sluggish. Usually when I pick him up he is very active trying to escape and now is acting very docile. He has been also laying on top of the substrate instead of burrowing. He's refused his pinkies the last couple of weeks... it is not unusual for him to refuse a meal but several in a row is unusual. This morning when I checked to see if he had eaten last nights offering (resorted to the smallest, just born pinkie I had) I noticed that his tail is looking "pinched". Like he is dehydrated? He had not eaten the pinkie.

His cage is set up with a cool end and a warm end. The warm end is about 85 deg. Substrate is aspen bedding. He has access to water (even though I've never seen him drink) and he's been getting offered two pinkies a week and has eaten most of them up until a couple weeks ago... he has since refused 5 offerings. He does not look like he is heading in for a shed.

Any ideas?
 
Have you tried actually picking up the snake and directing it's head to the water? If so, did it drink?
 
I did... I held it over the where it would have been in easy reach. It did put it's nose in the water but he's so small that it was hard to tell if he was actually drinking or aspirating. I left it there a couple of seconds then put him on the warm side of his cage. Since then he as curled up a little but has not tried to go back to the water. I can offer him water again the same way... see if he will drink.?
 
You wouldn't happen to be able to snap and post a pic of the enclosure and the baby, would you? OH, obvious question too, when's the last time he has shed?
 
Yup, can do. I'll go try to get one now. He has shed one since I got him in Feb... that was toward the end of march I think.
 
milksnakecage.jpg


milksnaketail.jpg


milksnakehead.jpg


The side with the tube is the warm side. I tried to get a close up of his tail so that you could see the "pinched" look. The tub is a 27 qt sterlite with a heating pad under one side. Like I said... temp on the warm side is around 85 deg. I just checked temp this morning.
 
Sorry Michele, but I am at a complete loss on this one...someone else may be able to suggest something, but a vet visit may be in order, especially with that tail issue.....
 
Alas... I am now one snake less. Had a vet appointment yesterday at 4pm. Got home around 3 to pick up the snake and he was dead. :( The vet said that many different diseases had dehydration as a symptom so without a autopsy we may never know what caused it. I guess I'll be disinfecting the heck out of everything.

I just have the worst luck with babies. I've only had three over the past 7 years. The first one is doing great (snoopy)... the second was a black rat snake I ordered from FL. He died a day after I got him. And now the eastern milk snake. I think from now on maybe I'll just make sure they are at least a year old before I bring them home. :rolleyes:
 
Oh, I forgot about the baby cal king I bought that escaped. Haven't found him and have no idea if he is alive or dead.
 
I feel terrible for your snakes, honest. First of all, it isn't right to use too many artificial things like the hides and the water container. Which brings me to my second point, the water container should have been shorter for easier access. Otherwise it might not have been able to find it. With an enclosure like that, the possibilities of what happened to that milksnake are very broad. Maybe the paint had something in it that weakened the snake. Maybe it refused to drink because it somehow swallowed some substrate. Or possibly, just possibly the vet was right and it got some disease that had dehydration symptoms. Whatever happened you probably won't find out because the possibilities are near unlimited. I'd suggest giving it a more natural hide like a rock and soil for a substrate regardless of difficult maintenance.
 
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