When hybrids quit eating...

[SNSnakes]

Originally Posted by Kiote9
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Thank you Scott. I hope he doesn't have anything serious. If he does then everyone in the rack will get it. He could be old, but I don't have any idea because he was traded around so much that I don't know where he came from. I got him at a show for $20 about a year and a half ago.

Your other snakes may be fine. Crypto has to be spread by physically touching infected feces and then touching something else. It doesn't "crawl" from one place to the other. It is NOT an airborne illness. The biggest risk is when you cleaned the sick snake's cage and then went right to the next cage to clean without disinfecting your hands or the cleaning tools (if you use something).

There's another parasitic illness that causes snakes to regurge too, but I forgot what it's called. One symptom of this other illness is a swollen belly. It looks like they ate a small mouse (lump) when, in fact they haven't eaten anything. This parasite causes the lining of their stomach to inflame and swell...causing them to regurge anything they eat. I can't remember if it's curable or not.

The only thing you can do (short of going to the vet), is to watch him and offer him much smaller meals for the next month or two.

[Kiote9]

One of my friends said he has some flagyll that he can give me to see if that takes care of the parasite load in case thats the trouble. He said that or panacur may solve the issue.

Thank you for all the information. I was getting very worried about my snakes. When I clean their tubs I take them out one at a time and wash the tubs with hot soapy water, disinfect them, dry them and reline them with newspaper, then put the snakes away. All the water dishes are washed afterward and if they are nasty they go through the dishwasher. The hides are washed individually with the tub they came from.

I offered him a live rat pup today which he refused, then a live mouse pink and he didn't even look at it. He is very active, very slender...he isn't skinny, just thinner than he was.

[SNSnakes]

Ok, you can try the Flagyl and Panacur and see if it helps. Neither one is water soluble so it may be difficult to administer. You can try dosing him with the appropriate dosage in a syringe mixed with water (it won't dissolve, but the water can act as a carrier), and push it down his throat to squirt it out. Or you can put the medicine under the skin of a dead rodent, but that only works if he's eating. Flagyl will also increase his appetite. He doesn't look too bad right now.

Sounds like good hygiene to me. Do you also give the snake a soapy once over every now and then too? They sometimes crawl through their feces and sometimes a bit will smear on them. I like to take a paper towel sprayed with Clorohexidine (the cleaner of my choice) and wipe them down as I remove them from their cage.

Before you do anything with the medicines, maybe you should just increase his heat a little and see if he eats. It was way too cold for the past 2-3 weeks...maybe his cage got too cold and that's why he regurged.

I'm just taking guesses here. It's really hard to say what's wrong.

[Kiote9]

The heat is good. He is in the top drawer of the rack and is about 6 feet off the floor on the stack of racks. He was in a cooler, larger tank but when he started having the feeding issues I moved him. My home has been 72 degrees even through the cold. (We are in a third floor apartment.)

Casey said there is a suspension solution you can get and to eyedropper the fluid down the snakes throat. I have (a lot of) experience with force feeding and assist feeding so am comfortable with the idea of oral meds.

I haven't heard of washing the snake. I put them in the bath to swim on occasion, but with just water. I did olive oil him down once because a couple of snakes came into my home with mites and I touch him after I handled them. They all got a nice bath, oiled, and put into new clean container while I washed their houses. I never saw a mite on Zannen, but I wanted to make sure because he is such a picky eater. Haven't seen a mite since, either.

I lost my computer file that had feeding/shed records from mid October through mid December but his last recorded shed was October 16th and it was a good complete one.

We had him out yesterday and he is just a zippy guy. Hopefully he eats soon.

[SNSnakes]

Cool! yeah, hopefully he'll start eating again now that it's warmer out.

I started wiping down my snakes a while ago and do it mostly to my bigger ones like the Argentines that are on Kraft paper. When they crap, it's BIG and they tend to run through it. Also, when I open the cage, I present the Chlorohexidine soaked paper towel to their face so they smell it and know it's NOT dinner time...LOL!