Retained egg

[bubbaloush]

Our Spotted laid a clutch of 13 eggs and had finished laying so we thought as she had wrapped the clutch.

We took her out and took the eggs out, the eggs are now in the incubator on vermiculite, and seeing the spotted stretched out in her tank we noticed she has one egg left in her that she did not lay. This egg is an inch to two inches from her cloaca.

We were planning on giving her overnight to see if she lays this egg by herself, she is in the nesting box at the moment.

So the advice i am asking is what can we do if she doesn't lay this egg overnight?

We have heard no vet locally would have much experience with this, and would probably want to operate, which we would like to avoid at all costs, cost isn't an issue the health of our snake is our first issue.

Any advice from anyone that has experienced this before would be very appreciatted, or if anyone knows a vet in adelaide (preferrably south of the city) that can deal with this would be very helpful, or if anyone knows if the vets at the zoo would be able to help.


Thanks

 

[Jewly]

I just found a website that might be of help...

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=17&cat=1831&articleid=3010

 

[andyscott]

Great work Jewly.

 

[wil]

massaging the egg out is an option, but should try to be avoided as damage to the cloaca can occur, as a result could see the end of breeding with that snake. best option would be to see the vet if possible, but im sure she will pass it through the night
also keep her pretty warm through the night
cheers wil

 

[bubbaloush]

Thanks for the link Jewly.

wil we are hoping she does lay this egg overnight and it would be the stress free way for her.

 

[wil]

good luck bubba

 

[Dipcdame]

good luck bubba, will you let us know how she goes?????

 

[bubbaloush]

Good news, we just looked and saw the egg!

Am hoping this post will help others that have this problem.

 

[cracksinthepitch]

Great news.

 

[wokka]

Good news, we just looked and saw the egg!

Am hoping this post will help others that have this problem.

Did you see the egg in the snake or out of the snake?

 

[Rosemary]

I would just make sure she has plenty of heat and leave here. I have had several that have retained eggs, and they eventually just pass them. If she does appear distressed, take her to a vet. If massaging you do have to know what you are doing as you could cause more damage.
Good Luck

 

[KaaTom]

WOW thats great news....

 

[Jewly]

Good to hear that she passed the egg with no problems.

 

[RedEyeGirl]

good to here!!!

 

[zobo]

just for future reference for othrs I had this issue once and this is what happened;
Big female coastal laid 12 eggs then had a huge egg stuck in vent area. (with 6 more behind it) Straight to vet and over a few days gave several injections of oxytocin. No change. Then vet collapsed eggs with a syringe and sucked out yolk (huge amount -double normal) then another injection to see if she passed egg. no luck. 5 days after initial lay, she had an operation to remove eggs ($800) and is now all good.
Vet stated 1 week is pretty quick to get eggs out and was very happy with her 'insides' but she had recently done an operation on an another snake someone left for over 1 month and the eggs were rotten in her and she died.
My girl is having ayear off but vet thinks she will bred fine next season.
jas

 

[bubbaloush]

Did you see the egg in the snake or out of the snake?

Wokka when we put her back into her tank we saw a lump in her, so we picked her up and gently felt her and realised it was the retained egg. So we put the nesting box back in and her in the nesting box, checked her later and she was wrapped around one egg. When i took the egg out Damien checked her to make sure there were no more which there isn't.

Rosemary i don't think we would have tried massaging it out ourselves as we wouldn't want to hurt her, and never have done it before we wouldn't want to do it wrong.

zobo, thanks for sharing that, i always thought if they had an operation to remove the eggs then they probably wouldn't be breeding again. If she hadn't of passed the egg overnight we would have gotten her to the vet as soon as we found one that could deal with this today as we had thought waiting longer wasn't the best idea.