My Rainbow Boa Talyn seems to be obstructed. She is 6 years old: 7ft long and about 5 lbs.
She has always eaten well (F/T Rats) and defecated within one week after each meal.
She last ate on the 26th of December. I was away from the 28th of December till the 30th of January. My husband took care of all the snakes in my absence.
Her terrarium temps have always been in their usual range and Martin is very good about checking that several times a day. He also changed the water every day but he did not handle Talyn because she can be nasty.
She shed two and a half weeks later, but did not defecate. (That is unusual for her, as she usually passes some stool when she sheds.) According to Martin, she passed urates only once in the month I was gone.
It has now been 6 weeks since she last ate and 8 weeks since she last defecated.
I tried feeding her when I got back... she refused the rat. This was a first: she has never refused a meal. I tried again a week later... another refusal. I have taken her out every evening and soaked her in warm baths for 30+ minutes and massaged her belly. I've let her climb on the stair railings hoping that the "exercise" would get things moving. The vet previously recommended that we try injecting an isotonic solution into her cloaca. We've tried that and she passed a lot of hard urates and fluid and that encouraged me a bit... but that was 4 days ago and still no stool. We tried again this evening but so far only a small amount of urates have been passed.
The second half of her belly does not seem full...but her upper belly seems quite hard -- that worries me the most. I'm now afraid that she may be obstructed higher up in her digestive tract.
I always feed in a separate plastic container. I don't know of anything that could have caused the obstruction. I injected a bit of water in her throat yesterday since I have not seen her drinking at all since I've returned... not even in the bath -- although she may have drunk and I didn't see it.
If any of you have experience or thoughts on this, I'm all ears. If not, I'd appreciate your good wishes for her anyway.
I have an appointment at the vet for tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed!
