I found what looks to be a fair amount of blood in my dwarf boas urine today. He was also unusually cordial with me. He’s usually an i-hate-your-guts type of snake, but he let me take him out without a fuss.
He has an exotic vet. He gets bi-yearly check-ups and visits as needed just like the rest in my collection. The one thing they haven’t checked him for is parasites tho and that’s the first thing im seeing when i look up what causes blood in reptile droppings. There was no actual stool in this though so there isn’t even a proper sample i can provide to the vet. There’s always the chance that’s it’s not that at all and there’s something wrong in GI. I’m not entirely sure what to do from here, so I’d like your guys advice. Should i wait for him to have a full bowel movement so i can collect a sample before i take him in just to be thorough? Is there anything i can do for him at home besides keeping him clean, de-stressed, and hydrated? Im familiar with at home mitigatory treatments for ri, but not for anything involving GI or parasites. Thanks in advance
Oh and I’m supposed to be feeding him tomorrow. Not sure if that’s a good idea anymore…
Looks like you are doing the right thing so far, by keeping him on paper towels and quarantine style for now. I don’t have a ton of helpful suggestions, but unless he is from wild caught or housed next to imported/wc animals I would think a serious parasitic infection not very likely. Maybe gi like you think or urinary infection type of thing. If you are breeding or he is in that mode make sure he doesn’t have any kind of slight prolapse or other problem with his hemipines. You can wait a few days if he doesn’t decline drastically, but since he was acting differently for you already you may want to take him in sooner. Good luck! Please update us.
So the exotic hospital near me is at capacity currently, they aren’t accepting any more emergency patients and their primary department is booking out for early February. I have to call my primary vet in the morning and see what the availability is like over there so fingers crossed.
I’m gonna check in on him in the morning too and we’ll see if he’s returned to his spunky satanic self or not.
So he and all of my animals are captive bred. I do have one rescue of unknown origin but he’s quarantined away from the other snakes in a separate room. Alister here is a retired breeder, I don’t have much info on his breeding history at his old home other than his keeper changed breeding plans and didn’t need him anymore. He’s about 6 years old now, and i did give him a general checkover and there isn’t any blood around the vent nor any prolapse. He does have some bumps in his intestines but I know that i haven’t seen him poop since his feeding last time, so im not sure.
Do you still have the paper towels? Sometimes a stain on a paper towel can be examined by a trained professional eye to see if anything can be ascertained. Possibly. You could maybe drop off the towel sample at your reptile vet and even though your snake can’t be seen maybe the sample could be analyzed.
Animals in the wild can hide illnesses for quite a while and I think it is the same for domesticated animals as an innate part of their nature. If his demeanor has changed there’s a good chance something is going on. Also If he has been a reliable eater but now refuses food, I would not tarry too long to seek medical attention for him…… but that’s just me……
Best of luck to you and btw, he is gorgeous!
If you can feel lumps in his lower belly, they should be moving closer to the vent ina day or two if it is fecal. A couple other thoughts were, impaction of bedding. Is he normally kept on paper or substrate? Also it may be a good idea to make sure he doesn’t get dehydrated, either with a electrolyte soak or a shallow Luke warm soak, this may also help with any kind of constipation which might be a contributing factor. Also @caron had a great idea, seeing if the paper towels can be looked at.
Blood in urine is usually one of those that I suggest a vet visit for, especially since he’s captive bred with no known parasite exposure. You said bumps in his intestines…This is a bit of a red flag for me. When was the last time he ate and passed fecal material? If the bumps are about 2/3 down his body, firm, and unmoving, I’d be worried about possible kidney issues or impaction.
I still have the paper towels, and he is still eating for me. I mentioned I am supposed to feed him today, but I’m not so sure i should if there’s something going on down there right now.
He is kept on paper towel currently. I mentioned that i moved recently in a different post. A couple of my animals are still in sterile tub setups because of that and Alister is one of them. Keep in mind that I’m not particularly good at checking for lumps yet so I’m not extremely confident in what i felt. (Which to me is all the more reason to have someone with more experience do it.) He fights me a lot by flexing as i check him and i don’t want to push on him too hard so it’s difficult to get a good idea of what’s going on in there. I tried to check again a little bit ago but he was really flexing on me today so i couldn’t feel anything. I just put him in a lukewarm soak tho and he seems to be doing well with that.
He ate last week, and has yet to poop. He eats small rats.
Primary for the win!
His normal vet is squeezing him in tomorrow morning. 
So glad they could get you in, especially since they know him. Do let us know what they find, I hope everything is all good and it’s nothing to fret over!
I would say no……
Yay!!! That is GREAT NEWS! Let us know what the verdict is! 
Yes let the vet do the hard work! Lol
Holding off feeding until seen would be best. Since it will be tomorrow.
SO. UPDATE:
Lots of stuff has been discussed…
Alister appears healthy in every way. She couldn’t even find anything abnormal in his intestines in the exam. Except she definitely does agree that looks like blood on the paper towel.
So we don’t know yet.
But things are getting a little more complicated.
Because apparently this isn’t the first case like this shes seen this week. An acquaintance of mine who owns one of my favorite reptile stores is having this problem as well. Except what their animals have succumbed to is tearing apart their intestinal tract quite literally. And the vet doesn’t know what it is that’s causing it. She said i would have to be really unlucky to have picked it up from there and brought it home, but the coincidence is a little too close for comfort. Especially considering that i had recently visited them and held one of their animals.
One of the other things she thinks it could be, which i would much prefer, is parasites. (Which i mentioned he has never been tested nor treated for prior to this visit.) And for that, were doing a general preventative parasite treatment just to be safe. I’m going to wait a week and a half for the meds to do their thing and then I’m going to attempt to collect a stool sample so they can verify that he’s clean post-med.
Or it could be some kind of infection which is the other most likely thing. For which we are doing a blood draw.
I’ll get the results in 2-4 days depending. She’s going to send me home with antibiotics anyway.
OR it could be none of that and he has some sort of chronic disease affecting one or more of his organs.
We don’t know. 
Currently waiting at a café down the road from the clinic. I’ve been here for hours. It’s pretty cozy though so it’s not all that bad. I’m gonna be honest i love the thorough effort of the vet to diagnose what’s wrong with him and i like the proactive treatment of the parasite possiblity because i felt like it needed to be done anyway, but I don’t know how i feel about throwing blanket antibiotics ontop of all of that. Seems like a bit much for the little guy. But then again, what do i know? I’m not a vet.
Are you getting feeders or cage supplies that may have been in with your little one from that store?
If so that’s a definite concern for cross contamination I think. Could be a parasite or something else from the feeders.
Antiparasitic seems like a great idea for now. Otherwise I’d also be a bit hesitant to start a full spectrum antibiotic without an idea on things yet.
Edit: totally skipped the mention of blood draw while reading. Lol. Good vet. 
I get feeders from RodentPro, so no to that thankfully. I did get a bunch of hides and substrate from there on my last visit. What’s weird to me is that none of that stuff was used in his tub. And it’s a basic blood draw for general infection not a full blood graph. I consulted with the vet whether it would be a good idea to just do the full graph just in case it is anything on the list of more unlikely causes. Specifically the ‘maybe he just has a disease’ kind of unlikely cause. She considered it, but steered me toward the regular blood draw anyway.