Individuals Prone to Something?

I’m sure it’s a possibility, and genetic yaya to explain it all for a visible defect. I’m curious if an individual can appear normal and sell normal, then later be found as “different”. I have a beautiful female Lesser Cinnamon that I’ve noticed takes a long time between urates and usually has difficulty passing them. There’s been twice I’ve had to give her a warm bath and massage her (recommended by my vet). The first time I left her probably longer than I should have because I didn’t want to jump to conclusions and overreact. The second time wasn’t as bad and neither was the third. I’ve had her 2 months and she’s passed maybe 3 urates on her own, the others got too big. Is she just genetically prone to this? Is this going to be a life time thing? Anyone else have a prone individual?

The white near the end of her tail was the urate she couldn’t pass, this was the first time and it got pretty bad. Poor girl peed a LOT, and stayed in her box defensive towards me for a little while.

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It’s definitely possible. Just like any other kind of animal some muscles could have been underdeveloped in an individual etc. I have heard about hatchlings who couldn’t pass waste and needed help passing until they either got stronger (or didn’t make it :frowning: ), but I haven’t heard about the same problem specifically with urates. Does she poop ok?

The times I’ve had to help her was hard/large urates with poop behind them. She has done just poop with little to no urates and been fine, not looked bulging or uncomfortable.

Do you happen to know if she has had the same issues from the very beginning?

You aren’t using supplements, are you? Calcium powder, etc?

I got her at Repticon and was told that all of their animals were healthy and without problem. No, no supplements, just a f/t mouse or rat pup every Saturday.

what Do you use for their water @bluefeathurs?

I use tap water (from a freshwater spring, used for everything from fish, amphibians, and drinking). All my animals get the same water, from the same type of bowl. If I didn’t know our water is very soft and low in heavy metals and minerals, I would accuse it too.

Ok so probably cross that off although if you can’t isolate anything else you might try switching her for a couple weeks and see if that makes a difference.

What do you suggest switching her to? I know bottled water isn’t ideal for most things and I don’t have water conditioner if I did get something treated.

I don’t know. Would think spring water would be about the best option out there definitely at least AS good as anything else you could use.

Of my 16 snakes and 3 leopard geckos she’s the only one who ever has issues. I can pretty well tell when she’s going to do it, usually after a big meal or when she’s eaten after skipping a week. The first time was after she skipped a week when I first got her and she had a rat fuzzie and a second one the next week. This last time was when I bumped her from live weaned mice to a small rat pup. (she got picky on me and another small girl I have had 3 small pups with no problem)

Maybe try feeding her smaller meals less often? Since snakes don’t actually need to eat a large every week. And is there some sort of natural laxative your vet could recommend? No clue if a laxative would work, but if there is one it is worth a shot right?

Should I back her down to mice? I just put my order in to my rat guy and didn’t get any fuzzy rats. My vet just told me to let him know if warm baths didn’t help and I could meet him. He’s a mobile vet who used to breed balls

Wait why is bottled water bad for snakes? (not to derail) I use it for all 12 of my animals since we do have such hard water that’s been proven to have tons of calcium and such in it.

In the fish world it can have minerals removed and not contain the ones necessary for aquatic life and possibly have chlorine/floride/or other additives that are fine for us but not for sensitive gills and skin. Of course brands and types are different. Idk if snakes are sensitive to it or not but I figured it would be expensive and just not necessarily for some who use conditioner or have well/spring water.

For the most part roughly any fresh water is fine for snakes.

The bottled water lacking minerals thing is certainly true but not at any significant level to have a negative effect. Chlorine evaporates before most snakes get to their water and the small amount isn’t enough to hurt them. Well water can contain some imbalances in minerals and metals but probably fine. I think water sources were a hot topic for snakes for a minute but I’m pretty confident it all came out as pretty equal. :woman_shrugging:

On the topic of water - is the snake in the picture otherwise looking hydrated? Pink tongue, pink gums, good sheds? They release water and salts (the white chalky bits) and dehydration can make that difficult.

I got nothing else. If it’s not from supplements or dehydration… :woman_shrugging: Keep in touch with the vet. Maybe it’s worth getting an X-ray done?

She’s not dehydrated, always soft and smooth, no dry wrinkles. She’s in shed now and it’s the only time I must them, I often catch my snakes drinking or laying a piece of themselves in the water (normally their heads completely submerged lol). I also thaw my feeders in water so they all get a little bit that way too.

I had a trouble female who NEVER pooped! And I mean NEVER, we had her for 6 months and never cleaned a poop from her but she was eating pup every 3 weeks. The vet assured that it was fine and then one day she had a super bad poop butt (what I call it when you can tell they have to go) that last 3 days. On the 4th i took her to the vet who had me do what you did with warm water. From then on she suggested I lubricate all her meals with petrolium jelly and it worked like a charm now she eats and poops fine ( been a year ½). I do have to pre kill a rat, lube it up, and feed it to her though but we dont mind.

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That’s wild. Petroleum jelly who woulda thunk it

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