So, something I was curious about.
I posted on here awhile back about my butter female, who was having issues with swelling in her throat and lower jaw. I took her to the vet, it was found to be an abscess, and it’s been drained and is healing up just fine. She had a checkup today and the vet said it was doing a lot better. Hopefully it’ll be completely gone in the next several weeks.
She’s currently on an oral pain medication and an antibiotic to help her along with recovery.
My question is, does a snake being on antibiotics/medicinal treatment have any affects on breeding? How soon could I try breeding her after she has recovered and stopped taking the meds?
I’d love to breed her this season, but I also want to make the best choice for her. She’s around 2500-2600 grams and has great body condition, so that wouldn’t be a concern in that sense.
I’m perfectly fine with giving her the year off if that’s what would be best for her, since I’d like for her to produce a nice healthy clutch for me.
Either way, I’m still curious to know if anyone has any info on it. I had heard antibiotics had a negative impact on breeding, but I don’t remember where I read it from or if it was a legitimate statement. Google searching hasn’t really brought up any results either.
Although I dont know how long it takes meds to leave a snakes body I do know that it’s better to wait a awhile before breeding if they are on it. A friend of mine had a female that was on medication for a abscess just like what your snake had and when she laid eggs she had all slugs except one egg and she never had any slugs before that and she was bred about 5 or 6 times before that. So I’d say just wait about 2 to 3 months. But as far as killing the snake if you breed her while she is on meds I dont think you need to worry at all about that. I think the worst thing to happen would be that you just may have a higher ratio of slugs from good eggs.
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The thing with ball python is that they are easily stress so having to go through any type of treatment will be stressful and adding the stress of breeding is definitely not something I would add right now, personally if it was my female I would likely wait about 3 months and start pairing in January.
By that time the medicine with be out of her system and stress will be to a minimum.
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@nathan_e @stewart_reptiles
I definitely won’t be pairing her while she’s still receiving treatment, but will likely wait until well after she’s recovered to try pairing her again.
Luckily she’s not one of my more stress-prone snakes, she’s pretty chill and still very trusting of my boyfriend and I despite us poking and grabbing her.
I’ll definitely take the advice to wait until January to pair her, thank you!
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