I thought of that

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Posted by bhijgemann on May 05, 2003 at 17:24:39:

In Reply to: I thought of that posted by JM on May 05, 2003 at 14:32:01:

I don't thing the wound and the gain in weight have anything to do with each other.
I don't know about the wound, I can't see it very well on the photo, but the gain in weight is - as you already thought - probably caused by dehydration. Also, I heard about snakes gaining more weight than they eat, because the mice or rats were dehydrated --> the snake needs to drink more water.
Cheers,
Bas

:I was using a different tub to weigh with today, so when I first saw the drastic increase I thought the same thing. So checked to be sure I had 0-ed out the tare. Then I went and got the same tub I had used on 4-26, 0-ed out the tare and weighed her again.

:She has definatly gained 230 grams in 9 days. During that time she has fed twice....two rat fuzzies per feeding and no defication yet.....but those 4 rat fuzzies were not big enough to equal any 230 gram wieght gain!

:The only thing I can think of was she must have been dehydrated. I'm a bit worried about her too. Today when I weighed her I found a small wound on her back that I had not noticed before. It looks like a bite or a burn (I'm just not sure as I have not seen either a bite or a burn before....I took a pic but my camera is not good enough to show it~
:
: It looks like a small maybe a couple centimeter round ulcerated spot on her dorsal side mid-body. It is possible she had it before and I did not notice, (Was a busy day, I got 4 neonates in the same day) or one of the rat fuzzies I gave her could have nailed her but I didn't see it happen (I prefer not to feed live, but usually wait a few weeks to try and establish a feeding pattern before I try to move new arrivals to F/T)

:I've put neosporin on the wound, and plan to give her a batadine soak later if it doesn't dry up quickly.....but with the rapid increase in wieght as well.........

:I was just wondering if there could be some cause and effect here and I'm just not seeing the connection????????? Seems odd to find the wound AND a rapid unexplained wieght gain....should I be worried or just figure she had been dehyrated?

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