Advice Please - Regurgitation and Mouth Swelling

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Posted by RedFeather on May 08, 2003 at 12:28:52:

Hey guys, I woke up this morning to find an unhappy snake. He has regurgitated his meal, which was fed to him on Monday around 9pm. Now, a friend of mine has quite a snake collection and he says that it's not unusual for his grey-band kingsnake to regurge it's meal just before it sheds and my Hogg here is certainly shedding very soon. In the next day or two perhaps. Is this a common occurence in boas? Or at least documented occurence?

My other worry is what appears to be swelling in the throat and lower jaw area, which is pictured above. I took a look inside his mouth and saw no pus or visibly reddened flesh, sores, etc... so I am wondering if this is perhaps an effect of the regurgitation.

I have also heard that overfeeding can cause regurgitation. His current max girth is about a three inch circumference. I feed him a fuzzy frozen-thawed rat every week. They are roughly his girth, with a few being just a bit bigger, but not massively so. Do you think I could be overfeeding him?

He is handled very regularly, though has never hissed or snapped at anyone. I do not think he would be stressed, but I would assume stress would show itself in the form of a bad temper. Please correct me if I am incorrect.

His temps are 95 in the hot end, 87 or so in the cool end. He has and UTH and a heat lamp on a timer and is very often very warm when I take him out so I don't think temperature is a problem. I mist him everyday to keep the humidity up, though it usually revolves around 50%. I may purchase a humidifier to help.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions (i.e. see a vet immediately) please let me know. I appreciate your help.

Julie
Texas

Follow Ups:

Advice Please - Regurgitation and Mouth Swelling audri 05/08/03 (7)
- I don't think that's the issue... RedFeather 05/08/03 (6)
  - I don't think that's the issue... Dayve 05/08/03 (0)
  - Temp is to Warm boamorphs 05/08/03 (4)
    - Gus has said.... RioBravoReptiles 05/08/03 (1)
      - Gus has said.... RedFeather 05/08/03 (0)
    - One more question RedFeather 05/08/03 (0)
    - Temp is to Warm RedFeather 05/08/03 (0)