Very Bad News...Long Post :-(((

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Posted by Dryguy on March 27, 2003 at 17:44:54:

Well, my egg-bound 1st clutch girl died last night...Still had not passed the last 3 eggs...Short Chronicle..
...egg-bound after first 4 eggs
...I manually expressed 3 more over next 24 -48 hrs
...next used calcuim, manual lubrication, warm soaks, increased temps,etc..without success
....took her to the only vet in my state (CO)who is competent and frequently cares for herps(his main practice)

My goal was to be conservative, avoid surgery and save her fertility..
He agreed, consulted with Mader, and many others..All counselled continue conservative treatment..Seen by the Vet School in Boulder and their Herp specialists, all in agreement...Proceed to additional Calcium, Oxytocin (followed by Arginine Vasopressin which has been studied in reptiles and he ordered from overseas for her)added Prostiglandins and she continued to seem vigorous...

Performed ovo-centesis which collapsed the blocking egg...

Continued therapy as above with drugs, Calcium, supplemental nutrion....

She did move all 3 eggs down to the cloaca, but would never pass them...Died last night...

He is going to do the scientific thing and present her case at a reptile vet conference this weekend and "write it up"

I received many suggestions when this started...The one that I wish I had done and didn't(I think we did everything else) was to PUSH TO GET THEM OUT NOW!!!! I must take some fault,as I continually expressed my desire to avoid surgery due scarring and infertilty to Dr itzgerald..He was following my desires and freely admitted that the science is not good concerning the reproductive strategies for these animals when dystocia presents itself...(during the time he had her, he was delivering, successfully, a 250 lb egg-bound crocodile and several sulcata's and other herps...It's not like he didn't know what he was doing....

I should have followed my instincts (and Phil's or JG's, I forgot who said get them out fast!! first)

So,guys with first clutch girls...Be prepared in advance, find your vet or a vet, and my advice is tell him to get the eggs out now!!!! I think my putting it off 4 days(he was out of town until the 5th day)didn't help, but I pushed him to be conservative...And he thought he was doing the right thing too, backed by other experts in the field...

Needle ovocentesis, preceeded by loading dose of antiobitic...Baytril, gentimicin, etc to try to prevent egg-yolk peritonitis and then suck the damn egg contents out and don't wait is my sad advice....

I wish the rest of you luck and success..I still have another girl to go, but this young gal was so pretty..Elliot and Skow bloodlines,etc. etc....
I'm in Texas right now, but will be returning to Colorado tomorrow...Very Sad Dryguy

Follow Ups:

Re: Very Bad News...Long Post :-((( A.C. 03/28/03 (0)
Advice 'duely noted' thanx for sharing sorry about your loss D Goudie 03/28/03 (0)
Sorry about your loss, thanks for sharing your experience gila7150 03/28/03 (0)
Very Sorry DG...When you have recovered... DeanAlessandrini 03/28/03 (0)
Re: Very Bad News...definitely succs... regalringneck 03/28/03 (0)
Sorry to hear about your loss DryGuy... pweaver 03/27/03 (0)
Re: Very Bad News...Long Post :-((( bobl 03/27/03 (0)
Re: Very Bad News...Long Post :-((( GregH 03/27/03 (0)