Probably Egg shaped hunk of Mucus/Caseous material more...

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Posted by Tecknovore on October 16, 2002 at 21:24:28:

In Reply to: Holy crap! Read this and help! posted by deathstalker on October 15, 2002 at 11:24:23:

First off, cut it in half and finally prove whether it is or isn't an egg. My bet is that its color and texture are uniform all the way through, therefore ruling out the egg possibility. The preceding behavior, and the fact that it came from his mouth, makes me think he was struggling to dislodge an airway blockage. I've seen this in my own snakes a few times and this is usually the case, especially with rear fangs, who almost categorically are WC and full to the brim with parasites. I say this because on at least one of the occasions I had this happen with one of my snakes, the caseous mass expectorated had visible worms in it, I'm assuming they were a kind of lungworm. Lungworms can effect a snake like this as can I'm sure various respiratory infections. A snake cannot cough well, or reach its fingers in its mouth to pull out a chunch of slime it did work up, so usually it has to fling it out by whipping its head to and fro. Since its a cheap snake, and most likely won't be taken to a vet, I would treat it like an RI with raised temps, vitamin C supplementation, and low stress to give its own body the strength to fight it off. Most people would recommend antibiotics, but I would only recommend them to a snake free of parasites, because the parasites will take advantage of the snakes lowerer immune system it will recieve from the antibiotics, and you'll just trade one problem for another. If the snakes are still healthy enough, a moderate battery of panacur, flagyl, etc would probably do more good than harm.

It sounds like you're still feeding live anoles to them too, and in the wild its fine for them to constantly be eating little packages of reptile specific parasites that lizards are, but in the high stress environment of captivity the constant ingestion of more parasites in addition to their own will be too much, except for the very strongest, hence the insanely high mortality rates of snakes like this. I don't know, this is my two cents, try it out as its the most probable cause, not an egg.

:Hello everyone. I have 10 snakes, including 3 Asian Green Vine Snakes, Ahaetulla prasina, and a Malayan Vine Snake, Ahaetulla mycterizans. Two of my three prasina are JV at about 2-2.5' long, and one of them regurgitated what looks like an egg!!! This egg (or "egg") is about 1/4" and an off-white with very faint ridges or lines the length of the egg.

:He has not eaten since 10/1/02--been a couple weeks, I know, but I couldn't obtain any anoles until today--and has never regurgitated anything since I've had him, which has been since last February.

:I've kept the two JV prasina together since I got them in February, and like I said, they're about 2-2.5' long. I'm wondering if they're sexually mature and thus possibly copulated...? But if so, the dag snake laid an egg through it's mouth!!!!! If this actually is an egg, that is; I mean, it looks absolutely NOTHING like regurgitated food--it looks like an egg!!! And besides, he hasn't eaten since 10/1/02 and crapped his crap. BUT WHAT IS THIS?!?!?!

:I guess I should also mention the scene because I actually saw the whole thing! (They're enclosure is a foot away from my computer desk.) First, he was hanging from a branch so that about 1/4 of his body was on the ground; then, he--or she--started convulsing and twisting its body, more side-to-side but was even upside down at one point! Then, I saw something coming forward thinking it was somehow regurgited food, but then an egg freakin' popped out! It was odd as all get-out! And it happened right after I came back downstairs from coughing of swallowing my saliva down the wrong tube, and it was the worst one in all my 18 years--I couldn't even breathe and struggled for the upstairs!

:Could it be that an anole laid an egg in the snake however long ago and just now the snake has reurgitated it? Or is this a method of egg-laying although they're have been no more since the first and when I started typing this post right after? Or is it a most unusual fluke? Just what could this be?!

:And as a note, right after this odd happening, the snake resumed to itself normal self and looked right at me when I performed my lizard-mimicking eye "tricks" to it. He's back up on his branch now...

:If possible, I will try to take a picture of this egg-like thing and try to get it scanned somewhere--my scanner is unavailable at the time.

:Someone please give some input! Thanks!

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