BP ate a piece of substrate

[Cake]

My BP missed the mouse when feeding and got a mouthful of substrate(bark). I went and grabed a set of tweezers to pull the bark out of its mouth but but the time i got back he had just finished swallowing a small peice. I know he will be unable to digest the bark, and im wondering if it could cause any serious effects. He did feed emidiatly after injesting the bark. It has been about a week now and he has not produced any excrement. This suggests that his intestine may be blocked, or paritially blocked.

Does anyone have any suggestions or any experience with a similar situation?

Thanks

[daver676]

How big was the piece? If it was large enough to block pasage of waste, you'd better head to the vet.

I've lost count of the number of times people have said "Don't feed on loose substrate". Apparently it's still falling on deaf ears. :rolleyes:

[emroul]

I would agree if it was big enough to block waste passage, he needs to get to the vet. Also, from now on feed him outside of his enclosure on plain newspaper or paper towels so this does not happen again. If he is one of those snakes that won't eat outside of his enclosure, consider changing the substrate to paper towels or newspaper; or when it is feeding time, cover the loose substrate with paper towels or newspaper so that is what he is laying on while feeding.

Jennifer

[tHeGiNo]

It has been about a week now and he has not produced any excrement. This suggests that his intestine may be blocked, or paritially blocked.

That most definitely does not suggest blocked intestines. It sometimes takes them months to defecate. However, if the peice ingested was fairly large, I would strongly recommend a vet check.

[Cake]

Thanks for the info guys. Luckely enough he defecated yesterday, found if this morning. He is one of thoose sankes that will not eat outside of his enclosure. the peice was not very large maybe 3mmX5mm. It was just a little sketchey. Luckily enough i think he passed it out to, there was a fairly hard protion in the feces.

I will take the advice to feed on paper towel/newspaper next time and hope that this never happens agian.

Thanks again for the advice

[JonD]

Snakes ingest all sorts of stuff in the wild, they are quite capible of swallowing the odd piece of dirt or substrate.

[Syco]

I've wondered about this too, no one lays down a piece of newspaper or paper towel for wild snakes. I'm sure they ingest small pieces of bark, dirt and such when they are feeding. Are we worrying too much about this or is it that we are just not aware of how many wild snakes die of impaction? I guess it's best we don't take the chance with our snakes.

[Cake]

Thats the same thing i was thinking, im sure that wild snakes eat all kinds of stuff in a whole range of sizes. Small mammals are generally fairly quick and even the best predator will miss and get a mouthfull of something ocasionally. Im pretty sure that snakes are unable to digest cellulose and lignen(the two major components in bark). It just comes down to whether or not they can pass it through their systems.

The peice my ball ate was fairly small and i checked his feces and it seems that he passed it through. Its was a little scary becuase this had never happened before to me, so i thought it was best to ask you guys if you knew anything about it.

I also asked the herpatology prof at my school and he said as long as he passes it you have nothing to worry about.

But it always better to be safe then sorry so from now on its paper towel down when I feed.