Hydrocephalum. Whitelipped tree viper

[ugo]

To cut short a long story, it happened that i noticed a -comparatively- high value of the blood sugar level in 1 of my pregnant females withelipped ntree vipers (Cryptelytrops -Trimeresurus- albolabris) at first third of pregnacy. (They hadn't received any diabetogenic drugs). Given that this occurrence could evolve into some offsping's pathologies ( hydrocephalus,amongst those) I asked for advices either to an English small Forum i was a membership, and on face book, and also to ARAV by e-mail.
No replies, a part from a few laughs and some sillities like :"Why -or How- did u collect blood samples?".
ok, for several reasons i decided it was better don't treat and it worked well to turn the diet from mice on lizards and frogs.
Anyway something happened and 1 of the new-born snakes showed hydrocephalus and the lambda suture of its skull failed to close.
As for fecal examinations either of the herps and of the food (that i hope every responsible Keeper is able to perform routinary by her/him-self) i strongly advice for random routinary blood-chemistry examinations.

ps : micro-biopsy, after the delivery, showed pancreas cells of the 'mum' were normal.

[marvelfreak]

Oh my! I don't even no what to say. My best wishes for the little guy. Is there anyway they can do surgery to help it?

[stephanbakir]

Wow, thats a hell of a birth defect. Is that brain matter?

[jarich]

I could be wrong, but that looks like a dead baby to me. And that would be brain, yes. If the lambdoidal suture didnt close on development, then the brain would continue growing and push out of the skull.

Sorry for your loss Ugo, but great job in keeping such close watch over your animals. Getting blood from a tree viper must be an interesting ordeal!

[alessia55]

aw, poor little thing :( Did all the others turn out ok?

[SpOoKy]

I could be wrong, but that looks like a dead baby to me.

i was going to say the same thing. looks like the last part of him on the second pic is upturned, not something you see on a live healthy snake. sorry about how things turned out for you :(

[stephanbakir]

i was going to say the same thing. looks like the last part of him on the second pic is upturned, not something you see on a live healthy snake. sorry about how things turned out for you :(
Its not uncommon in hatchlings, takes them a while to gain their bearings, especially if you pull em from the egg (DONT)

[shaunyboy]

i'm sorry to hear of the health issues with your hatchlings

thanks for sharing mate

this is a very informative and interesting thread you wrote

cheers shaun

[KORBIN5895]

Whats the dark spot under back of the snake in the first pic?

[ugo]

Thanks Everybody

the baby was living, i euthanized him: at the best of my knowledge, there was nothing to attempt.
It was a small offspring of 6 live and 7 slugs : possibly cuz of the young age of the 'mum'.
The other 5 are going very well now, after some troubles U will read about in another paper i'll post later.

[alessia55]

Well I'm glad to see that the remaining 5 are OK!!

[bladeblaster]

interesting read, and gorgeous babies