possible egg binding/laying difficulties in corn, please help

ineedsoap16 · 06-22-10, 07:09 PM

We paired our corn snakes together a few weeks back, we've been watching her and had a nest box in her enclosure anticipating the clutch (and watching her get chunky)
Nothing seemed to be happening, but when we checked today there was one egg on top but she's still just hanging out like everything is normal, except for how dramatic the bulge gets right above her tail, so we poked around and found a dried out little egg that was underneath everything and had to have been there a while and we didn't notice, but the fresher one was on top and is from sometime today, my husband (I'm not on as myself...) is very concerned and thinks something is wrong so he cut open both, the newer one he said is a slug and doesn't have any indication of viability, but that the smaller one looks to him like it had viable yolk in it (don't know how he came up with it because they looked like two different versions of the same thing to me) but anyway, does this sound like egg binding? and if so is there anything we can do to move her along? any help would be appreciated asap as he's very very distressed about her.
Thanks all
~K (cathatesrudy)

ineedsoap16 · 06-22-10, 07:16 PM

i figured it might help to see the cross sections of the slugs or eggs or whatever, so here's what we found

infernalis · 06-22-10, 07:18 PM

If there are eggs stuck in your snake, get her to a vet ASAP!!!

Egg binding can be fatal if not treated immediately.

ineedsoap16 · 06-22-10, 07:27 PM

the problem is that we don't really know if they are stuck or if she is just being slow or picky about location or just laying out slugs and were hoping for some help, the lower slug in the pic is from today (wasn't there yesterday) so she passed it within the past 24 hours, but what kind of time frame would say that she is indeed not passing them?

infernalis · 06-22-10, 08:36 PM

I just did some research for you, I see that it is recommended that a warm bath may assist the eggs in exiting the snake.

I'll dig into this more later.

Good luck

Bree · 06-22-10, 11:22 PM

A warm veggie oil instillation can also help via the cloaca, however that said, alot depends on how many, and what is actually blocking the evacuation of the egg. If its a large egg that she can't pass, no amount of oil will help...

Is she bulging around the cloaca as if she can't pass the egg? If no, then its not likely she has one 'stuck'. Some snakes can take several days to lay their eggs, while not the 'norm' it does happen.

Best bet though is if this doesn't resolve quickly, to take her to a qualified Herp vet.

cathatesrudy · 06-23-10, 09:41 AM

I'm not gonna pick her up personally since I'm not sure my husband would be ok with that (without approval at least and he's at work now) so I just took a couple of pics of her to post just to see if this looks normal. Since this is our first time (and hers) we aren't sure if what we're seeing is what should be expected or if this looks like something is wrong, so hopefully this will help. I'm sure when he gets home he'll look into some of the other suggestions or maybe decide to just wait it out and settle down on the panic a little. here goes:

Thanks again for the input!
~K

shaunyboy · 06-23-10, 10:26 AM

your vet can give her an injection to induce contractions.this may be the way forward as you dont want to go too long if shes egg bound.ive seen a case with a corn snake where 2 eggs had fused together at a wierd angle it made them nye on impossible for the snake to pass.its not good for the snake if you break any eggs inside her so id go to the vet.he may be able to manipulate them out for you.
cheers shaun

oxitoxcin i think the injections called.but dont quote me on it as im having trouble remembering.
cheers shaun

BlindOne · 06-23-10, 10:28 PM

how long has it been since her pre-lay shed? Egg laying should be 7-15 days after the shed