Neck kink from breeding activity??

vanderkm · 04-13-04, 09:48 PM

Has anyone experienced a male snake developing a kink in his neck or back after breeding activity? After his last breeding attempt we noticed a 30 degree bend in our cal king's neck. He has been a very aggressive breeder (more attempts than actual success) and literally wraps himself into knots in his vigor.

We thought it might just be a muscle spasm and he would work it out, but it has persisted for a couple days now. He was not actually injured when breeding (by constriction or anything).

Wondering if anyone else has seen a snake injure himself in this way - and whether they would recover. He is moving fine (and constantly when back in his own tub) and it doesn't seem to bother him, but looks pretty weird.

any suggestions??

mary v.

Stockwell · 04-29-04, 11:20 PM

That's odd Mary! I haven't seen that happen yet but it doesn't surprise me much. They can exert a lot of force. Perhaps a vertebrae has been forced out of position. I don't imagine there is much you can do about it other than hope it pops back into position or heals. Have you tried manually aligning the area by gentle handling?

vanderkm · 05-06-04, 02:54 PM

Definately weird - I wanted to wait til he shed to get a few pictures. I have tried to massage it to see if it would manipulate back into position, but no luck.

His behaviour was intense and crazy to start with but it seems to be getting worse - any initial touch will set him off into wrapping himself up into coils, so severe that it looks like he is bruising his skin in places. He doesn't show any overt nervous signs so this may just be him attempting to locate a loop that feels like a female snake to him - he seems to be breeding his own body coils at times. He moves normally, but I am not optomistic that he will recover from this - has been almost 2 weeks now.

The kink is indicated by blue arrows - one photo shows him in the midst of coiling on himself - he just whirls around the cage - quite weird- and he seems to have developed bit lesser kink behind his head - strange snake!

mary v.

Stockwell · 05-07-04, 01:28 AM

that indented area, looks like a broken rib. Hopefully not the spine.. does the spine feel smooth and continuous there?
I really don't know Mary! I'd get the snake away from all female scent, and put it in a clean tray with new substrate to attempt to stop the breeding instict which seems to be on overload.
My honduran male has been going absolutely nuts this year too, and has popped his tray righ out of the rack.. I washed him down with soap, set him up in a new tray and moved him across the room, and that completely stopped it.

lakeridgekennel · 05-07-04, 05:13 AM

I think stockwell is right about the broken rib. he could have that his hole life now.

vanderkm · 05-07-04, 11:06 AM

Wish I had a photo that shows him from the top down - the indented spot is about a 30 degree bend in the back - it bends first one way and then back so that he has like a little jog in his back if you could stretch him out straight (which I haven't done - pretty sure that would make it much worse).

Good idea on the bath and isolation to remove him from scent of females - he seems to be in overdrive even though he has not been with a female for about a month now. I will set him up in a separate room tomorrow and give him a bath to remove all scent.

thanks,

mary v.