Alice the Bullsnake

Looks like we are back on track with rats again. Feeding Alice small rats for now and that has been working well. Not having to scent the rats or do anything special. She has been accepting one small rat every 9 to 10 days. Hoping this will continue through the winter. She has been steadily putting on weight since her de-worming in June of this year and currently weights over 6lbs.

Alice shed early Friday morning. It appears complete, although it was in six or more pieces. I got her out to remove the shed early this morning, much to her dislike. Maybe I was interrupting dreams of rodents. She is also back to a normal thermo-regulating pattern. When she had pinworms, she stayed on the cool side all the time. She is sleeping on the warm side as I type this. I will offer her a couple of small rats on Sunday.

Alice’s eyes have cleared up so she should shed before the end of the week. As a side note, I have been spending a large amount of time working on some t-shirts to encourage people to respect venomous snakes and not harass or harm them. Go to http://fearshirts.spreadshirt.com to see them. Thanks,Jim

When I fed Alice on the 9th, I thought I could see the start of the eyes bluing. She did head into a shed cycle and her eyes are completely opaque now. This will be her first shed since the end of February. I have reduced the ventilation to increase the humidity in her habitat.

After refusing a small rat initially, Alice ate two small rats after eating one large mouse. She has done this before so we will have to see what she does the next feeding.

Alice seems to have returned to her normal self. Her activity levels are completely back to normal and her interest in food is as strong as it used to be. During her last feeding, she bolted out of her hide to grab the 1st mouse out of my fingers. She was just as enthusiastic all the way through the 6th large mouse.

The vet called back this past week to report the last fecal sample came back negative for pinworms. Alice’s activity has increased as well. She is still funny about rats and so I have been feeding her large mice again. She ate 5 large mice today and is happily digesting them now.

Fed Alice yesterday. She had refused a scented medium rat last week. This time she started to swallow the scented rat and then spit it back out. She acted hungry so I went ahead and gave her the mouse used to scent the rat. She snapped that right up. I fed here three more mice, which is still a light meal for her. If she does not defecate until Sunday or Monday, I will have a valid fecal sample for the vet. The continuing feeding issues makes me wonder if she is going to require another round of Panacur.

Alice had her second dose of Panacur today. Like the first one, this was injected into the belly of a frozen/thawed large mouse. Hopefully the stool sample that is due in 3 weeks will come up free of pinworms.

Last weeks treatment seems to have gone well. Alice is acting more like her old self in moving around to thermoregulate and in food response. I fed her 3 mice on Thursday just to hold her a bit and not fill her up so much that she would not be ready for a medicated mouse this coming Wednesday. Three weeks after the next treatment, the vet will want to see another stool sample to make sure the pinworms have been eradicated.