The 2007 breeding season kicked off to a great start, with our snakes hooking up a good month earlier then they did in 2006 and we had high hopes that everything would pan out without a single glitch. Of course, that kind of thinking practically invites Murphy to play havoc on your mind and mess with the normal order of things.

Murphy’s diabolical touch was plastered all over our first clutch of 2007. Pearl, a 2004 female snow, showed every sign of having a normal clutch right up until the night she began dropping her clutch. Then it was prolapse and possible egg binding and only the sage advice from fellow breeders and knowing we could help her through the difficulties kept the panic at pay and downplayed the fear that we might loose our big girl - who also happens to be our first corn - she was the snake that started it all.

The evening had started off pretty good, a whole day passed without a hitch with about 11 eggs on the ground before we knew she'd started laying them. Tim had stepped out for a few minutes and the girls and I puttered around the house for an hour or so before checking on Pearl to see if she'd dropped any more. When I brought her into the bedroom and took off the lid, I noticed right away that there were two new eggs on the ground and it looked like she was about to lay the next one.

I called both girls to join me in the room to observe Pearl as she laid the next egg because I thought it would be educational and exciting; and because I've always tried to involve both girls in every aspect of the snake care. At first, as we watched, the egg appeared to becoming out normally, seeing just one end poking out as Pearl pushed. The first inkling that something was wrong was our oldest asking why the egg looked to be covered in veins or blood. I took a closer look and thought maybe that the egg had been poorly calcified and while we watched a second egg pushed on past and the funny egg seemed to be pulled back towards the vent.

Thinking back, it looked as if she started passing the slug first and then a healthy egg tried to bypass the slug and the two came out pretty much together, with the slug slightly in front of the egg with the oviduct wrapped around it. The room was, at the time, dimly lit so as not to disturb the snake overly much; so I had Elizabeth turn on the light and bring me both the phone and the camera. I quickly called Tim to let him know what I believed was going on and then took a couple of pictures in case we needed them to identify the problem (though I already suspected what was happening). I sat there with Pearl then to keep an eye on her while Tim returned home and in that time she laid a second healthy egg past the slug, pushing a bit more of her oviduct out.

When Tim got home he attempted to call to a fellow breeder and friend, who unfortunately wasn't available and then together we flipped through seven or eight snake manuals before he turned to the computer to do some fast on-line research in order to find out how we could help her until we could get her to a vet (nearest reliable one that deals with exotics is about 50-65 miles away).

When Tim joined us once more, he put to good use the suggestions and advice that he had found on Cornsnakes.com. After cleaning off the exposed oviduct with room temp water and applying a mild sugar water solution, he was able to remove the slug while I held her head to keep her from thrashing around too much.

Here are the pictures:

The good eggs that had pushed out past it were a good two times larger if not closer to three times the size.

After removing the slug, the prolapsed oviduct retracted and Pearl seemed calmer, though I think it was mostly that she was worn out from the ordeal and laying the majority of her clutch already.

Several hours later Pearl successfully dropped another 2 eggs and she still had 2 more that sat more than ten saddles away from her vent. I monitored her periodically without actually removing her from her nesting box for a full 24 hours while keeping her in a dark warm corner of our 'Ghetto Rack in the Closet' in case of any further complications.

When it became apparent that the remaining two eggs weren't making progress towards her vent, I went back to Cornsnakes.com for more advice and promptly followed the suggestions there. Over the next handful of days I handled Pearl while gently massaging her body from neck to vent paying close attention to the areas directly above and below the eggs and encouraged her to slither through my hands and across the bed for some mild exercise.

After two days of repeating the above exercise routine, we were relieved to discover that one of the eggs had finally moved down enough for Pearl to pass it with ease. That first egg, of the two retained, looked huge, even bigger than the largest of the previous eggs she'd laid and still appeared to be healthy so after snapping a few pictures I nestled it into the incubator with the rest and continued with the massages and mild exercise to help the final egg move down towards her vent.

Picture of the extra-large egg with one of my husband's lighters for a size reference:

Another handful of days passed before the last egg showed any true progress and by the early morning hours of 5/16/07 Pearl had dropped it outside of the nesting box, as she had with the previous egg. This one was a big more normal in size, when compared to the rest of the clutch, and was quickly tucked beside the rest of the clutch.

It took six days total, from beginning to end, for Pearl to drop her entire clutch - though I swear it seemed to have taken at least two weeks. At least she appears to have made it through the entire ordeal with her health mainly intact (as much as can be expected after laying her clutch and dealing with the prolapse and near eggbinding. During this time we also came to the decision that Pearl will be retired from our breeding stock and will live out her life as a treasured pet.

We owe several folks on Cornsnakes.com a debt of gratitude for sharing their experiences of similar situations, knowledge of working solutions, and complete support while we coped with what could have been a fatal twist of fate for our beloved pet.

Pearl later went on to double clutch in the 2007 season, her second clutch was dropped late in July and consisted of seven slugs and two fertile eggs, both of which later went bad. She has fully recovered from her ordeal and is currently enjoying every minute of her early retirement.

Thank you,