We had a breeding pair of het pieds being kept at my boyfriend's house in a rack. The rack is in an insulated shed heated by a radiatior. The ambient temp in there is kept at 80 degrees, and their hot spot is 90.

They were last paired about three weeks ago, and they locked. Neither has been eating for the past two months, but we figured it was seasonal. They are checked on every day and handled frequently.

My boyfriend says he tried to feed the male this morning, handled him, and he seemed normal. Tongue flickering, moving actively, clear pink mouth and nostrils (he pulls down the lower lip to check inside their mouths). That was at 7 AM this morning.

At 7 o'clock this evening, he came home from school and checked on them again. The shed smelled awful and he found the male het dead. The paper towel substrate was covered in blood, black sludge and brown fluid. The snake was upside down and limp, not yet in rigor.

When my boyfriend picked him up, clear fluid ran out of his mouth, and later pinkish orange slime came out. The blood appeared to be coming from his cloaca, which looks to me like it's torn. He was flimsy throughout his body, but was stiff near his cloaca.

We're terrified that whatever this is might be contagious and will spread to our female. She appears completely healthy, but so did the male this morning. This was completely out of the blue. We removed his dirty drawer and scrubbed down all the others very well, gave her fresh water. Does it sound like any illness/problem that any of you have experienced before? We still have the male's body in the freezer, and may get a necropsy done. :'(