Strange Death

My niece had a year old ball python, from the start she had problems with feeding her but the last two weeks she ate normally. She was acting fine as normal one night then the following morning she was dead. Has anyone any ideas on how or why?

Can you give us some details on the setup, what she was feeding, temp etc..?

There is so many reasons to causes of death that you can't just diagnose it without no picture and proper descriptions...........

For example it's like me saying: I have a 99 year old grandma and she was eating well and acting the same way her last two weeks of like but back when she was 97 she had a tumor removed from her.

Daniel

she was in a 4'tank well humidified & well heated, this isn't her first ball python but she did seem a lot smaller than mine even though mine are much younger

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Originally Posted by edgette1971

My niece had a year old ball python, from the start she had problems with feeding her but the last two weeks she ate normally. She was acting fine as normal one night then the following morning she was dead. Has anyone any ideas on how or why?

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There could be a reason, or something you didn't, or did do, but...

...sometimes even when optimal conditions exist, live things still die for no apparent reason.

Brandon

Quote:

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Originally Posted by edgette1971

she was in a 4'tank well humidified & well heated, this isn't her first ball python but she did seem a lot smaller than mine even though mine are much younger

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"well humidifed" and "well heated" are poor descriptors at best, we need exacts.

your BEST bet is to take the body in for a necropsy.

Sorry forgot to say she was feeding her mice.

Unfortunately, none of us can tell you what happened. Your best bet is to take the body in for a necropsy (animal autopsy). Especially if she has other ball pythons - as you'll want to know if what caused her death could be passed on to the rest of your animals.

Keep the animal's body in the refridgerator, not the freezer and take it on Monday to a herp vet.

How was she heating the enclosure?
Was there something connected to the heat source to regulate it?
Did the snake have mites?
Has she taken it to a vet?

If you really want to know, you can take the snake to a vet and have them determine what the death was caused by. (I can't remember what the word is for that, lol) I think you'll need to refrigerate the corpse if you decide to do that.

Sorry as fas as I'm aware she had the tank at the correct temperature & correct humidity, misting nearer to shed.