RIP Guin

so sorry... [emoji20]

Sorry I haven't updated here in awhile.

The vet's best guess as to what happened was a mix of a meal too large and too low of temperatures caused her to be unable to digest properly and that's what killed her. It's also possible that particular mouse was bad, but my BCI and other BRB have been eating the same mice from the same bag as her mouse, and 3 meals later they're still doing good.

Here are some photos of the final report:

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12...b3b35c8df4.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12...ab70ebdcf0.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12...89d8ef1bd2.jpg

Although the room was heated and she had heat tape, wet moss stays very cold where it isn't being heated directly, which could have given her a chill if I hadn't turned her heat up enough. I do keep Sanji 3-4 degrees warmer than I kept her, but I was worried about her overheating.

It's still very ambiguous as to what caused her infection, but we know for sure she died from a septicemia infection caused by salmonella. Which was made clear by how large the colonies were and the fact they were found in her intestines and liver.

To me, the fact the brunt of the infection was located in her intestine, the forefront of all digestion, suggests a digestive issue and the vet seemed to agree as well. The pneumonia they found was very mild, not a cause of her death but a by product of her septicemia.

Either way, all my other animals are doing very well even weeks after her death, so I don't think I have to worry about them.

I also plan on getting two more BRBs from the same breeder. They should be here in the spring, and I'll be sure to keep them away from the heater, feed them meal sizes I normally offer my snakes, and I'll be keeping them on paper towels rather than immediately putting them on moss, just to be sure. I may scatter a bit of moss but it won't be their entire bedding. So hopefully this doesn't happen again.


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I'm sorry. I think people get so worried about overheating these snakes that they forget they do need heat to digest.

The danger comes when the ambient temp is over 85*F and they have nowhere to go to cool off. BRB's can do perfectly fine with belly heat even up to 87-88*F as long as the ambient isn't that high, and they have access to a cool area in the mid-70's.

I figured heating the room to 82F and providing heat tape as well would be too much, but wet moss does stay very cool so maybe that counteracted the warmness of the room.

I will be keeping the new ones on paper towels, maybe with some sparse moss, and keep them in a non-heated room.


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Hey Cloud,

I am bummed for you. I know you are tuned into feeding properly and have done wonders for the real CLOUD by adjusting diet and temps and letting him shed pound and fat.

I will read the posts here a bit more in depth later and see if there is anything I can help you with, but honestly there is no "I told you so" coming from me.

Keep studying and working to provide your other snakes with what they need.

You are a GOOD keeper!

Sorry for your loss, that sucks!

Thanks, Gio. I'm hoping my luck will be better with my two new ones coming in. I did well with Sanji, so hopefully making the changes from what I suspect led to her death will lead to a nice long life for the others. :)


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So Sorry for you loss Cloud

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