My BP died inexplicably and I'm crushed... any ideas?

Oh also, I should probably specifically state that the vet found no internal organ damage, despite the strange lump by the vent. So I think that Tosha was right on the second page, and it was just very misleading postmortem bloating. Whatever happened with that aspen and his behind was incidental, according to the vet. There was no tearing or internal bleeding according to her.

So it seems like being shocked by a suddenly inexplicably dead snake made me jump to the conclusion that any visual abnormality was automatically implicated. Such is apparently not the case.

I'm so sorry about your spider! it looked like an impaction to me... I'm really sorry

Yeah, I know! It really did to everyone who saw it.

But then, after being dead awhile, the lump went away. And the vet found no evidence of there being one. And while she might not know absolutely everything there is to know about ball python pathology, she did sound at least like she was a very competent surgeon and knew a lot about their insides. So I'd think something like that would be very obvious to her. Totally bizarre. Guess things aren't always what they seem. I'm glad I brought him in.

again im so so so very sorry for your loss.

Let us know about the tissue results. I'll be watching the thread. It doesn't sound like it could have been IBD (recalling from memory).

My sympathies also.

Okay, everything is taken care of and the tissue samples are officially and definitely sent off to a special reptile pathology center somewhere in California. I should have results back about a week from today, and I'll post whatever I find out. So this thread will be revived in about a week with new interesting info.

Thanks again everyone. I really appreciate the support. My other snakes still seem fine. Of course I'm paranoid about every little thing now, but I haven't noticed anything truly out of the ordinary. I've got them each in separate tanks now where I can see them due to an unfortunate coincidental rack system malfunction a few days after the death of my spider. Everything seems normal, so... here's hoping it's nothing contagious.

Looks like he was impacted or something. Thats a bummer and I know how you feel I lost my first red tail about a year and a half ago and it was a depressing ordeal and I felt terrible. :(