Growing Concerns

Im sorry you lost her! I hope a necropsy will bring light to what happened. Please keep us updated. When will you have the necropsy done?

At this point, I expect that the necropsy will happen around the holidays or post new year's. I am determined to have it done so as to hopefully inform all of us BP lovers as the pictures have so far revealed little familiarity to the viewers here. As docile and wonderful as they are, they certainly seem to be an enigmatic creature. One that we have a lot to learn about and I am fortunate to have an enthusiastic vet who would like to try and reveal this mystery however, I have been warned that post mortem necropsies on non-fresh corpses often present difficulties so we'll all have to cross our fingers for some hints.
As always, thank you for all your support bp.net, and I hope that this loss becomes a gain to us in learning more about these beautiful critters.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss...

Someone can jump in and correct me if I'm wrong, but you won't want to freeze the body prior to necropsy. That could possibly kill off whatever was the COD rendering the necropsy inconclusive.

You're right that there is the possibility that the necropsy can be inconclusive with it frozen but I was not told of any other way to preserve the body until then, which for the record is probably going to be around 2 weeks from now. She's been in the freezer now since about 2 pm so she's likely frozen. If however, anyone has any other suggestions for preservation please throw them out there.
Thanks

Sorry for you loss.

I hope that you do get another ball python. If you do there are many great breeders available and any worth a dang are on BPnet.

I personally can only speak for my experience with Adam Wysocki at 8ballpythons.com you can also go with Brian at http://www.bhbreptiles.com/. Patrick Long for one has a great reputation around here and he is a "hobby breeder" unless I am mistaken and this is his full time gig.

Please don't get discouraged about hobby breeders. There are many that care just do your home work about them. Also don't be surprised if they wont let you see their whole collection at their "shop" it is all about safety and to keep you snakes protected from parasites or even some one "casing the joint" and coming back to steal them.

Thanks for the references hoax. I am not discouraged with hobby breeders, as many of them are very trustworthy. Nor am I trying to put anyone down. I am merely disappointed that in my case I trusted an individual whose breadth of work made me confident that I could trust their direction given to me and later learned that I may have inadvertently contributed to my pet's evidently painful demise.
Privacy of one's operation is understandable for the reasons you gave; totally. Perhaps what I should have more specifically articulated is the urge for any future bp shopper to ask questions concerning the health of the animals that may seem touchy such as whether they are checked for any health problems etc. From what I've learned thus far, it is appearing more and more that Gini's problems were less likely a byproduct of error and more so a condition that was present prior to my receiving her.
Anywho, it is still very close to the whole experience and naturally I am feeling inclined to react to this with disappointment at any misinformation I might have been given. Like I said, hopefully the necropsy won't be spoiled and will yield information that I can give to others so that we can all be more informed.
I have no doubt that I'll take in another bp, there is a reputable breeder near home for me in Ontario amongst the many other great references you gave me so we'll see where I end up. Thanks for the encouragement hoax. Granted, we're all here because its rather hard to walk away from the allure of these animals once we've had a taste of the fun.

Hello gang,

So, I know it's been ages since we were discussing Gini and her necropsy and its been fast going since getting back to school from the holidays but I have to honour my promise to tell what I found out.
The vet who performed the necropsy told me that an unidentifiable obstruction was found in Nagini's stomach/small intestine. She could not tell what it was. Given this, I am relieved to know that it was a) not substrate (I was using aspen at first then coconut fibre) and b) not undigested food
Now, over the holidays I hit up Port Credit pet centre, which my fellow Canadian Ontario residing owners will probably know, and to my surprise I found a copy of Kevin McCurley's "The Complete Ball Python". This book is absolutely amazing! I ate through the pages in no time totally engaged and was filled with information about what this 'obstruction' could have been. One thing I am sure many of you have heard of is 'hard bellies', which is a condition derived from hatchlings being removed from their eggs prematurely; that is, right after they've pipped but not allowing them the 1-3 days to finish absorbing the yolk. This can often cause internal deformities, in this case it may have formed and blocked her stomach.
However, there was one more condition that I had noted similar symptoms... IBD (Inclusion Body Disease). I only suspected this because of her 'goofiness' where she had been lolling over and had little coordination. Either way, the obvious cause of death was there however, a determined disease or ailment was not.
Anywho, since this rather traumatic experience I have taken it upon myself to learn a lot more about husbandry, the various approaches to it, and next steps for future critters. Thanks again for everyone's support!

I just read through this entire thread - so sorry for your loss, it sounds like you did everything you could to help Nagini.

But thank you for posting the update on what was discovered by the vet, it's always nice to know the outcome of a story, and I'd never realized that kind of obstruction could happen, wow... another example of why breeder choice is so important, i guess! (I got my BP from someone I thought was reputable, but she turned out to have mites on her, so I guess not so much)

Now you've got the ball python bug, though, I'm sure your next little one will thrive.