URGENT! death caused by internal something!!!!!

I purchased this '10 female woma ball python from a large scale reputable breeder some months ago in August. She has been eating like a garbage disposal since the week I brought her home. Two weeks ago she refused her first meal and the week after that she regurgitated a appropriate if not small rat pup. Saturday she was fine looking physically a bit thin from not eating at her size, but everything else was 100% Sunday night I checked on her and she was limp on the front corner and about two quarters down her body there was an enormous bloat or buildup of some kind and she was stressing to move an inch. My first reaction was that she was constipated, my first ball python went months without defecating. But this little girl had been urating and defecating normally. Every thing was looking good besides she was a little stressed and nippy more than any other of my snakes. I woke up today, went straight upstairs to check up on her to give the vet a call as to her condition. She was laying in the front of the bin, dead as a doornail, bloated, and the smell of death was very very strong. I lifted her up and there was a spot where the bloat was that looked like stomach acid was eating through her stomach.

I am not sure if something ruptured and ate the snake from the inside out. But here are the pictures and hopefully someone can help me figure out what this is before I get the body to the vet for autopsy. I believe that it is either protozoa or aomebiasis but my guess is as good as anyones in this until Wednesday when the herp vet gets into town.

Heres the pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimirep...18171/sizes/l/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimireptile/5199013060/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimireptile/5199012912/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimireptile/5198418609/

that's horrifying.
I'm very sorry for your loss :(

The green spot on the belly is normal for dead snakes.

This is not the cause of death.

Greets,

Yaron

p.s. DO NOT FREEZE the snake if you want to have an autopsy done. Cool it, but not freeze it.

Hi,

I think that's actually her gall bladder?

It's quite common to see it in deceased animals.

As the others have said refrigerate the body if you want a necropsy done.

I'm not sure how related it is but you really should have waited longer after the first regurge to let the internal gut balance to recover before trying to feed her again. :(


dr del

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,

I think that's actually her gall bladder?

It's quite common to see it in deceased animals.

As the others have said refrigerate the body if you want a necropsy done.

I'm not sure how related it is but you really should have waited longer after the first regurge to let the internal gut balance to recover before trying to feed her again. :(


dr del

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She refused 2 weeks ago and regurged last week. We didn't try to feed her this week. She was fine on Saturday night and then extremely bloated on Sunday. We were going to call the vet this morning, but it was already too late. Whatever caused this killed her in fast. Does anyone have any ideas on what could have happened?

Ahhh,

Sorry for misreading your post about that.

I'm drawing a blank of the cause at this point then. :(

There were no temp problems or anything?


dr del

Temps are fine. She was one of many snakes in a rack. Our snake room is kept at 80 degrees and the hot side on the rack is 90. The racks are on Herpstats, and the room heater is on a Johnson Controls A-419. Everything is monitored daily and records are kept for all of our snakes. Other than the regurge last week, there was no indication of anything unusual until she bloated up last night.

Occasionally small snakes like that, particularly ball pythons in my experience, can develop a ball of urates right at the vent. They can't pass it and it causes them to become totally plugged. No urine or feces going out. Kidney failure is a possibility.

I'd get a necropsy just to be sure but that white lump at the vent looks like what I've seen many times.

A gentle massaging motion towards the vent will usually move these lumps out, provided they are not too large, and allow the snake to urinate as well.

If you do get a necropsy done, please let us know the results.

Keep us updated when he gets the autopsy.
I'm very sorry for your loss. :(

Oh my, I'm sorry to hear that, sorry for the loss, hopefully a necropsy gets everything figured out, really sorry for your loss here, always hurts to lose one

Since snakes are not designed to vomit, and from what I understand a regurge is very hard on them, I wonder if it is possible she ruptured something internally when she regurged and that caused her death ?

I don't have any experience with this in a snake, but I bred birds for 20 years, and every so often a baby would receive an injury to the crop { stomach } which would allow bacteria from the stomach to build up around the crop and in the throat, which was always marked by severe swelling and a foul odor. If not treated aggressively and immediately, this was nearly always fatal.

I'm no vet, but their are similarities that raise my eyebrows.

Please let us know what your vet says.

Gale

Well after 4 hours or so at 80-90 degrees, the dead body will not be able to give an accurate result of the Necropsy, do to the high heat. If you said it smelled pretty bad of death, then i would have reason to believe you might get an inaccurate result. By all means try and get one done, but usually most people don't discover the body untill the next day or so and you can always get false readings that way.

sorry for your loss.. i hope you find out what is the cause.. :please: