Please Help, BP with a large bump.

I had a 6 month old Ball Python that just passed away yesterday and I am very upset and need some piece of mind. I fed him last Thursday and he took the f/t mouse just fine. I then left him for two days to digest. On the Sunday after I fed him I was holding him and noticed that there was a large, hard bump on the 1/4 part of his body near his head. I immediately looked up online what this could be and only found that it could be feces building up and was not a big deal, but to just wait for it to pass. For the next two days he hardly left from under his log which was unusual for him because he would normally be quite active by this time. On Tuesday night i noticed the bump was still there in the exact same spot and I began to worry more. Wednesday he died. On his underbelly where the bump was seemed to be slightly darker than the rest.

I didn't know the problem was as serious as it was or I would have taken him to a vet immediately. I am very upset and just want to find out why this happened.

The only thing that I did differently is the f/t mouse I fed him had been thawed and refrozen but only once and it wasn't at room temp for any longer than an hour.

Please help!

Maybe it wasnt all the way thawed the 2nd time...

What were his temps? Did he have the heat he needed to digest it properly?

I'm sorry to hear about your snake. It's awful when a pet unexpectedly dies (or expectedly for that matter). I don't think it was your fault, so don't beat yourself up over it.

As for the cause, I'm not quite sure. Will you be able to get a necropsy?

Do you have any pictures? Did you freeze the snake for a necropsy? The cause of death will be very hard to pinpoint with out an examination.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slim

Do you have any pictures? Did you freeze the snake for a necropsy? The cause of death will be very hard to pinpoint with out an examination.

---

You shouldn't freeze for necropsy - it destroys cells. Refrigeration is actually the best storage if you have to for a few days.

The mouse was fully thawed when i fed it to him. Temperature was around 90 and when I remember when I picked him up he felt quite warm. I would very much like to get a necropsy done. Does anyone know where I can take him to? Do you think a normal vet would do it or would i have to take him to an exotic pet vet? Does he need to be frozen for a necropsy?

I dont have a picture of him live with the bump and I dont feel comfortable posting a picture of him deceased = (

Just read that last post I will keep him refrigerated. Thanks for all the input I'm going to try to get him a necropsy and post results.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Annarose15

You shouldn't freeze for necropsy - it destroys cells. Refrigeration is actually the best storage if you have to for a few days.

---

Thank you for correcting my mistake.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slim

Thank you for correcting my mistake.

---

You don't make them , often, so I have to get it in when I can. :P Unfortunately, I got to get a necropsy a few months ago, so now have the first-hand experience.

To the OP - Depending where you are, a vet school with an exotics department is an alternative if you don't have a reptile vet. I use the UGA Vet School for my BPs' needs, because I gave up on finding anyone within a shorter distance that wasn't just feeding me ignorant generalizations for double the price.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Annarose15

Unfortunately, I got to get a necropsy a few months ago, so now have the first-hand experience.

---

I'm sorry you had to learn about the necropsy process first hand. I'm knocking on wood as we speak.

I know its been quite a while since this was posted but I thought that I would report how everything went. I ended up taking my bp to the animal hospital in the university in my city. They were incredibly nice and took my boy and did a necropsy on him free of charge because they were going to use him for a demonstration in class. They were excited to have him cause snakes aren't something they see often. They called me soon after the procedure and it turns out that the mouse he had eaten wasn't the problem, in fact it had almost been completely digested. The huge bump turned out to be his enlarged heart. I was very sad to hear this but happy to know that his death wasn't anything that was care related.

Thanks for the help and support guys.

I'm so sorry for your loss, but I'm glad you found out the cause, and shared.

Thank you for sharing the results, and I'm so, so sorry for your loss. That was nice of the university to do it free of charge and cool that they will be using him for demonstrations/learning environment, imo. Like donating his body to science.

The enlarged heart is just something congenital, I'm assuming?

Oh lord how sad. I'm so sorry.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

So sorry to hear about your little boy. Thank you, though, for sharing the experience and info with us.