Not all blockages are the same (pics and necropsy)

Thought I'd post this for a few others to see. I picked this guy up in April this year hoping to breed later after he cleared qt. Things didn't end out how I had hoped. He refused to eat for the entire time but figured it was normal since they love to go off feed. Well 6 months later he hadn't had any issues but still didn't want to eat. I figured it was from the rack being more open and moved him into the main rack with everyone else and try again in a few days.

Almost a week after moving him, he passed away to what I thought was an impaction but boy was I wrong. A trip to the local vet was planned for as soon as they were back in town. The next day I was off to the vet for a necropsy to figure out what exactly happened. Found out that it was due to some type of growth/tumor in his colon. The tumor was easily 2in x 4in and he was about the diameter of a soda can.

I couldn't afford to have a Pathology done as it was almost another $200 on top of the necropsy. Anything that he had used or touched in his final days was either bleached, rinsed and bleached again or tossed. The spot in the rack he used has been empty and has been cleaned over and over again.

Pics of him when he first came home
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...e/DSC00195.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...e/DSC00194.jpg


Results of soaking
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...e/DSC00366.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...822_214924.jpg


Side view of the "lump"
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...e/DSC00371.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...e/DSC00369.jpg


WARNING Dead snake and pics from Necropsy

















































Starting from head to vent, the vet checked him over to make sure there was nothing else going on before getting further down the body.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...5-27-59_95.jpg
Heart was slightly enlarged
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-29-24_785.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-30-48_630.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-30-56_390.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-33-15_843.jpg

Gallbladder with some staining
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-34-24_976.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-34-56_328.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-36-21_555.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-38-10_493.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-38-30_921.jpg

If I remember right its the liver.
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-39-01_154.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-39-46_140.jpg

Start of the colon
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-39-33_515.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-40-48_480.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-41-21_710.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-41-43_929.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-42-49_508.jpg


Entire GI system
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-47-23_234.jpg


Up close of what the cause was
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-47-27_960.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...-47-31_413.jpg

That sux man. He was such a cool snake. Thanks for posting this. It gives us all more info on what to look for and things to be aware of. Again sorry for your loss.


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Sorry for your loss. He was beautiful. Thanks for sharing this with us

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Wow he was gorgeous. Thanks for posting this; very interesting and a good thing to keep in mind

Poor thing, that's a terrible way to go.
Thanks for the information and documentation.

I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you for the information and documentation.

That sucks he ended up passing away.

Not trying to be morbid but i loved all the necropsy pics. Really informative stuff and im sure it provided some closure for you to see what was really wrong.

I'm sorry for your loss. :( Thank you for sharing your experience. At least you know what he died from, I would think that would help a little.

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It really did suck loosing him this way. I thought at first if I had gotten him to a vet sooner he could've been saved but obviously it would've saved him some pain and suffering. Its taken me a few months to be able to look at the pictures again. He was the first snake I've had to pass on. The least I could do was to pass on information to others .

Thank you for posting the pics and information. It's grisly stuff (especially when it's one of your own snakes) but it really does help educate the rest of us. So sorry that you lost one. I recently lost my first snakes and I'll tell ya, it's never easy :(

Sorry for your loss. Informative pics like that are always great to see and imo help to ensure that a death, while sad, can have some good as we can learn from it. Poor little guy, it sucks that he's gone.


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Very sorry for your loss. And thank you very much for making this a leaning experience for other herpers. So was it just undigested rat that caused the blockage?

While it sucks that the animal had to die, you did the whole community a service with this post.

Too many times, people make ASSumptions as to why their animals passed, and these assumptions ultimately result in a more ignorant community. Most people would have written it off to substrate impaction or some other mysterious issue.

By taking the time and expense to perform a necropsy and by taking the time to post the results here and share them with your peers, you are educating anyone who takes the time to read your post.

Sorry for your loss :(

Thank you for sharing the necropsy results. It's educational and helpful I believe. Doesn't bother me much (I'm a Vet Tech).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skiploder

While it sucks that the animal had to die, you did the whole community a service with this post.

Too many times, people make ASSumptions as to why their animals passed, and these assumptions ultimately result in a more ignorant community. Most people would have written it off to substrate impaction or some other mysterious issue.

By taking the time and expense to perform a necropsy and by taking the time to post the results here and share them with your peers, you are educating anyone who takes the time to read your post.

---

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheSnakeGuy

Very sorry for your loss. And thank you very much for making this a leaning experience for other herpers. So was it just undigested rat that caused the blockage?

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I was thinking the same thing Skip. I had no idea what caused this issue nor the swelling. I wanted pictures to show others and hung around the vets office so we could talk about what he found. I did know it wasn't from bedding, at least from here. All ours are kept on either newspaper or paper towels and he hadn't ate the entire time he was here. I did forget to mention that the spot had became necrotic but from the outside you couldn't tell.

Wow. I'm so sorry you lost him. :( I found the pictures helpful and fascinating. Thank you for sharing.

I'm so sorry, he was really gorgeous. A tumor! You'd never think of a young ball python having colon cancer or whatever it was.

Thanks for posting the pics.

EDIT: You called it a tumor or a "growth" earlier, but somebody else said it was an undigested rat?

There was no rat or hair in it that I saw. It was some sort of tissue that was tumor or growth from some other unknown cause.

Terribly fascinating, thank you so much for this post.