Sudden death of my male lesser

Fed everybody (I have 6 boas/pythons currently) on 3/10. I normally leave them all alone for 2 days while they digest. On 3/11 I noticed the snake room had a funky smell but figured it was just poop and I was extremely busy and didn't worry. The morning of 3/12 I noticed my lesser male (Aether) was in the exact position as the day before.
Background on Aether: I got Aether from the Seattle reptile expo in October 2012. Wasn't given an exact age but I'm assuming very young as he was around 50g when I got him. He had trouble eating at first, very timid and didn't seem to want f/t. Eventually I got him on a schedule.
Anyway, So that morning I discovered he had passed. His tummy was bloated (after his meal there was a slight distention but was normal), actually it was pretty extremely bloated. I'm assuming this is from decomp brought on faster by the temps.
Oh husbandry, everything was perfectly normal. Room is kept at 88 degrees at the moment (problem with thermostat so switched to room heating temporarily), fresh water, was active with tongue flicks. No sign of illness prior.
When I picked him up a clearish bloody fluid poured from his mouth. Now I'm assuming this is also from decomp. He wasn't stiff except in the high neck area but I heard rigor can set in then dissipate?
Absolutely no clue what could have caused this. A parasite/virus/disease he came with? Something I've done wrong? I know sometimes animals just die, but it was mysterious.
About 3 months ago I had two tree frogs and two crested geckos pass (all eating the same cricket crop), which was very sad but I assumed was some disease associated with the crickets. My girlfriend thinks they might be related, but neither of these creatures come in contact with each other so I don't think so, unless its airborne but why so many months apart?
I had a mite problem about 2months ago but was cleared immediately with provent-a-mite, no problems there.
Any advice, tips, stories, suggestions, anything really, would be great. I'm sad to see this boy pass on and I want to prevent any future problems.
I'll post a picture of him from about 2 months ago ( I have more recent but not on the computer). I didn't take a picture of his body and its currently in the freezer (didn't plan on a necropsy).
Thank youhttp://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1c764cf0.jpg

I'm sorry for your loss. 88 seems a little high to keep a BP room. We keep ours at 84-85 tops. Lowest is 76 during breeding season. I don't think that had to do with his death but like you said it definitely played a big role during decomp. I would take him to the vet and ask them to do a necropsy. (Might have jeopardized that by putting him in the freezer though) fridge next time. (Fingers crossed their isn't a next time)

P.S. Pics of him when it happened would have helped also. Make sure you label *Graphic warning* though!

They can look inside to see if there was a tumor or some type of impaction going on. They won't be able to take tissue samples.

I would've taken pictures at time of death but it was too sad for me, this is the first death I've had with my snakes. I've been waiting for better weather to bury him so he is still in the freezer. I could take a picture of him frozen if anyone would think that could help now. He was very bloated from the decomp, but besides that he looked completely normal, not sunken in, skin firm.
I've kept boas a lot longer than BPs, and for them I do 90 degrees on the hot side and 80 degrees on the cool side and has always worked perfect for them. I've never had a problem with the BPs at that those temps so I've always figured it was fine. I didn't know balls like it a little cooler, I thought I did the research on it and I kinda do remember 90 is a little high for the hot spot for them but I think my thinking was that they always had a cooler side and the middle. Since my thermostat went down I kept the room at 88 because it seemed to stay a little cooler inside the cages, say like 85. I've got their new flexwatt hookup ready and will be installing it tomorrow.

I also did consider maybe it had been a tumor, because of the bloody fluid that dripped out from his mouth I wondered if maybe the rat he ate had caused it to rupture. I keep everybody on newspaper so I'm not sure where an impaction could come from, and he wasn't constipated. Poop/peed/shed normally for the time that I've had him

Bring the body of the snake to a vet. And have them do a blood test for I.B.D. Just as a precautionary measure for the protection of the rest of your collection. :/ I'm sorry for your loss.

Nobody can do anything but offer a bunch of WAGs - which you will probably get a ton of.

If you wanted to know what happened, you should have had a necropsy done. Since you've frozen it, that's out of the question.

Did your snake display ANY unusual symptoms at all?

Weird head movements? Laying on the side or back?

The fact that you have boas, and recently had mites would have me going to the vet for a test to rule out IBD, however I am not a vet and have NO idea if that is possible after death on a previously frozen specimen.

I am very sorry for your loss :(

I wish I would have had a necropsy done :(
And no, no unusual symptoms whatsoever

My best guess would be it had something to do with the feeding. Maybe a bad mouse, or an underlying condition that occurred after eating. Maybe he ate some substrate.

Their substrate is newspaper so it definitely wasn't that. I just wonder what could have been wrong with the mouse. It was frozen and from a reputable breeder and it was thawed out and warm when I gave it to him

I highly highly doubt it had anything to do with the mouse.

In my emergency clinic we see the kind of fluid from respiratory orifices in cats and dogs with congestive heart failure. Usually by the time they get to the stage where there's enough fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema) for it to come out the nose the animal is end stage. Because animals can live a fairly normal life with CHF until it gets really bad a lot of owners don't even kknow there was a problem until its too late. I'm not at all saying that's definitely what happened to your guy, but just an idea.

Thank you everyone for your speculations. I should have had a necropsy done, and now I actually really do regret it because there's a lot of possibilities. But it's nice to hear different opinions

skirtinthedirt - My dog had cardiovascular effusion that also caused fluid in his chest cavity to build up. It happened very suddenly but I guess had been lying dormant for a long time. With every test known to man it was concluded to be ideopathic ("we don't know"). I had to put him down 1 week after first bringing him to the vet (last april). What I feel scared of is 6 months later our other dog was put down for the exact same thing. I know I most likely don't actually have anything to worry about....I just worry especially with all the deaths in the last year and I know they probably aren't related but its still scary

I hope it wasnt crypto...that is very contagious!! It can wipe out whole collections!

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Were your dogs related? Or the same breed? Pericardial effusion (what I think you are talking about) is fluid that builds up between the heart and the sac (pericardium) that covers the heart. This makes it difficult for the heart to beat appropriately and the fluid can leak out and fill up the chest cavity as well. A lot of things can cause pericardial effusion, including tumors that have metastasized to the heart. That means that, if it's any comfort, your dogs may have had the same symptom that caused their death but the root cause could have been completely different. Pericardial effusion is a fairly common cause of death for older dogs (often causing rapid or sudden death), so the idea that something in your house is causing this, while understandable, is not something I would worry about.

I'm sorry for your loss, and lack of closure. What a bummer.

The dogs were not related, one was 7 years old (2 weeks from 8 years old) and the other was 9 years old. and yes it was pericardial effusion that was my bad. My first dog they pulled the fluid from the chest...nothing abnormal it was just inflammation cells. They did bloodwork, lots of xrays, ultrasounds. He was going into right side heart failure. They pulled all the fluid from his chest and as much as they could from the sac around his heart. They pulled about a liter total. Within a week it was even worse and I chose to put him down because whatever was causing it was too aggressive and they had no clue what it was. You know, maybe one of these days I'll post his xrays and results. I originally brought him to the vet because I thought he was constipated. They took an xray, the top view showing every single one of his organs was on one side of his body, the spine splitting down the middle and the other side completely empty. It was insane and the most heartbreaking thing I've ever gone through! Our second dog got diagnosed with pericardial effusion 6 months later and we decided not to make her suffer through those tests...everything was just awful =(