My snake just died:'(

Unfortunately on Friday morning I found my little guy Casper motionless in his cage.


He hasn't been eating since July last year, I offered him a rat every week but he just kept refusing. I tried offering him rats/mice/chicks but he wasn't interested.


He has also been struggling with mites since I got him, I tried mite off and it did work but he just kept getting them back.
I was also busy most of the time so I did miss a few treatments.
I just thought mites weren't as bad as I imagined, but I have proven myself 1000x wrong and i'm gutted my Casper had to go through all that pain because of my stupid mistake.

I've definitely learned from this awful incident:(

I'm going to make sure that none of my snakes ever get mites. I'm going to order two cans of Callingtons mite spray so I don't have to wait longer than the snakes need to if they ever get mites, spray their cage monthly/every 2 months so they don't have the chance to get them.


I just wished that I hadn't been so stupid.



I really don't know what caused the dead tbh, would the mites have made him anaemic or caused him to lose a lot of blood?? Plus having no food, he would of been very week you would have thought? But he was exploring his cage most nights even up to his death. I would of thought he would of been very weak and never active, but that wasn't the case.



This is a picture just after I found him, he had some sort of indent/groove in his neck and I have no idea what it is or what caused it:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d33c59915c.jpg



🙁😔

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Sounds to me that he probably starved to death because he never felt secure/comfortable enough to eat. You have learned a hard lesson. You cannot fix this in any way but you can make sure it never, ever happens again.

Quote:

---

I really don't know what caused the dead tbh, would the mites have made him anaemic or caused him to lose a lot of blood?? Plus having no food, he would of been very week you would have thought? But he was exploring his cage most nights even up to his death. I would of thought he would of been very weak and never active, but that wasn't the case.

---

Yes it can be a combination of both especially if the animal was very young and did not eat for that long.

While a snake that is healthy and has a good body weight can spend months without food, it would not be true for a hatchlings that had mite issue on the top of it.

Ultimately no one can tell you for certain except your vet by doing a necropsy.

And in the future (if you get another animal) keep in mind that mite off does not work as it only treat the adult stage not the eggs, only PAM (Provent a mite) and similar product that treat all stages work.

So sorry for the loss. Mites are the scourge of all ball pythons and snakes bc of the myriad of diseases they cause. They can definitely be the cause of death in many a reptile. This is why it's so important to eradicate them at all levels quickly and completely. You did the best you could under the circumstances. We live and learn from our experiences along the way. My condolences again for your loss. :(

Sorry For your loss :(

The groove you see on his neck is his esophagus. It's not really actually protruding, it looks that way from weight loss.

So sorry for your loss :'( i actually feel bad

Sent from my HTC Desire 626s using Tapatalk

My condolences. Just work hard to ensure this doesn't happen again. Hard lesson to learn. :(

[
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...d33c59915c.jpg



🙁😔

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk[/QUOTE]


The indent you see goes along the Belly Scale change... When a belly is sucked in that is ussually starvation. I dont know how long you owned the snake, how often he ate before July, how old it was or any History to get a idea.. But Mites can overcome a snake. They live off of them and if they kept coming back because you were working and didnt get to all the treatments I think you've answered what happened.. Snakes will also go Off feed because if Mites. Im not a Vet but it sounds like this could have been avoided like you mentioned in your post... Thats a shame. The minute our lives do not allow us to take care of those dependent on us is when we need to think about adopting them out to someone that has the time to take care of them.

So sorry you had to learn this way. My young BP also has mites but luckily he's been eating. Ivermectin spray is the best mite treatment IMHO based on my other reptile experiences with mites. Did he have access to clean water? Was he drinking regularly? My condolences, but hopefully now it won't happen again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

Sounds to me that he probably starved to death because he never felt secure/comfortable enough to eat. You have learned a hard lesson. You cannot fix this in any way but you can make sure it never, ever happens again.

---

He must of been comfortable at first because he ate twice, but then just lost interest the third week.

I'm definitely never going to let this happen again. I'm pretty upset that I even let it get this far.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

Yes it can be a combination of both especially if the animal was very young and did not eat for that long.

While a snake that is healthy and has a good body weight can spend months without food, it would not be true for a hatchlings that had mite issue on the top of it.

Ultimately no one can tell you for certain except your vet by doing a necropsy.

And in the future (if you get another animal) keep in mind that mite off does not work as it only treat the adult stage not the eggs, only PAM (Provent a mite) and similar product that treat all stages work.

---

He would have been 2 on the 30th this month and didn't eat for 7/8 months.

I can't take him for a necropsy now because I've already buried him🙁


Wow, i didn't know that mite off only kills the adults? I suppose that's why they kept coming back because the babies weren't being killed.



Thanks for that, I will never be getting mite off again

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FlynnTheBP

So sorry you had to learn this way. My young BP also has mites but luckily he's been eating. Ivermectin spray is the best mite treatment IMHO based on my other reptile experiences with mites. Did he have access to clean water? Was he drinking regularly? My condolences, but hopefully now it won't happen again.

---

My other snake had mites (their cages were next to each other but I moved her) but she has always eaten and never missed a feed. She loves he food that much she sometimes gets another.

His temperature was right, he had 2 hides (he used the hot one mainly but came out alot) had fresh drinking water everyday/every 2 days. He was definitely drinking because when I cleaned his cage every week/2 week I always found urates.


Thank you, and it definitely won't happen again. I've unfortunately learned my lesson🙁

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mr Sully

[
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...d33c59915c.jpg



🙁😔

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

---

The indent you see goes along the Belly Scale change... When a belly is sucked in that is ussually starvation. I dont know how long you owned the snake, how often he ate before July, how old it was or any History to get a idea.. But Mites can overcome a snake. They live off of them and if they kept coming back because you were working and didnt get to all the treatments I think you've answered what happened.. Snakes will also go Off feed because if Mites. Im not a Vet but it sounds like this could have been avoided like you mentioned in your post... Thats a shame. The minute our lives do not allow us to take care of those dependent on us is when we need to think about adopting them out to someone that has the time to take care of them.[/QUOTE]






I got him late june/early July and he had eaten twice just after I got him then just suddenly stopped eating and wasn't interested.
The woman I got him off said he was a really bad eater and only fed when he wanted to so I thought he'd be fine. I still offered food every week but he didn't want any of it.
She also said he was kind of a runt? He was very small for his age. He's older than my female and was half the size.



Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Sorry to hear of your loss.

Very sorry to hear this.

How do mites take over? What do they look like? I've been lucky enough not to have issues with mites. I live in MN, so maybe that makes a difference? I'm an obsessive cleaner in my apartment, and therefore an obsessive cleaner with my boys' enclosures. They get their water dish scrubbed and refilled every day, and then I do poopie patrol to pick up anything laying around. I use cypress mulch for their enclosure and a softer aspen for inside their hidey-huts. They get a full change every month.
If anyone would post a pic of mites, I would truly appreciate the education. I'm so careful with my boys and I've never seen any bugs!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Merriah

How do mites take over? What do they look like? I've been lucky enough not to have issues with mites. I live in MN, so maybe that makes a difference? I'm an obsessive cleaner in my apartment, and therefore an obsessive cleaner with my boys' enclosures. They get their water dish scrubbed and refilled every day, and then I do poopie patrol to pick up anything laying around. I use cypress mulch for their enclosure and a softer aspen for inside their hidey-huts. They get a full change every month.
If anyone would post a pic of mites, I would truly appreciate the education. I'm so careful with my boys and I've never seen any bugs!

---

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a3d079f42b.jpg
They look like black dots that you can squish. Snake mites come from other snakes, or for infested places. If you buy another animal with mites then your whole collection might get them. Another example, you buy something from a pet store that has mites, or mite eggs, and then all of a sudden youre wondering how your snake has mites. I was lucky enough to get rid of the mites on my YB after just one little treatment. I dodged a bullet on that one

Sent from my HTC Desire 626s using Tapatalk

I am a clean freak too but cleanliness has no effect on mites. You could infest your collection with mites simply by them riding home on you from a pet store. The quickest way to rid yourself of them is PAM. Not giving mites a place to thrive helps a little. From my own experience, and from what I have heard, paper substrate makes life a little more difficult on mites.

I would like to offer my sincerest condolences. You can take a bunch of credit for helping me to learn more about this mite issue. My boys will be that much better for it. RIP Casper. *hugs*

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JodanOrNoDan

I am a clean freak too but cleanliness has no effect on mites. You could infest your collection with mites simply by them riding home on you from a pet store. The quickest way to rid yourself of them is PAM. Not giving mites a place to thrive helps a little. From my own experience, and from what I have heard, paper substrate makes life a little more difficult on mites.

---

100%^^^^