Had one of my best friends pass away tonight Poe

Also, after reading my details, I jumped around and confused a few of you. 3.5 years I went to the vet. After about 4 months of owning him I thought something was wrong with him because he LIVED in his water dish. To the extent I had to put a bigger dish in there so he could actually fit his body in it, otherwise he would just flood his cage jamming himself into his smaller dish. That was when I went to the vet to see if something was wrong with him and she told me I just had a weird one.
Fast forward to last week he was showing symptoms of this problem. His urine started smelling just before Christmas however the thing that made me think something was wrong was when he passed some of the goo the vet ended up plush out of him. I had taken him off his breeding rotation at the beginning of Dec because he has missed 3 consecutive meals (just my policy with my males). The first sign he showed me was just before Christmas, but from what the vet told me even if I had brought him in then it wouldnt have changed the outcome.

Sorry for your loss. I've taken my ETB to a vet here in Austin. The first one I called looked at snakes, but I did search for "exotic" vets, and I imagine I have more options here in a big city. The vet tech wasn't too interested in handling to weigh, so I did it, but that wasn't a problem. She bit someone when they were doing an x-ray, and she never bites, but beyond that, it went pretty well. I would guess a vet having a problem with (non-venomous) snakes is them generally just having a lack of experience. Which is honestly understandable, snakes are a lot less common pets, but I feel like they should at least be willing to give it a shot.

Well I just got a call from the vet. His blood work came back and his white blood cell count was through the roof meaning he was fighting a chronic infection. I'm not going to be sending him in for an autopsy mostly because I would have to send him all the way to Miami, and being a Snow Mexican it's really expensive. I've got him on ice right now and can send him off whenever I would like however she is confident this is a one off event. He has always been a weird snake so her diagnosis is that whatever caused the infection could have been present from birth. She is thinks a lesion in the intestinal tract.

I'm not going to lie, he has been in with one of my females a few months back, and I am a little concerned about the possibility of him spreading something however that is me just being paranoid. Her prognosis is that unless he had IR or IBD (which he doesnt) there isnt much he could pass along to his mate. I'm going to keep him for some time in case I decide to send him and monitor my collection closely. The rest of them are all flourishing and are doing really well.

Looking back on it and how he was acting, if this had been going on for 3-6 months (as the vet has suspected) he gave me zero signs during that time for me to think he was sick. He had good weight, had normal bowel movements, normal sheds and was eating about as regular as he always had. Again he was pretty much living in his water dish because he was so dehydrated however like I said before, he had done that from the first day I got him and was cleared early on. The only thing I should have done different is I should have had blood work done on my vet appointment I had 3.5 years ago when I first got him. I track everything on each individual snake and he was eats amazing 3 months ago (from May-Oct). Everything stopped all at once.

I wish they could talk.

If I'm not mistaken, keeping him "on ice" ruins any shot at necropsy...I think they're supposed to be refrigerated only for best results. I'm glad you've gotten
some answers on this sad & unexpected loss though, & thanks for sharing.

It ruins anything neurological including brain tissue and will cause some vessels to rupture (water expands) but considering what they think he has it is still an option. Tests could still be done to him if I wanted to go down that Avenue. At least that's what my vet told me.

At least you've gotten some pretty good information already...as your vet said, nothing you really could have done. Sadly we cannot prevent all such deaths, but they
do come as a very sad shock.

You almost take them for granted until something like this happens.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Weremey59

You almost take them for granted until something like this happens.

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As we take our own lives for granted too...;) But it's not healthy to spend every waking minute worrying anyway.