New Hatchling Passed Away

[Python_Liqueur]

I made a post a while ago in the husbandry section concerned about my hatchlings' feeding, and I have no idea what happened, but my sweet little male, Fireball, passed away yesterday

I have no idea what happened, the only point of concern about him was his refusal to eat. Did he starve? I would be utterly gutted if he did, I didn't think it was time for extreme measures like assist feeding... When I found him, he had no injuries, there was water in his bowl, and he was simply lying there.

Honestly, I'm suspicious of the breeder due to a comment he made about there being "nothing wrong with him" when giving him to me as a freebie, but visually he appeared completely healthy. I see freebies all the time with inverts, should I be suspicious of them with herps in the future? Or with hatchlings so small? And should I be worried for the female I got from him? She's giving me a hard time with food as well, just not as bad.

I'm pretty devastated and worried that there was something I should have done sooner that might have saved him... I keep adult ball pythons and other exotics and can't believe this happened with my first hatchling bps.

Here is my previous post: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...d-Intervention

[Malum Argenteum]

A necropsy might reveal something that might be relevant to concerns about the female (or the rest of your collection, unless your QT procedures are 100% airtight).

[Bogertophis]

I'm so sorry for your loss. How long had it been since he fed? Did he ever feed for you? Hatchlings don't have enough body weight to fast as long as adults do, so starvation is a possibility, sorry.
It may have been past time to either assist feed or tube feed*, which is my personal preference. (*I'll be happy to share detailed instructions via PM- just ask.)

I agree with you, that was suspicious- breeders don't usually give away snakes they can sell, so it's quite possible that they already had trouble with him from the start & didn't want to bother. And did you say he was also undersized? Listen, there is also just a "failure to thrive" that can happen, even with snakes that have NO visible abnormalities, size or otherwise. So it's hard to say? It's also possible that the breeder had other losses in the same litter, & considered this one to be more at risk- thus he was a freebie to you.

Could any intervention have saved him? Maybe, maybe not. No way to know. I doubt that a necropsy will show anything, plus they're expensive, must be done soon with the body not frozen, & by an experienced herp vet.

Rest in Peace, Fireball.

[Malum Argenteum]

Listen, there is also just a "failure to thrive" that can happen, even with snakes that have NO visible abnormalities, size or otherwise.

No way to know. I doubt that a necropsy will show anything, plus they're expensive, must be done soon with the body not frozen, & by an experienced herp vet.

Necropsies are a couple hundred dollars in many cases (gross necropsies are sometimes a hundred dollars or less, and then histopathology samples another hundred or somewhat more). Whether that's expensive for a chance of knowing what a keeper brought into their collection is probably different for different keepers. At least some vets send out their necropsies, certainly the histo and other specialized samples, so any vet can line one up, at least in theory. You're right that they don't always give a clear answer, but not getting one is 100% likely to not give a clear answer. What a necropsy can often do is rule out the most scary possibilities, and to some keepers that might be worth a lot.

"Failure to thrive" is a catch-all for situations where we don't know what's causing the difficulty. Something is causing the failure to thrive, though. Unfortunately, the fact that nearly all reptile deaths aren't investigated keeps us in the dark about what's causing the deaths. I'd suspect amoeba first in a non-feeding case where environmental parameters are acceptable, which is pretty easy to rule out with necropsy or in live animals PCR swab or even shotgunning metronidazole, but unfortunately not a lot of keepers do this.

[Bogertophis]

You're right that this might have been something simple, like amoeba, but what I mostly think of when I say "failure to thrive" is some internal abnormalities that just happens with all the selective breeding being done- & this one was apparently on the small side already which raises the odds of something else being off.

I do agree that a necropsy is always a good idea if your budget can handle it, & most especially to contribute to the bigger picture of knowing what went wrong, & protecting any other snakes in the vicinity in case it's something contagious, but in this case I think it's more likely the combination of an at-risk hatchling & perhaps waiting too long for feeding intervention. For anyone intending to breed & sell snakes, for sure a necropsy should be done. My impression though is that the OP is more of a pet-keeper only, but I shouldn't assume. My bad.