So, I have this overwhelming feeling that I'm almost obligated to inform all of you that I lost Nova, my little pastel male. Maybe it's the 100 pix I've posted of him... or the 1,000 great comments that you all have made about him... I am going to try and give all the details in hopes that someone will learn from this... not to have it thrown in my face that I didn't get him to a vet soon enough. Believe me, I feel bad enough... and lesson learned. I am going to ramble a bit... sorry...

I recently made a thread about some retired feeder mice... they were extremely fat... like morbidly nasty fat.... I ran one rat/mouse short at feeding... and wound up feeding one to Nova... I was trying to get him as large as possible before next year... (he had eaten prey that size before in rat form... so that was not the problem)...as I recently wound up with several more BP's with hopes to breed him to the Norm females next year? I wanted to know that I had raised him from a hatch-ling... and now look...! He's got all these hot females! Any way..

3 days later after the mouse he regurged for the first time ...
When I found him around midnight, there was the most horrid smell in the room... he had tipped his water (where the remaining mouseish goo stuff was) and proceeded to climb in/out of the bile? ... he was COVERED in this acidic, fatty, bile.... as well as his tub, hide, bedding etc... So I rushed him to the sink and rinsed him in in VERY mild dish soap/water to get the greasy, nasty, residue and smell off of him... Sterilised his tub... scrubbed water dish and hide... changed aspen bedding... OK.. I'll NEVER feed anything that fatty again... lesson learned... next day I check him, and he acts uncomfortable... I look at his belly and it's red approx every other/ or third scale... no where else... I rinse his belly with 50% water/h. peroxide... and put some Polly-sporin on the bad areas.... I put him on paper towels... started reading anything on scale rot, blister disease, etc... Went and got some Betadine... that night the red areas had blistered... I soaked him in water/Betadine.... no other areas on him... Next day... the first areas were better... but there were now blisters on his sides... and a few more on his belly...

I ruled out burn....not that his tub gets hot enough, I thought possibly with the greasymouse stuff on him? He might have burned? No... because areas appeared on his sides, I ruled out an RI.. never any signs...clear mouth/nose... I rule out "rot" because... you'll haft to take my word for it, but my snakes do not lay in their own poo..... They are all very clean, as I try my best to provide them all the comfort that I can...... and again... areas rose on his sides...

So... I decide this is almost the equivalent of a chemical burn... from the acidic regurge juice that he wallowed in... I mean, he was covered in it... The liquid was so harsh that my eyes burned while rinsing him clean... So because the original areas were already looking better... I figured we were having round two of these areas...and hopefully he will be over this. If not then to the vet on Mon... well... day 3 of this... dead. His entire belly looked like it had gone over a cheese grater... and his sides and back had double the sores........... I can't tell you how horrible I feel.

It's like what ever this was... double timed and just, killed him.

So again, I'll never know what the cause was.... and I will NEVER hesitate to take one to the vet at the FIRST sign of anything... even if it appears that I had a handle on it because the first areas had started to heal... I was very wrong... and he paid for it.

Again, I just wanted you all to know.

Laura