The Importance of Selecting an Experience Reptile Vet

[Redneck_Crow]

It's amazing to me that someone would feed a medium sized rat to a children's python. But then again, there is no limit to the bounds of bad judgement.

Agonal movements aren't just a snake thing. They're common to most animals, including humans. I've seen humans exhibit agonal movements after gunshot wounds, at the end of death from lung cancer, and a variety of other things. They manifest differently in different species, but they aren't caused by a single trauma or disease in any as far as I've seen.

Skiploader, I see where you're coming from about people jumping the gun and assuming that all snake agonal movements are from IBD. Agonal type movements are caused by IBD. I also saw them in a copperhead my father killed with a hoe and that copperhead certainly didn't develop a case of IBD while my father was killing it. (BTW, my father wasn't in the habit of killing snakes, even though he feared and loathed them. The copperhead was in my mother's rock garden where his kids were playing)

Agonal movements are a sign of great pain or impending death. A number of things can cause great pain or impending death--not just IBD. And a number of things can appear to be agonal movements but are not. I've seen humans with neurological problems who look as if they are having the agonal movements of humans all of the time. Even a doctor or vet can't diagnose solely on appearances so it's nuts to assume that one condition which causes a particular set of symptoms, like the ones that commonly manifest in IBD.