We're not sure if it started as several that merged, or was always the giant one. When you tilted the snake, all the fluid would pool in whichever end was lowest. It was probably a combination of factors that led up to it. The vet was pretty certain it was mostly from the heat lamp, but as I said there was a multitude of things being done wrong for that snake. It was close to a year ago that we saw this snake, I think, and I can't remember if they were feeding it only pinky mice, or fuzzies. The whole appt was sort of a trainwreck.