My poor baby dumeril's boa passed away Saturday morning. We had finally gotten her eating, her respiratory infection was cleared, and we thought she was going to be ok. She skipped one meal, which we thought was due to her being in shed. Otherwise, she appeared to be healthy. Finding her dead was completely heartbreaking and watching the necropsy was even worse.
Gross necropsy conducted Monday evening showed nothing at all that was wrong. Lung was completely healthy, all other organs were healthy etc. Fecal showed no parasites. Current theory is a virus - histopathology results should come back in 10-14 days. IBD, a paramoxyvirus (forgot the exact virus), and some other viruses are all on the table right now.
To get the information out there - my exotics vet said that he has found that IBD is very common and he sees two cases of it a month. He also stated that it's been particularly high lately. He also mentioned a new virus in snakes that he read about in the last six months but couldn't remember the name of right then.
Honestly, I'm not really sure where I'm going with this right now but she likely died of a virus a week or two after being seen and declared healthy by the exotics vet. She didn't show symptoms during the intervening time. She never had mites. She had started eating, even f/t. I desperately hope that my quarantine procedures were good enough. And I will miss her - she was a sweet, beautiful baby who seems she may have been doomed before we even got her.
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