New Hatchling Passed Away

[Python_Liqueur]

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.

I'm certainly up for being safer than sorry, but I would have to save up for that. I'd likely call my vet for her opinion on whether it's worth it in this situation.

For ruling out amoeba in live animals, do you have any estimate on how much that costs? I would very much be interested in looking into that! I've actually not heard of it before, I would like to know more if you've ever got the time to educate me a little or could even just point me in the right direction of a good article!