Ball python struggling to swallow

[Bogertophis]

... He has been active and doesn't seem to be panicking or stressed at all.
Have just misted the terrarium I bit ...

Well that's a good sign...& a good idea to mist. I thought by now that I've seen everything when it comes to snakes, but they still manage to mess with us at times.

[SnakeMother22]

Good job keeping your head.

Why thank you, i did almost lose it at one point though :)
We're taking him up now as while he hasn't gotten worse since last night, he hasn't gotten better.
He still doesn't seem to be at all panicked, so that's a good thing atleast.
Thanks again

[Homebody]

Good luck. Please keep us updated.

[Bogertophis]

Any update??? Did you take him to the pet store where you got him? Or to a vet?

[SnakeMother22]

We took him to a vet yesterday, there was a bad smell at the time. They tried to remove the mouse while he was awake but he wasn't having it so they placed him under anaesthesia and were able to quickly remove the mouse. The vet and the rest of us are still confused as to why the mouse got stuck as it was a regular sized mouse he had taken before (I have my suspicions that it had something to do with the store we got him in).
We took him home and about half an hour later he became unresponsive, my dad thought it was him just chilled out as he was still likely feeling the effects of the anaesthesia and my friend tried to comfort me saying that some animals after waking up from anaesthetic, fall into a deep sleep for a while (she works in the local vets) since then, he has still been unresponsive.
I'm staying with my aunt for a while and my dad is going to Bury him tomorrow.
Thank yous for your help and support <3

[Bogertophis]

Oh no! I didn't see that coming...I'm so sorry for how this turned out. None of this is normal- it makes me wonder if there was a congenital abnormality in his throat that caused a problem- things like that are rare & sad, but they can happen. A necropsy might or might not have given an answer, but even the vet didn't look any further & had no reason to think he wouldn't be fine after the mouse was removed. This shouldn't have turned out like this...I'm very sorry for your sudden, unexpected loss...that's the worst kind.

Thank you for sharing your experience though, so we can all be better aware of things that can go wrong. If & when you feel more like talking about this, I'd call the vet & let them know this happened, just to see what they think. (Did the vet do an x-ray before or after removing the mouse?)

As I look back over your earlier posts, especially #7- https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...=1#post2787051 -that makes me think this was somehow blocking his airway too, & maybe the prolonged difficulty breathing made him overly-susceptible to the effects of anesthesia. At that point his heart may have given out, due to the combined stress at the vet, & the anesthesia. Just my speculation...like I said, I'd run this by the vet when you feel up to it, so they can learn too.

[Homebody]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[SnakeMother22]

None of this is normal- it makes me wonder if there was a congenital abnormality in his throat that caused a problem- things like that are rare & sad, but they can happen.

That would explain it, and it wouldn't surprise me given the store I got him from had habits of sending out injured or sick animals. (On the reviews a woman bought a bird only to find it was malnourished and had an underlying disease causing it to later die soon after it was brought home. While my friend got two rats from the the same branch which were both infested with mites, one of which also has a respiratory disease.)

To my knowledge there was no x rays done before or after.
The blueness of his throat I later found was bruising. The vets were one of the first to find out he had passed and offered their condolences saying we did the best we could.


Jörmun is being buried with his favourite hide and a necklace I bought that somewhat resembled him.

Thank yous so much

[Bogertophis]

That would explain it, and it wouldn't surprise me given the store I got him from had habits of sending out injured or sick animals. (On the reviews a woman bought a bird only to find it was malnourished and had an underlying disease causing it to later die soon after it was brought home. While my friend got two rats from the the same branch which were both infested with mites, one of which also has a respiratory disease.)

To my knowledge there was no x rays done before or after.
The blueness of his throat I later found was bruising. The vets were one of the first to find out he had passed and offered their condolences saying we did the best we could.


Jörmun is being buried with his favourite hide and a necklace I bought that somewhat resembled him.

Thank yous so much

Pet stores are under a lot of pressure to keep prices reasonable, even though they have a "high overhead" (maintaining a "brick & mortar" store is expensive), so many do tend to buy in bulk from not always the best sources. That's why the best breeders sell their animals after they have a good feeding record, & why it's always less risk to buy "well-started" animals.

Even so, some things don't show up right away, & defects do happen when so many snakes are bred (& inbred) for fancy outward characteristics. I can remember hearing about a snake that had no cloacal opening- so it would eat, but ultimately couldn't expel waste, which was fatal. Some snakes are also prone to prolapses, strictures, or other various internal deviations that no one can see- some breeders & sellers, eager to just make money, may unfortunately just sell their animals anyway, letting the "chips fall where they may", continuing to breed animals whose bloodlines have a high mortality rate. They might not even know, if all they ever do is quickly wholesale their clutches to large distributers.

Anyway, Rest in Peace, Jormun.

[Malum Argenteum]

Pet stores are under a lot of pressure to keep prices reasonable, even though they have a "high overhead" (maintaining a "brick & mortar" store is expensive), so many do tend to buy in bulk from not always the best sources. That's why the best breeders sell their animals after they have a good feeding record,

Breeders will also sort out the animals of lesser quality to go to wholesale, so any animal in a pet shop is much more likely to have been the leftovers after the best ones are sold directly to the end owner by the breeder. There's also some cherry picking of animals after they are wholesaled, by the distributor's employees, and by the shop's employees, so what hits the sales floor has been picked over perhaps a couple times.

This isn't the only pool that pet shop animals come from, of course -- they could be bred in house, or come from a breeder who simply wholesales everything -- but if there is any sorting done in the supply chain the highest quality ones do not go for wholesale.

Buying from the breeder is virtually always going to lead to best results, and buying the least expensive animal is often not the best bet unless the buyer knows exactly why the price is so low and this reason is not a worry (for example, overproduction of a low-value morph).