I just had one of the worst days of my life. I'll try to make this short. About 3 or 4 months ago one of my babies from 05 started showing sings of IBD. Head shaking when I was picking her up, star gazing, and after I would put her back she would raise her head and then it would fall backwards. She had a hard time eating and was not growing at all. I moved all three of my 05 babies to my girlfriends place just to be safe. I took her to my vet and he said she might have a RI so I gave her antibiotics. It didn't help. Her sister and the other baby I have seem to be thriving and are 100% healthy. I talked to my vet a week ago and told him she wasn't growing and the star gazing was getting worse. He told me even if it wasn't IBD she would most likely not ever get better so we agreed the best thing to do would be to put her down and get her tested. I took her in today, signed the form, and he injected her. He told me it would take 10 to 15 min. for her to pass on. I asked if he could give me a quick lesson on some of the organs and he said that was fine. Well, 5 min. later he came back into the room and she was not moving. He proceded to cut and open and I just couldn't believe my eyes, HER HEART WAS STILL BEATING. It was just awful to see my baby snake lying on her back, cut open, and her heart still beating 100%. He told me she was dead, she just didn't know it yet. All I could think of was those people who have surgery and they wake up in the middle of it but can't move or speak. I'm so upset right now I can barely see straight. Why couldn't he just wait the 10 to 15 min he told me it would take!!! He stared to show me everything and I just couldn't stop looking at her beating heart. Then to top it off blood started coming out of her mouth all over the table. It was just awful. Besides seeing my snake in that state, my main concern is that they will not be able to take an accuate test of IBD. He wasn't able to put her in the jar with liquid to send her off to the lab b/c he said it would be a bloody mess but I could wait for the heart to stop. I just had to leave. But please if you know anything about this let me know if you think the test will still be able to be performed. If anyone has a snake put down please make sure that your vet waits until he/she still completely dead so you don't have to see what I just saw.
Michael Burton

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