Chris makes some great points.Internal parasites are the largest factor in non-weight gainning animals. As a surgical Vet Technician I can tell you that the beating heart is perfectly normal and that your beautiful snake didnt feel anything. The way the Ethansol works is to sedate the animal to sleep and kill the blood and O2 flow to the brain and organs, the heart usually stops with in 2-10 minutes depending on the dose, but I can assure you that your Vet did everything according to procedure from what you have report. As for the IBD test, if your vet uses a reputable lab then the lab should retest a negative biopsy 2-3 times to assure the accurace of the test with any test that has an accuracy rating of 95% or lower, so if your Vet uses a good lab then you will be getting accurate results. I am sorry for you lose, but it does sound like you did what was best for the snake. I hope that the results come back favorably for you.

Sincerely,
Rose Aguilar
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www.srsnakes.com

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