We had a 392 gram early 05 female die today, and I was curious if anyone knew of any causes of sudden death in ball pythons. We bought her in April with two other females of similar size. She was eating fine up until about 3 weeks ago when she went off feed to shed, and never began eating again. She and the other two I purchased are very aggressive snakes, but good eaters (and regularily poop as well). I did a necropsy (I am a science teacher so I am a bit weird), and found she was not blocked, and did not have any food in her system. She had a small amount of urates by her cloacca. She had a large amount of blood in her thoracic cavity, and I did not see any evidence of a large parasite load, or external injury.



This was her before she passed away. She was not dehydrated, or emaciated by any means.



We did bring in 3 dumeril's boas in April as well, and one of them had mites. We treated for mites, and recently we noticed a few back in with the boas. We treated the enclosures with 1 part nix to 20 parts water about a week ago, and I made sure all water bowls were removed...I always worry that the mites could have spread a boa disease to her, but I am not sure how likely this is to have killed my ball python.



Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
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8.16 Normal ball pythons

2.0 Pastel ball pythons

1.0 Plains Garter

0.1 Rosy boa

0.1 Normal Kenyan Sand Boa

1.1 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa

0.1 Leucistic Texas Rat

1.2 Dumeril's Boa

-----My list is too long, so I'll stop here!

*Amy*

[ Hide Replies ]

• Sudden Death - reptilicus81, Fri Jul 28 15:41:15 2006
• RE: Sudden Death - mpuexotics, Fri Jul 28 16:14:27 2006
• RE: Sudden Death - amarilrose, Fri Jul 28 19:49:02 2006
• RE: Sudden Death - reptilicus81, Fri Jul 28 21:38:23 2006
• RE: Sudden Death - Kaysie, Fri Jul 28 21:47:23 2006
• RE: Sudden Death - reptilicus81, Sat Jul 29 09:51:56 2006