Amy,



Very sorry to hear about your loss. The closest I have heard of to this is a normal three-year-old male that I had and then had to give away to some good friends (my husband and I are in the military, and he suddenly had orders to Hawai'i, and "carnivorous snakes" are illegal there). They had him for two years, and he stayed happy and healthy, then suddenly died for no apparent reason. The best they can guess is that he maybe ate a rat that wasn't so good. I wasn't there to see it for myself.



My own theory had been that rats and mice killed by CO2 might be slightly toxic, and that might have killed my spry young 5-year-old BP.



I am currently attending college, majoring in Animal Sciences, and a course that I took this past Spring was Meat Animal Evaluation. We went into a lot of the different ways that meat animals are processed for human consumption. I asked the professor about any health risks related to the consumption of animals that are killed by CO2 - and I explained to him this whole scenario and why I was asking. He actually told me that CO2 has been used to kill animals for human consumption in the past, and is quite safe; it just isn't practical for large slaughterhouses to use, so it is not used anymore. That being said though, there should be a whole lot of studies out there about any possible toxic effects of CO2 use to kill food animals. I haven't gotten around to looking for these studies myself of course - I've just put it off is all. I don't give my old theory so much credit anymore, but I still think it is worth another look.



What you've seen is worth mentioning to a vet anyway, for a conversation at least. Best of luck with all of your animals. Let us know if you find out anything else!



~Rebecca
-----
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)

0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

1.2 Ball Pythons

[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]

[0.1 '05 Het Hypo (Sylvia)]

[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]

[ Show Entire Thread ]