Just got a call back.

Here is a more detailed explanation from the vet....

DeeDee was probably sick for about two weeks judging by the condition of her intestine and the condition of the rest of her body. The vet has not personally seen this condition in snakes before, but it is common in mammals. (He's a very good herp vet, by the way, and does a lot of work in the reptile house at my local zoo, so yes, he does know reptiles).

The intestine basically telescoped inward on itself, and the overlapped section developed an infected abscess. The abscess blocked the intestine and there was fecal matter built up behind it (which was the cause of the swelling). The kidneys, however, empty into the cloaca, and usually urates that are passed into the cloaca are then held there (or back up a bit into the intestine) until the snake defecates. I found tracks of pasty semiliquid urates in her cage when I found that she had died, so that explains why she could pass urates alone (I didn't know where urates get passed into the tract).

The vet also said that conditions like this usually happen fairly quickly, and that even had I recognized the signs, major surgery would have been required, and even if the surgery was successful, more than likely she would have had serious complications.

The vet said her fat reserves and other tissue health was very good (when I asked how long she might have been sick with this). Her intestines looked good above the abscess, that was the entire problem.

I also asked the vet if in his opinion, this was caused by breeding or by being off feed for breeding season. He said he did not know, because he has never seen this happen in a snake. I asked if in his opinion, if DeeDee was large enough to breed for a dwarf boa subspecies, and he said that she was definitely large enough to breed without problems, though he didn't see any signs of activity in her reproductive tract at all. He said that except for the abscess, she was in excellent health (makes me feel better), and that from her size and age, breeding would not have been an issue with her. (I know, the photo I took didn't have anything to show the snake's size in scale with anything else).

So what probably happened, according to the vet, was that when she last defecated, her intestine twisted and slid in on itself. He also let me know that in a potentially gravid boa (with slugs or with live babies), that when feeling their abdomen, you should feel individual round lumps, if the female will let you touch her. DeeDee's belly, when I felt it after she died, just had one large squishy area.

Hopefully this will help some people avoid this if this does happen more than freakishly rarely - and if you think something might be amiss with your gravid boa, see if you can feel bumps, because a large single swelling isn't normal. I wonder if some boas' musculature might hide bumps though, I haven't seen enough gravid boas in person...
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com
1.0 Ball Python, 1.0 Hog Island Boa (RIP DeeDee), 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 Green Tree Python

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