Here are pictures of the liver from a black rattlesnake that was euthanized today. I expect it to have been at least fifteen years old, and suffered from the effects of what appeared to be a degenerative joint disease. I am still waiting on the write up from the veterinarian for all of the details.

The only thing of interest we found in the gross necropsy were the prominent spots in the liver. The largest of the spots were two to four millimeters, that penetrated through the liver as shown on the cross-section picture. In life, the color of the spots closely resembled the gallbladder fluid. I am aware that reptilian livers commonly have melanin deposits in them, but those are supposed to be amorphous and not nearly as large as this. I could not find any pictures or descriptions in the text fitting the phenomenon we observed. Other black rat snakes in the collection have been found with quite a significant infection of Capillaria sp. Could these be the effects of the hepatic worms? The vet also described the liver as friable.

We do have a section of the liver preserved in 10 percent formalin, but as you can imagine money is tight and I wanted to get an idea of what this could be before I send it off for analysis.

I felt very confident assuming that this snake was suffering from old age, despite disliking the idea that reptiles and amphibians waste away with old age. Any ideas on the cause of the liver discoloration, and how it relates to this snake would be great.

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...the oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it."
Aldo Leopold (1938)

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin and Hobbes (Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink', 1991)

[ Hide Replies ]

• Large spots in black rat liver - Colchicine, Thu Jan 29 21:05:54 2004
• RE: Large spots in black rat liver - Colchicine, Thu Jan 29 21:06:57 2004
• not helpful, but a question - meretseger, Fri Jan 30 04:32:45 2004
• RE: not helpful, but a question - Colchicine, Fri Jan 30 08:11:37 2004
• RE: not helpful, but a question - meretseger, Fri Jan 30 12:00:09 2004
• I assume histopath is out of the question... - RaderRVT, Fri Jan 30 21:08:05 2004
• Colchicine, Did you find anything out about this liver? np - RaderRVT, Mon Feb 2 19:44:48 2004
• No leads yet! np - Colchicine, Tue Feb 17 19:43:47 2004