In September I had a total of 11 colubrids which included 8 ratsnakes, 2 cornsnakes, and 1 milksnake. I have a custom tank 6'tall by 4' long by 2' wide in which all of them live. 2 of the ratsnakes were Bairds that I bought at a reptile convention in North Carolina in early September. I didn't isolate them for long enough, about a week, they ate their first meal and seemed healthy so I put them in with the others. They were sold to me as proven breeders for $160 total which seemed a little low, but the man I bought them from said he was getting out of colubrids. A couple of months later the male threw up a meal and died. I thought maybe the temperature in the tank wasn't high enough, though I've had snakes for 3 years and never had trouble before. I made sure it was 82F with cooler and warmer areas. Then the other snakes started throwing up. I shrunk their meals, brought them up gradually again and they stopped throwing up. About a month ago, one of the cornsnakes died, no vomiting. She was doing the "stargazing" thing before she died and seemed to have some paralysis around the neck. This morning I found the milksnake dead. She didn't eat her last meal, but she skips meals sometimes so I didn't think anything of it. I last handled her Saturday night, she seemed perfectly healthy. I haven't taken any of the snakes to a vet because everything I've read says if it's a virus in colubrids there's not much to be done and "doing nothing" can be very expensive. What's happening doesn't sound like any parasite I'm read about either. I talked to the gentleman who owns the local reptile store and he said there was no point in isolating the snakes now, if they were going to get something they'd already have it. He also told me there it wasn't worth it to go to a vet. I wonder now if I should have taken them anyway.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to make all the details clear. Any advice would be grealy appreciated.
