Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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*

Sorry for your loss.But this is the strange thing about reptiles somtimes they die with no syntems.We have come along way in captive rearing in this field but there is still so much we don't know.I think sometimes it just happens .heart attack stressed cause the light went on or just an animal that is prone to be weeker for some reason .Usully there is a reason respitory protosoa,worms,nematodes somthing.Since you did a check after and didn't find lung worms or anything wierd it's one of those cases we still don't understand.Every breeders has this happen and it sucks not knowing why.This probably doesn't help u much but just know your not alone
Mike

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
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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)]

Thanks for the sympathy. I hope that her death was just a fluke.
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8.15 Normal ball pythons
2.0 Pastel ball pythons
1.0 Plains Garter
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*

If you just brought in some boas, have you thought of IBD? I hear boas can be asymptomatic, but it is almost 100% lethal in pythons.
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1.1.2 Python regius
0.0.1 Eunectes notaeus
0.0.1 Lampropeltis spp.
5.0.0 Ambystoma mexicanum
1.3.0 Triturus karelinii
1.3.0 Taricha granulosa
0.3.0 Ambystoma jeffersonianum
0.0.3 Salamandra salamandra
0.0.1 Tylototriton verrucosus
1.0.0 Grammastola cala
1.0.0 Homo sapiens 'Hottie'

Yeah I thought of that. I've heard it really not as common as people think though. We bought one dumeril a couple weeks before we bought the dead snake, and she had the mites, we then brought in 2 other dumerils at the same time as the ball python. Considering we have 25 balls of course I am worried about a contagious disease. Since there is no evidence of mites in any of the main ball rack, and I have no other snakes with any problems currently, I would say no to IBD. However, if any more pop up dead than we have a real problem. Luckily, the dumerils are not in the ball breeder rack, they are too big, so they have 4x2's clear across the room

Thanks again!
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8.15 Normal ball pythons
2.0 Pastel ball pythons
1.0 Plains Garter
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*