Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Last night I noticed that my 4 year old female motley ghost corn snake had a clump of bloody stool in her aspen bedding. I hadn't checked on her the day before so it could've been there more than 24 hours. I noticed it when I went to feed her last night.

I tried feeding her one pre-killed adult mouse but she wouldn't eat it and she seemed kind of sluggish. I checked her for ticks and mites but found nothing. I also didn't notice any stargazing, sneezing or wheezing.

I decided to take her to the pet ER up the street and I guess it's a good thing I did since on the way there, she excreted MORE blood. The odd part was that there was no stool, just blood. Last time she ate was about one week - ten days before this.

The vet said it could be an intestinal or reproductive problem and asked if I wanted to do an X-Ray to check for tumors or other abnormalities or just give her some antibiotics and deworming meds to see if it clears up. I told her I'd go with the meds for now and see how she does in 24-48 hours.

So she's now on .2mL of Panacur Suspension and 0.2 mL of Sulfa/Trimeth susp given orally with a squirt type syringe. I also setup a separate terrarium to quarantine her from whatever might be in her normal enclosure until I can clean the heck out of it when I get home tonight.

The thing I found odd was the the vet said that she had never seen bloody stool before without any stool.
So my question is has anyone ever encountered bloody stool with no stool before? This looked almost like pure blood when I saw it in her portable enclosure. Kinda scary...

Thanks in advance!

-Ralph

After three days of deworming and antibiotic meds, she ultimately didn't make it. I found her in her cage this evening with blood coming from her mouth and her vent. I have no idea why she died which is quite frustrating. I almost want to do an autopsy on her but I honestly have no idea what I would look for. Any ideas? Thanks!

-Ralph

Update on this with a somewhat morbid happy ending.
After Alice died, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with her body. However, I remembered that a friend of mine was going to a vet tech school. I asked her if she thought the school would be interested in her for scientific research. She asked the reptile expert at her school and she emphatically said yes and to bring her in.
I gave her to my friend and she took Alice to the school. The teacher actually did a necropsy on her and even incorporated it into the curriculum for her class, so they ALL got to see her do it! I was actually more concerned with educated future vets more about reptiles and snakes than finding out what happened to her and that's exactly what happened...except I got BOTH!
According to the necropsy, it turns out she had 3 tumors on her liver and was suffering from early stages of respiratory failure. So, short of surgery, I don't think there was much I could've done. After the necropsy, my friend said that we were still responsible for burying her. She had a big yard, so she buried her there for me.
I'm just happy that her death was able to serve some sort of purpose and future vets will have a bit more insight when it comes to snakes.
So if you have any vet schools around and an exotic pet of yours passes on, you might want to give them a call to see if they'd be interested.

-Ralph