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I had a Green Burmese that was 6 weeks old when I got it and I had it for 3 1/2 weeks before it died. About 1 week after I got it I took it to the vet for a checkup and he gave it a clean bill of health (By the way he only looked at it). Shortly after the vet visit it got a respirtory infection which I was fighting with the rest of my snakes thanks to a friends snake that he brought to my house while it was sick (I didn't hurt him though). All of the snakes were getting better and I had only one shot left to give of the baytrel. Then as I was watching my snakes before I went to bed, which I do a lot, I noticed that the Green Burmese was very active and crawling backwards pretty fast. I was worried about that because that is so not like a snake to do. I checked online to see what that might be before going to bed and there was nothing out there on this walking backwards thing. When I woke up and checked on my snakes the Green Burmese was dead (I did cry). I then needed to know why so I can prevent this in the future and to find out if my other snakes were in danger. The vet told me that the snake had Strongyle hookworm and it was a very bad case of them because he found it in the fecal test. He let me look in the microscope and I saw 2 hookworm and 11 eggs without even moving the microscope. I checked this strongyle hookworm out on the web and found that they have to be 5 weeks old before they can even lay eggs. I don't know how old they have to be before they hatch and I don't know how many they lay at one time or how often. I do know that there had to be thousands of these in the snake to see what we saw in the microscope. Now here is the help that I need if you can:

How did a snake that was only 9 to 10 weeks old get worms this bad? What are the chances of the other snakes having or surviving this? How do I approach the place that I got the snake in a professional curtious way but let him know that he needs to do something for me? Please help me to understand how this could happen. I will also tell you what vet NOT to go to if you want to know. The one that I use now is by far the best vet I have ever met. Thank you for your time

Liegekiller@hotmail.com

First off, Strongyles and Hookworms are two entirely different things. Secondly, they aren't going to kill a snake in 9 weeks. It's more likely that it died either from whatever was causing the respiratory illness or from some of the medication.

I thank you for your information. I am told this is a hookworm and I gave a name that I thought he said but was wrong. He said it is a hookworm. Are you saying that there is no way that a 9 week old snake could have died from hookworm?

Also please let me add that the first vet I went to gave me amakacin and oral beytril for all my snakes and everything that he gave me and told me to do was a complete bunch of crap and would have killed all my snakes. That being on a friday and the following Wednesday he calls me to tell me that my snakes have paromyxovirus and they are all going to die. Well I can tell you that he was wrong about that and the amount of medicine to give my snakes. The dose and type that I used on the Green Burmese was 2 units/cc of beytral injection ever 3 days for a total of 5 times. The wieght of the snake was 148 grams. He also wanted to give him 1 unit/cc of amakacin (used for big snakes only) which I did not use for my little snakes. Do you think that I have something to say to the Vet by this time?