Reptile & Amphibian Forums

3 days after I got a juvinile blood python in, the snake was fine. The next morning, when I inspected the snake, he was stargazing, BAD. Loss of motor control, got bedding in his mouth... I knew the end was near, and he died that night. I was at first guessing I'd bought a snake with IBD...

3 days later, I caught a baby corn, from the same supplier stargazing, bad... bedding in his mouth, loss of motor control... This corn had just eaten fine a few days prior. Within hours, he was dead.

What the heck am I dealing with? I've found NO mites of any kind anywhere, so it's not transmitted that way... The snakes were never together, no bodily fluids were ever one anyone's hands between handling the two... How si this being passed, and how can i stop it from taking the rest of my stock???

-=Dave

If they were from the same supplier... maybe they were poisoned by some sort of pest control product or something. My vet said that certain insecticides can cause symptoms similar to those of IBD, and can be deadly.
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"The serpent crams itself with animal life that is often warm and vibrant, to prolong an existence in which we detect no joy and no emotion. It reveals the depth to which evolution can sink when it takes the downward path and strips animals to the irreducible minimum able to perpetuate a predatory life in its naked horror."
Alexander Skutch

Referring to the post prior to this, I do know that pest-control strips can cause very ill effects on snakes if used in too high of a quantity. If this isn't a possibility, then I'd say it wasn't on your side. Oh, overheating can cause neurological problems as well, but I don't think three days is enough to kill 'em...

Dustin

Overheating is out of the question...

I got both from what I think is a pretty reputable, pretty big supplier, I'd be suprised to find they made that huge of a goof... Any other possibilities?

-=Dave

You are going to have to eliminate your place as the problem first. There's nothing you can really do to investigate the dealer, unless you can find other customers that have had similar problems. It's not likely that the dealer is going to be very forthcoming to your inquiries, especially if he DOES have problems.

1. What are you using to disinfect/clean enclosures?
2. Have you had exterminators in your house? Have you used any type of roach or ant killer in the past 6 months or so? If you live in an apartment, do they send exterminators in? Sometimes they do that while tenants are at work, etc. and you may never even know it.
3. Where do you get your feeders from? Could that be the source of some toxin?
4. Do you work with any toxic substances that could come home with you on your clothes or hands?
5. Have you administered any medications?
6. Where did the cage furnishings come from? Were you using wood or rocks from outside that could have borne some sort of herbicide or pesticide?

It's highly unusual for a disease to kill that quickly and in that fashion. If both came from the same supplier though, it is entirely possible that both were infected at the same time before you aquired them. However, you would expect to see some symptoms for at least a few days before death occurs. Normally if some biological pathogen is the culprit, the snake will be off feed for some time before death. My suspicion is that this is more environmentally related, some sort of toxin.

1. These tanks were brand new, waiting for the animals to be placed in them. They were rinsed with water, but never cleaned with chemicals.
2. It's been at least a year since any pest chemicals have been in there, I think longer. And my personal stock has been doing fine in there since before I got my new stock.
3. My feeders are bulk shipped, frozen, looking VERY good from, I think... Cajun mouse? or something like that... And the blood python never got a chance to eat before he died, so that rules that out...
4. My partner's a bill collector, sits at a desk all day, so I doubt he brought in a toxin. While I work with metal, it's never more that stainless, titianium, silver, inconel... All harmless, and I work with no chemicals.
5. The snakes were new, nothing had been administered.
6. I used 50/50 Peat moss and Cypress mulch on the blood, both pet store supplied, the same stuff the pet store uses on their animals- And the corns were on shaved aspen... Nope, wasn't that.

The place hasn't over heated, and while the temp has gotten a bit lower at night, couldn't have dropped below 55, if even that low. That's far from unhealthy.

If anyone else has ANY ideas that might save the other 92% of my stock, PLEASE let me know.

Thank you...

-=Dave

That pretty much rules out your environment. They must have come in sick. I think about the only thing you can do is to remove anything that came in contact with those snakes from the area where you keep your snakes and thoroughly disenfect everything that the rest of your snakes are in contact with.

You might want to consider taking the dead snakes to the vet and investing in necropsies.