Reptile & Amphibian Forums

a few months back i had a small western diamondback (probably between 24"-30" and i fed him one medium sized mouse and an adult mouse. he took them down with no problem. then about two or three days later i found him dead and id say there was about a three inch long black part that looked like a bruise.

does anyone have any idea what might have happened?

i had thought that possible i fed him too much and his stomach ruptured, or possibly he bit himself since he was in a small sweaterbox when he died.

im not sure what happened.

any advice or clues would be GREATLY appreciated.

Did you use tongs to move him? Car maybe?

i used a hook to move it at all times...and i have no idea what you mean with the whole car thing...

Where on the snake's body was the bruise?

~~Greg~~

probably about halfway down its body on the bottom side.

The sudden death of an apparently healthy snake is not an uncommon circumstance. We just did a necropsy on an animal that looked and acted in perfect health and was totally septic with an abscessed liver and a miserable infection throughout its bloodstream. Snakes are cryptic, meaning that they have evolved not to show symptoms of illness or weakness literally up to the point of death if it is possible for these to be masked so they can continue to appear healthy to predators and competitors. Unfortunately this means they don't give their keepers much help in diagnosing them when they are ill and in need of veterinary care.

The discloration on the snake's side may be a normal consequence of bile leakage which happens on death. Post a good digital photo of the discoloration and the folks here will be able to tell you if this is a normal appearance.

You will not be able to determine what killed the animal without a necropsy, which you can only do on the fresh (not frozen) body. Gross pathology (just opening it up and looking) may or may not tell you anything. You may need to look closer or even send tissues out to a lab. A microscope is a remarkably useful diagnostic tool both for live and dead animals and if you have a large collection I suggest investing in one. It's good to know why snakes die, when they do die, to preserve the health of the animals remaining in your collection.

Where did you get the snake from?

Do you know its history?

I have seen atrox have a dark area form om the underside that have been gassed from their dens with gasoline. T

he moron "Professional Snake Hunters" do this for their precious rattlesnake round ups. I don't see where the professional or the hunting comes in but they have the snake part right.

Too bad they wind up dead one way or the other.

I wouldn't think a gassed snake would eat though.

Otherwise I would lean towards what MsTT said.

Also an atrox is not going to kill itself by self envenomation. Short of a fang puncturing an organ, I can't think of anything that would harm it.

Dave