Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I wanted to put this out in this forum since I know a lot of you people and own mostly (95%) kingsnakes myself - this condition could easily apply to Kingsnakes. My son has a yearling cornsnake (Kathy love stock). It is behaving very strange. Never seen this in my 30 plus years of keeping snakes. The snake is very limp and moves only slightly. The first time I noticed this was three days ago. I thought maybe the snake didn't find its water bowl and was severely dehydrated. I put the half dead snake in the water and it eventually drank some water. It then left its' bowl and crawled only a few inches and just layed there. I repeated this procedure for three days to ensure that it wasn't dehydrated. To this day, there is no improvement. The snake twitches its body and tries to crawl away but it seems like it is having a lot of trouble doing so. The only conclusion I have at this time is the snake got too dehydrated and has possible brain damage (a lot of twitching movements at the front part and neck of its body) - OR (I hope this isn't the case): My son is not telling me everything , maybe the snake WAS injured recently and I wasn't told about it? But I have ensured my son no consequences if he tells me all. So, therefore I think it is something else. Any advice????
Thanks for reading

Zee

I would definately take it to a vet for a fecal sample and exam. I'm not a vet or anything but it sounds like it could be septicemiae(bacterial infections) or some sort of viral infection.There are a number of reasons why a snake will go lethargic and suffer from dehydration.Twitching would be caused by something affecting the snakes nervous system. This is a case that will definately require a vet. If it's a viral infection you will have to put this snake under quarantine ASAP so your other snakes don't become infected.

Thanks for the advice. . . .Sorry that I can't give a good picture of his overall shape/condition. He is pretty skinny though and had some trouble keeping down some of his meals in the past few months

Zee

Zee

It may be genetic ??? Corns are so inbred that I think that they can have weakened immune systems or have birth defects we cant see i.e. heart, kidney etc... If the snake is that bad off I dont think I would take it to a Vet but I would euthanize it via the freezer. The thing is with some Vets but not all is they will run a ton of expensive tests and still can tell you nothing. Getting a fecal would be cheap but that about as much as I would do with a snake thats in the condition you describe. I dont want to come off as bangin' Vets but there are times to use them and times not to.

Keith
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Thanks, Keith! (You think some of Kathy Love's stock might be inbred? Who knows?)I think I'll probably freeze it in a day or two and then conduct a thorough autopsy to determine cause of injuries/illness . . . .
On the brighter side: My Lake city female (Eastern) is showing signs of "gravidness". And is eating like there's no tomorrow!

Zee

Except maybe a few lines I would guess all Corns have been back bred to parents and of course to sibs. They dont get all those mutations like they have now doing it any other way.

Thats great news on the Lake City animals hopefully she spits a ton of eggs out for you !

Keith
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Since the sick (corn) snake was not really a fancy mutation (a naturally occuring okeetee), I thought that maybe it wasn't inbred - but then again who knows. . . .
My cal king eggs are still doing fine as well (all ten of them). . . They are some huge eggs: Average size = 2" x 1 - 1/16"!
Take care Keith

Zee