My baby corn snake died over Thanksgiving break. On Wednesday night she appeared lethargic, Thursday she was coughing up worms, then she was dead by Friday morning. I'm still pretty new to keeping snakes (she was my first), but except for refusing her meal the week before, I didn't notice any unusual symptoms until her lethargy.
I submitted the body to my vet by Friday afternoon so that she could perform a gross necropsy. From her description, my corn's entire trachea was full of lungworms and had been coughing up the larvae. She also had a heavy load of strongyloides and hookworms. An exact cause of death wasn't determined, but my vet suspects my corn simply wasn't able to breathe because she had so many worms. This makes sense because when I found my snake's body, her neck and face were contorted as though she had been straining.
I've dealt with a long list of herp parasites before with my geckos, but strongyloides and lungworms are new to me. Has anybody dealt with these before? I'm especially looking for some information on lungworms. I've read the basics in the common reptile parasite books and a google search, but I'm looking for more details about their life cycle.
I had the corn for about a month. She ate twice for me in that time. When she died, I had owned my other snakes for about three weeks, so I'm trying to figure out if it makes sense that she could have contracted the worms from them and developed a super infection in such a short period of time. My vet says no and suspects she already carried the worms when I acquired her, but I'm hesitant to believe her. I paid $35 shipping for a $20 snake to avoid a problem like this by buying from a reputable breeder, so it's just so hard to believe. I'm getting fecal tests done on all my other snakes so I can try to narrow it down.
For the record, I used aspen shavings for 1 or 2 weeks before switching to Carefresh Ultra. Day temps are about 86 or 87 on the warm side and 79 on the cool. I know warm temps and high humidity can accelerate worm infestations, but I've been pretty good about replacing the substrate regularly and not allowing any moisture to build up.
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chickabowwow
