Hi!
a few days ago I separated a male 6 year old captive bred trinket snake (Elaphe helena), because it seemend to be weak and had "breathing problems", kinda like a beginning respiratory infection. It also stopped eating, but this is not unusall because he always refused food when breeding my female. Because of that signs I separated the male 10 days ago in a separate box.
I observed the snake very carefully for more signs of a respiratory infection, but the symptoms didn't get worse. I had another female trinket snake which actually had a respiratory infection one month ago but I could heal her with antibiotics. She was also separated immediately. Therefore I was aware of any symptoms in that male, I was afraied, that he was infected from the other (in the meantime healed) snake.
In the past few days he breathed quite normally, but remained weak and didn't eat. Because the problem didn't turn out to be respiratory I waited with antibiotics, but this was maybe a fatal error 
... Today I found the snake dead in its quarantine box, he seemed to have lost a lot of fluids in his last minutes. I can't tell if he regurtitatet it or if he had diarrea.
But one thing makes me worry a lot - in the middle of the body I saw a black spot, at "stomach height". Is that only a sign of bacterial decomposition or can it mean something worse? I'm worried, that it contained an infectious disease which can harm other snakes of my collection, although I don't maintain any wild caughts and keep an eye on hygiene. Does someone have examined something like that? Currently I don't have the possibility to check the dead snake by a vet.
By the way - all other snakes in my helena-breeding colony are healthy and eating.
Thanks for any comments!
