Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently moved 300km from calgary to edmonton. I had 2 boas a ball python and a corn snake. I didn't feed them for 2 weeks before moving and left them for one week after was in new place. I then fed all the snakes and each shed about a week later, then within 6 weeks all had died, the last check up was about 6 months ago and all were healthy. all the temps and humidity were good, the sheds were the best from all that I had seen in a while.

one weird thing was the mature male boa. I am at work for about 10 hour he was alive when i left, I came home and he was blotted about twice his size. when I went to remove him from the tank he split from head to tail and just a soupy mix spilled out. no heart, lung, etc.. just a soup.

I feel bad because I didnt have the money to get an autopsy done on him as he was the second snake to go. each snake was in its own tank and I never handle them in succession withought washing to make sure not to transfer anything.

I am hopeing someone may have some idea. My only thought is stress but, they ate and shed really well. I am completley withought my snakes as I have none left. Although nothing can bring them back, some answers would be really helpfull.

thanx to anyone who replies

I cant think of aything worse than finding a dead pet, much less mopping up the insides of my dead pet. I dont know what would have caused them to die, but i wouldnt drink the water...

Im really sorry for your loss. Having a group of animals die together in a short period of time would make me think that it could be posioning of some sort, water or food perhaps? or you said you moved, could there be some sort of gas (carbon monoxide)? or a mold?
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True Redtails

either the water or carbon monoxide. look into also wherever you bought your food items from . wow dude that really sucks
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NO BEAUTY LIKE THE BEAUTY OF A TRUE REDTAIL !!

It is also possible that is was poisoning from your new place being sprayed for bugs. That happened to friend of mine. He lost his rainbow boa and black tree monitor within a week. Both animals he had over a year. This was just after his apartment was sprayed for bugs. He had never had it done before but forgot to tell the manager not to do so. I am very sorry for your loss! I hope you can nail down the reason as not knowing why they passed away is the worst!
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Derek Roberts
Sonoran Reptile Breeders
sonoranreptile@cox.net

I can't imagine what I would do in your situation... I don't know what more to say other than you have my condolences.

As for my opinion on what may have happened, well, I think the other posters have brought up the two most likely causes. It is possible that all your snakes shared a communal disease that was inapperant until they were all stressed. I don't want to jump on the IBD bandwagon or anything, but that is an example. The bloating was most likely a post-mortem artifact. I would thoroughly disinfect everything snake related and throw out anything that isn't easy to wipe clean if you plan on getting more snakes in the future.

To cheer you up, I would like to invite you to attend the Edmonton Reptile and Amphibian Society's spring show this weekend. It'll be lots of fun! Details are at www.edmontonreptiles.com. Welcome to Edmonton !

Man, that’s terrible.

Someone on the gecko forum once talked about his gecko dropping dead after the place was sprayed for bugs. However, I would really wonder what “sprayed for bugs” really means. Do they spray inside for roaches and ants? Outside? I don’t really know how that works. If the building is sprayed on the outside, I doubt that would find its way in with lethal effects like that.

Did you paint anything in their proximity. Maybe paint fumes can do it. Have you varnished or put a finish on anything near them that takes time to cure and gives off fumes?

Have you used any new cleaning agents around them or on the cages?

For your own safety, you ought to check for carbon monoxide. The snakes would probably succumb to smaller amounts.

The reply below stating IBD would be highly unlikely since you had a colubrid (not a boa or python) that dies in a very close interval. Plus, even if all had IBD, it is statistically impossible they’d all drop in that close of a window of time.

Food water, and fumes are your likely culprits.

0ops, I had overlooked that one was a colubrid IBD would be much, much less likely, but the overall concern of a shared disease, (viral or other) that presented after the shared stress of moving is still real. Again though, I agree that there are other culprits that are more likely.