Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a rat snake I did a necro on today which was an import, but seemed to be feeding well on live mice until two weeks before it's death this morning. The snake had been treated with panacur once a week for three weeks and one dose of flagyl.

When the snake was found, it was dead with the mouth gaping, and a yellow mucous in the mouth. It was still in quarantine when it died.

When I cut the body open, the heart looked good, liver was good, the lungs looked like long, yellowish sponges, and the gut was full of yellow liquid. There was some blood in the body cavity. There were tiny, white worms throughout the digestive tract from the stomach on down. Red stringy material was found throughout the lower body.

Here's a link to photos: http://www.lowergroundreptiles.net/necropsy/

My questions are:

1. Anything odd there is missed?

2. Is the spongy-appearance normal for the lungs? Could that be a symptom of an illness if it is not normal?

3. What kind of worms were in the digestive tract? How can they be successfully treated?

4. What is the reddish stringy stuff in there?

The lungs... definately not normal. They should be a clear, empty balloon that is IME often missed altogether on necropsy. First guess is this guy has a general infection that included pneumonia, but a pathologist would need tissue samples to verify.
The worms are not a surprise. Flagyl targets protozoa parasites, not worms. Panacur does round worms (if memory recalls correctly) but only has a limited range of specificity.

Recommendations for future imports:

YOu sound like you know what you're doing,(I"m familiar with your website/name), but even with that said, review your husbandry. Optimal husbandry is often needed to get these guys over the stressfull hump of importation.

Fecal samples to target your deworming medications. Medications themselves are a stressor and you'll want what you use to be as specific as possible for the particular snake.

My browser won't let me maneuver much so I havn't looked at your photos... perhaps in the future. If you'd like further help, send your carcass to your vet/pathology lab for a better work up.

#1 thing you did right---quarantine!

Ian