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My little male albino redsided passed away this morning. I knew it was coming, for a while now I have known -something- was wrong with him. He and the female have always eaten large meals but he never really grew.. only a little bit. It got to the point where the female is 3 times his size and 2 weeks ago, he went off feed and his pupils seemed fixated... and he just was kind of "there", but not all there.

So last night I went through my 09's and I noticed he had a pronounced swelling in his upper body. I held him up to the light, as i do with my albino snakes and realized it was where his heart was supposed to be. Only, I could not see his heart beating. This was weird to me as you can always see it in the albinos. I pulled all my other albino 09's out and held them up to the light, no swelling, and their hearts were very clearly beating away. I palpated the area and I could feel the swelling in the area. His pupils were still constricted and he seemed a bit weak. I put him back knowing that in the morning I would probably have to put him down. well I got up this morning and he was dead. So I pulled him out to examine him, the swelling was no longer as visible but it was still there enough for me to take some pictures. Last night it was larger than this, large enough to really freak me out!

Just to be sure it was his heart and not something else I did open him up to examine it. It was his heart, nothing else was there, just a swollen heart. Does anyone know what the heck this is about? His heart wasn't always swollen and sticking out like this... but he did never really grow...

So sorry for your loss. I am not positive about the heart but I had a kingsnake die from an enlarged organ I took it to a vet for a necropsy. I think it wasan enlarged liver I could be wrong. But the vet told me that a virus caused the enlarged organ and virus's can cause other enlarged organs. Not to alarm you cuz it very well may not be that at all but just to be safe for a while try to take precaution of "spreading" it around if that's what it possibly is than it could end in disaster if you aren't careful. I could be and hope I am totally wrong and probably am. I just wanted to let you know of what happened to my kingsnake so you can be careful.

thank you,

I keep my babies in small groups and they've lived together since I got them, I don't -think- it's a virus, I'm certainly not going to rule it out... everyone else appears to be well and most importantly, growing, whereas this one would eat a ton and not grow. Hopefully it was a one time thing, and there was just something off about him from the beginning. Sorry to hear you lost your kingsnake

Thank you for your sympathy about my kingsnake. Unfortunately I have throughout the years probably lost more snakes than most hobbiests have owned so I've become kind of numb about it. Although that kingsnake was a pretty special project is why I had the necropsy done. Funny thing I actually paid for the necropsy with a melanistic female garter a vet friend of mine fell in love with LOL. Anyhow the Kingsnake was an axanthic or anerythristic (whichever ya'd wanna call it) Eastern Kingsnake. None have been found and I had the only one anyones heard of at that time (I haven't kept up with it since I lost her). So that's why I had the necropsy done cuz she was a pretty important snake in my collection. Anyhow, I know that some snakes seem to show the sign of a virus a long time before others in the group. I had a twenty gallon aquarium with about 40 ribbon snakes in it. I am not sure what virus broke out in the aquarium but I first lost one (a sizable lump around the liver area). Then about two months to three months later I lost about half of what was left (1 to 3 daily) till it seemed to come under control. Good luck with yours I hope it all turns out well. Just keep an eye on them and if any start showing unusual behavior (star gazing, or just strange crawling) iceolate them all. Just to be on the safe side.

Hi Shannon,

I think I have a similar sort of thing happening with a male Honduran milksnake. He was never a particularly good eater/grower, but otherwise seemed fine. After a woke him up from winter cooling, I noticed a swelling in the heart area (you can see the swelling in the coil in front of the tail in the photo below). At this point in time he's getting ready to shed - I haven't tried feeding him yet this year.

Around here we have vets that will do a necropsy free of charge. Sometimes this is worthwhile. Though if it is a heart problem, by guess is that it would be genetic and not "curable."

It's interesting if both snakes have the same problem, as they are both albinos and both male.

Tim

oh wow... okay so I am not crazy! some snakes really do get swollen hearts... I was looking at my snake like oh come on now, his heart? swelled up? that doesn't happen Shannon you are imagining things. But no, I wasn't! That is very interesting Tim, I hope the little guy fares better than mine did.

No you aren't imagining things. I should have mentioned in my earlier post that I have had the same thing happen. I actually would assume myself it's not as uncommon as we'd like to think. Realize that everyone ultimately dies from cardiac failure. When your heart stops is when you die. The heart becomes distressed it surely can and would swell in certain situations. Most of the ones I've noticed it in it wasn't swolen prior to death. I have also noticed it being swolen prior to death like you describe at times too. I think that whoever it was that mentioned it being genetic is probably right. It's probably attributed to the smaller breeding colonies that happen when producing the desired genetics. Thus why it's always a great thing to outcross them to introduce new genes to help remove these undesired affects. If you think about it the recessive genes we all target and want in our animals are ultimately birth defects. Ones that can easily end up fatal in the wild but for the most part have no adverse affects on them in captivity. Other recessive genes can directly be a heart that becomes enlarged as the animal ages. The gene could be as common as our most common albinos that could make it difficult to dispurse as we keep in breeding. Or even breeding closely related relatives. Scott seems to be on top of this because I regularly see him selling outcrossed animals for a premium price. Which is well worth the additional money paid for the animal but most people don't realize that. Hopefully in your case the cause was genetic that would mean it had nothing to do with your care (which I can't see any way that could have caused an enlarged heart anyhow) and will have no affect at all on the rest of your collection. I remember a while back you posted a picture of an albino red sided that you got for a birthday or christmas present. Was this the same one? If it is it was a terrible loss and I'm so sorry to hear about that. On the bright side it looks like the price of the albino red sideds are going down I figure it's directly due to the snow being produced. I hope you are able to replace him this coming year. Take care.....

the albino I got for Xmas was a banded water snake... this little guy I ordered last season from Scott, I have a female though still, she is growing like it's her job and I think I'd like to add an anerythristic het albino male to my redsided group, I don't like to have a lot of the same morph and I have always liked the anery's. I personally am not looking to produce or keep the snows, so I think an anery might be just the one to add...because now I have a female albino and two female normal redsideds and no male!

So sorry about your loss.The pics of your snake however remind me of a little rough green snake I ran across last summer.He was thin and weak but what got my attention was that his heart was obviously swollen! Maybe the same thing? Jeff