refrozen trouble

[urd]

my friends corn snake died yesterday, for unknown reasons.
i asked what it had eaten recently and he said he fed it last week on a REfrozen mouse. i told him before you should never do this but he obviously didnt listen!

could this be the cause of snake death? his temps etc were fine, i checked myself.

thanks for any comments

[Pontus]

maybe depends on how many times hes done this and how long then have been unthawed for

[Tim_Cranwill]

I don't think that would have killed the snake. If anything, that would cause it to regurgitate the meal but not kill it.

How was the snake being kept?

How old was it?

Sometimes things just die...

[Auskan]

I've heard that there is such thing as "sudden death" in juvi snakes, just as there is "sudden infant death syndrome" in people. My partner had a corn that just suddenly died one day too and we never found out why. He had been eating & pooping normally, refused one meal & died about 3 days later.

[Simon]

Well it could be those 'sudden death' things.

But they are not that common around corn snakes. But of course it could be...

last year (in 2003) I produced around 800-900 corn snakes and had 1 or maybe at most 2 die like that.....so as you can see it's not a very common thing...well at least for me..but of course it could be...

re-freezing could caused the death but I don't think that it's that. Most of the time re-freezing kills most of the germs that are on the food item already. But of course...this could happen too.....

sorry for the loss~

[Andy_G]

I find it HIGHLY unlikely(and when I say highly I really mean it) that his snake could have died due to a refrozen food item. Ask your friend how long he had the food item out, refreezing is certainly acceptable for food items that have been thawed for one or two hours, but after that it is best to chuck it because it can obviously pick up a lot of things.

Seems like quite a sudden death. Was it behaving abnormally at all before it died?

[urd]

thanks all. i think ive figured out why it died, he changed it water TWICE since he got it, 3 months ago! ive told him he should never get another animal if he treats them like that!

[Linds]

Originally posted by Simon
Most of the time re-freezing kills most of the germs that are on the food item already.

Actually, freezing is effective at killing parasites, but can actually preserve bacteria. Bacteria is stored in freezers in labs. I suspect it may be killed at extremely low temperatures (well below those household freezers are capable of acheiving), but throwing them in the deep freeze for a while is not effective at killing them. Refreezing increases the amount of bacteria, where do you think that awful stench comes from?

[Oliverian]

.... Wasn't the snake obviously severely dehydrated? I know I once didn't change the water for four days and my baby corn was getting the 'dry skin' wrinkles already. The water gets a gross film on the top. Thats just sick. I hope he thinks hard before getting another animal...

-TammyR

[Auskan]

Also, if you feel the bottom of a water bowl that has had water sitting in it for several days, it feels kind of slimy from the stuff that his starting to grow on the bowl, and if you leave it a few more days, it will start to take on an orange tinge. That's why fresh water is so important and I change out and clean all my water bowls every 2 days (preferred) or every 3 days max.