Horrible loss, hoping for some input as to cause

Will0W783 · 04-07-14, 02:21 PM

Hi guys,

I took a really hard loss on Friday. My very first snake that I ever owned was a normal ball python named Saleen. I picked Saleen up at a local pet store 9 years ago. He was the one that really got me into this hobby and helped me realize how much I wanted to keep and work with snakes. I planned to always keep at least him, no matter where my life took me, for all his days.
Saleen was a typical 12-year-old male BP. He was fat, healthy and ate f/t medium rats. He'd occasionally go off of feed for the winter months, but he's done this every year.

He had been on another one of his picky eating spells, and hadn't fed for me in about 2 months (not unusual I thought). He was showing no signs of anything unusual, and I had him out for handling about once a month.

I had been in my reptile room on Thursday night and he was coiled under his hide. Friday when I came home from work, I was hit with an awful stench the moment I opened the house door. My snake room is at the end of a hallway on the ground level, as the house is on a hill, so you enter in the basement. I knew something was really wrong, and I ran right into my snake room. It stunk of death and foul water. I thought someone had regurgitated but I had last fed a week before....
when I got to Saleen's cage, he had his back half stretched out and braced against the cage wall. The front I'd say 1/3 of him was coiled up tightly around himself and smashed into the water dish. He was bloated. I put on gloves and removed him....his neck looked broken and the water in the dish was just bloody. There were at least 3 bite marks around his neck area.

All I can figure is something made him try to eat himself. He had a habit of coiling his food in his water dish, so I guess he went there with himself and drowned.

I'm heartbroken and really confused....I've never heard of a snake doing this before.

I'm also worried about my other snakes. Nothing new has come into that room in the last 2 months, and then it was only snakes that had been previously quarantined. Saleen has never been bred or housed with another snake, and I practice careful husbandry when feeding with tongs. I keep a bottle of 10% bleach water to spray off the tongs if a snake bites them, and then I rinse them before using them for the next snake, so I don't see how any contagions got into my collection. None of my other snakes is currently off feed or acting weird.

Does anyone have any input for me on what might have caused this? I'm terrified it's something I did wrong, or should have foreseen.

LarryS · 04-07-14, 02:38 PM

I can't halp with the cause, but so sorry about your loss.

Will0W783 · 04-07-14, 02:40 PM

Thank you. I'm still pretty upset about it; he was very special to me.

sharthun · 04-07-14, 02:43 PM

Darn, sorry to hear that!

pdomensis · 04-07-14, 03:21 PM

Really sorry for your loss. I think everyone here knows you as an excellent keeper.

Jim Smith · 04-07-14, 03:38 PM

I'm very sorry for your loss. It's obvious from your postings that you are a very experienced and knowledgeable keeper who really cares about her animals. I am far from being a vet, but it almost sounds like your snake was in pain and thought something was attacking him. He responded by biting at the area as if he was trying to stop what was attacking him. Could he have been suffering from an internal tumor? You could perform a necropsy if you're up to the task, if for no other reason than to put your mind at rest about your other snakes. Just a thought...

Primal Rage · 04-07-14, 03:39 PM

My god that sounds AWEFUL!!! I cant imagine walking in on a scene like that. The only thing that comes to mind is a grand maul seizure. Its odd that you would not see anything like this in such a long period of time. Take care and keep us posted.

Will0W783 · 04-07-14, 04:22 PM

I buried him already because the smell was just too strong for me to think about a necropsy. I threw up just cleaning the cage. I thought about a tumor or heart attack or such, since it looked like a violent death. I had a young retic die of bone cancer years ago, but she had visible growths. ...I just wish I knew what happened to Saleen.

metalcopper · 04-07-14, 04:24 PM

I had the same thing happen to my Gaboon Viper. I came home from work one day and he was coiled in the shape of the letter "P", with his mouth open and on his body, like he was biting himself. I always wondered what would have made him do that. It sucked, he was my favorite snake. Sorry for your loss.

drumcrush · 04-07-14, 04:26 PM

that sounds awful, I'm sorry that happened

Sublimeballs · 04-07-14, 04:50 PM

A seizure was my first thought. Super strange thing to happen. I'm truely sorry for your loss Kim. I doubt very much that this has anything to do with your care; And that the problem is in the snake itself.

**EL Ziggy** · 04-07-14, 06:41 PM

I'm very sorry for your loss Willow.

xSerpentGoddess · 04-07-14, 07:00 PM

I'm so sorry

that's a terrible thing to walk into.

Teal · 04-07-14, 07:00 PM

I'm so so sorry ): It sounds like how I lost my hognose ): I agree with the thoughts of maybe a seizure? It's so heartbreaking with these guys when we just don't have an explanation as to why an animal so special to us is just suddenly gone ):

Will0W783 · 04-07-14, 07:30 PM

Thank you for all the kind words, guys. ..it really means a lot. It's never easy to lose a pet (he was definitely a pet...used to let him sit on my lap while I watched tv....), but this came at such a bad time. I'm really struggling financially and things are not good with my fiance. ...it just makes everything harder to deal.with when I'm getting hit from so many fronts.
I hope Saleen didn't suffer too much and that he had a good life with me.