Seizures????

[nocodasmom]

My snow baby corn snake was going into contorsions last night. I mean kinking up and twisting from the rear of the snake and up. His head just stayed there. He was opening his mouth a couple of times. Took about 30 minutes thenm he sopped. Started acting normal and then it started all over again. Flipped upside down and was dead. Anyone every heard of this?:(

[Neumann]

I have no idea of the cause but I would like to say how sorry I am to hear it. You have my sincere condolences.

It's my understanding that a snake's health is difficult to determine visually and that they can be quite ill and act normally right up to the time their ailment becomes critical. My guess is that this is what happended to your critter.

Sorry again...

Jason

[CornCrazy]

I have seen it happen twice...once at work and once with a friend's snake. Both snakes were pretty sick. I believe it is an agonal phase that some of them go through before dying. Other animals go through agonal stages, as well. One of the most noted is agonal breathing in dogs and cats.

[nocodasmom]

Thanks for your input. It was a really weird thing to watch. I guess I will never know what really happened. The place I puchased the snake from gave me a new baby. Still not the same color. I really like the snow corns. This one is orange and white and is a good eater. Hopefully it won't happen again.:p

[CornCrazy]

I wish you much luck with the new baby.

[Rachel]

I was reading my 'whats wrong with my snake' book after I read you post and from that it seems that most seizures occur due to infection of some sort or another (usually of the brain) but can also be caused due to severe parasite infestation, malnutrition or toxication (ie if you had a bit of flea collar in to rid mites). So basically, there is no one reason as to why your snake would have seizures. Sorry, it must have been awful for you. Good luck with your new snake though...

[nocodasmom]

Thanks. Do any of you know of a breeder around the Dallas/ Fort Worth TX area?

[CornCrazy]

South Mountain Reptiles is in Canyon Lake. I looked up the distance on Yahoo, and it is about 5 hours away from you. In my opinion, that's not too far to drive for a good quality snake!

[nocodasmom]

Thanks for the info. The adult female cornsnake I purchased has something wrong with its mouth. Its not real bad but we have been looking different things up. My husband thinks it might be mouth rot. When I read up on it I am not to sure. I have had her about 3 weeks now. Its not a white substance in her mouth, but sometimes when she opens her mouth it looks like there is a sticky clear salava. It is on the edges of her mouth and some of the bedding sticks to it. My husband has had to peel it off the sides of her mouth. He told me today he mouth was stuck together but she wasn't real happy when he 1st started to clean her up so she was trying to hiss and got it open. What do you think this is and what should I do to fix it???

[Rachel]

Sounds like you have a really crappy breeder that your getting such poor specimens from :confused: It sounds like your snake could have mouth rot (or some sort of respiratory infection) so I would make a vet appointment asap. You should also get in touch with the breeder and inform him/her of the problem as they shouldn't be selling on snakes with any sort of health problems.

[nocodasmom]

I found a guy that is a breeder in TX. Has his own pet store and is merging into another pet store I shop at. Took the snake in and he states the large snake I have is a cross between a bull, rat, and maybe a little corn snake. He states this is why it hisses. Bull/gopher snakes do hiss. He took a look at her mouth and states she may hav a small resp infection not very bad and the stuff around her mouth he thought just looked like dirt. He advised me to give her a bath, clean the area and to do that for a while until it was cleared up and if she needs antob shots he can give those as well. I guess I went to the pet shop on the right day. He is going to probe any of the snakes I have so I know what sex they are for free. Cool, I think. I got the snakes from different places. The breeder advised me that with all the morphs of cornsnake it does not suprise him of the seizures. He has seen it before.:p