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Unfortunate news regarding Peppermint...
The next week after she successfully ate, she refused again and so we decided it was time for a trip to the vet. She also wasn't drinking and seemed weaker than usual, and she was just getting too skinny, so it was time to go. At the vet's, they massaged a very strange looking poo out of her - with some blood to boot - and it was clear then that something was far more seriously wrong than I had initially thought. The doctor suspected crypto, so after the test for regular parasites came back negative, we decided to send the sample off for crypto testing. We took her home and she was fine that evening, and even drank a little, which was a good sign.
We haven't gotten the results back for crypto yet, but we're in no rush to know as sadly, the day after our trip to the vet, I found Peppermint dead in her cage. If it was crypto, it likely came from her previous home (I bought her from a pet store, but god knows what kind of bugs are running around those places, especially since she was housed with a bunch of other corns at the time) and she was able to fight it off until it restricted her appetite and she just declined from there.
She meant the world to me and it hurts so much knowing that she's gone, but if it was crypto, then there wasn't anything I could've done for her that I didn't do... I just hope that she had as comfortable of a life with me as possible. I'm so sad I can't spend the next decade with her like I'd always planned, but my enthusiasm for reptiles has not dwindled - it's just a matter of waiting until I'm at a point in my life where I have the time and money to house them again (I'm going off to college next year and the dorms don't allow pets, so it seems cruel to get another one right now anyways, especially since I want to give the entire house time to disinfect itself from crypto before getting a new reptile). Next time I'm going to be very, very careful what kind of breeders I get my reptiles from, because I now know how scary and common crypto is and I never want to go through this again. And maybe that means I have to pay a bit more for my reptiles, but I'll gladly do it. And maybe I can rescue some snakes too, granted the rescue is reputable and that snake in particular has recently been tested for crypto (and, of course, I know how to care for that particular species).
I'll actually be getting a cuddle clone of her - which is ironic, because now I CAN take her to college with me - since she meant so much to me and I just want her to live on in one way or another. I don't know how much of her docile nature was due to her declining health and how much was natural, but even when she was young and unusually active in her cage, she never bit and was never aggressive. Loosing such a good snake so young is really hard and, as silly as it may sound, I feel like the world lost an amazing creature when she passed. But she taught me a lot, helped me through a lot, and even though my life would be better with her still in it, my life wouldn't be better if she hadn't been in it at all.
I'd like to thank everyone on these forums for trying to help me out, even if she sadly didn't make it in the end. I'll try to remember to update this on whether or not it was crypto but otherwise I probably won't be back here for a few years. But I do hope to be back, but hopefully just as an observer and reader rather than asking about feeding strikes once again. These forums aren't too active it seems but I hope they're still up when I get my next corn snake.
Any specific advice on how to cope with and/or avoid crypto in the future would be appreciated if you have it, but I kind of hope nobody reading this has ever had the misfortune of experiencing crypto. I got so unlucky with my first experience, but I refuse to be deterred - if I'm able to care for a reptile again, I'll be happy to in the future. It's hard right now to even enjoy reptiles despite always being an interest of mine, since everything reminds me of Peppermint, but I know some day I'll be better and some day I'll use what I learned from Peppermint to give a good home to more reptiles.
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