Dead Snake . . . anyone?

Has anyone every had an adult snake bite itself mid body and then die?! I know this sounds weird, but that is just what I walked in on today. I am hoping that with all the snake keepers/breeders here, someone may have seen something similar with an adult.

There is a history with this snake which I will try to relate in a timely manner.
Age is unknown, purchased last spring '02 as an adult. Approximately 5 feet long. Heavy eater all summer and fall. Often times would eat or look for food up to twice a week. Fed heavily through November of '02 to prepare to breed. Went into brumation, after 3 weeks of fasting, on Jan 1. Taken out of brumation on March 30th. Ate first small meal 2 weeks later after temps were regular. Bred successfully, but that is when the probelms started. AFter eating 8 meals, spanning approximately 5 weeks, she started refusing food (this was approximately 3 weeks after breeding, so wasn't concerned abou that), but also began sneezing. Procurred Baytril, and was prepared to treat, but wanted to wait until AFTER laying eggs. Layed eggs 34 days out, over the course of 5 days, and only 5 eggs, 4 of which were slugs.

At this point, she did eat one meal after laying eggs. The sneezing had gotten worse, and she was also holding her mouth half open at times. Obviously stressed to the max at this point. Started treating with Baytril. She weighed 714 grams, dosed .31 cc's for 9 days. Her last shot was yesterday. 3 days into treatment the sneezing stopped. She was very active during treatment, drank lots of water (kidneys). I did not attempt to feed her during this time. She never showed signs of stress, or spazzing out, from the injection other than the initial dispensing of medication IM (also in the upper 1/3 of the body).

Today, I walked in on a dead snake with her teeth literally stuck into her scales approximately 1/2 way down her body. This location was well past the spots I gave her shots. It looks as though she was trying to eat herself. I do not have pictures as I disengaged the mouth to see just how tough they were stuck, and they were in there pretty good. (Still didn't make sense though.) She is currently in the freezer awaiting a potential necropsy. We don't really have a reptile vet in the area, so am not sure how I will handle that part of it.

Anyone seen anything like this? Where are the kidney's on the corn located, could that be the location she was biting at since it wasn't the injection site? Any questions I haven't answered?

Hope you survived reading throught he whole post, I know it ended up pretty long.

D80

Well first off you killed the necropsy. Never put a snake you plan to necropsy in the freezer, that'll totally screw things up.

Kidneys are longish organs sorta staggered relative to each other located on the posterior end of the snake.

Snakes lungs, however, are located in the midsection. She may have been having lung pain and bit the location of pain in an effort to halt what was causing the pain. Or, she could've been egg bound.

My suggestion, take that snake outa' the freezer ASAP, thaw her out, and feel around the area where she bit herself, see if you can feel a hard lump, or a real mushy spot, and if you can handle it, do your own necropsy (of course if you're totally clueless, then leave it to someone more experienced, but if you're gonna do it, what I would look for are liver spots, any impactions in the gut, lesions, abnormal growths, absceses, swollen organs, hemmorage, artifacts in the organs, irregularities in organs, just anything abnormal, the list goes on. So if part of her lungs look pink and another part looks grey, that would be something I'd look into).

Hope you find something, good luck.

-Lemur 6

Doh!

Thanks for the tips. Been teaching for 8 years now, and forgot where I started! I had originally started out college on a pre-vet mission. Life got in the way of that dream!

I can easily get around the internals of the snake myself, and wouldn't be put off by it. (I also hunt!) I'm still amazed that I just didn't think of that myself! Show's how you get stuck in a rut I guess.

I also want to thank you for the ideas on what to look for. I'll do some checkin' around for other ideas as well. Obviously, I don't want to pretend I'm a veterinarian here, but I'm more of a hands on, self learning, type of guy, and don't really trust the non-herp vets around here.

Thanks again for some insight.

D80

I had an amber hatchling die last october and I found it dead biting itself also. Ive been told that during the death process that it may have had a seizure and in the process, bit itself. Sorry for you loss. I know how upsetting it is to walk in on a snake that died unexpectedly.