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help with mystery death

limey

limey

hi i am a cornsnakeoholic
Ok guys and girls i could do with some help - so any off you budding vets or self taught autopsy people this is for you. I lost a snow stripe which is not a good event. I decided to open her up as she hasnt been eating for about 2 months (yeah i was guessing she might have died egg bound or some other complication causing her death). I located what i believe to have been the stomach (big long black coloured tube running from the vent up to gods know where - at least half of the body length) when i cut it open i noticed that towards the vent end there was a thick layer of off-white paste, i suppose a bit like the calcuim which comes out with all the other excresure(sp?). What i would like to know is (and i realise this might be a bit paranoid) is this the thickening of the stomach lining which is asscoatited with crypto? or has this snake simply died of impactation? or have a missed the point completely and is it normal for this white susbtance to be attached to the inside of the gut wall, any help will be greatly appreicaited thanks
 
It's been awhile since I autopsied a snake, and I don't know how long after your snake died that you performed the autopsy, but, by your description, the long black tube coming from the vent to ? is probably the digestive tract. The lower part where you found the whitish paste is the snake's equivalent to your colon (large intestine). Since waste products from both the digestive tract and kidneys come out the vent, I would guess the whitish paste to be the urates and a normal finding. The snake's stomach would be located in about the middle of the snake. The digestive tract (lower end) being black in color isn't a very good sign but could be a result of "poop" plus having an autopsy done well after death.
 
i did the autopsy no more than 8 hrs after death but i suspect it was less than that. The digestive tract was black all the way up as far as i could see. I was also wondering about the amount of fat in side the snake. The snake had'nt eaten for quite a while and was never a bulky snake always verging on slender but there was alot more fat deposits inside than i expected - is this due to inactivity or is it normal ?

Anyway thanks for th insight Susan i shall keep looking, it does seem that the snake is question was fairly old so it may have been nothin more sinister than old age and to many breedings.
 
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