chris-uk
06-02-2014, 04:33 PM
I lost my first adult snake today. Nobby was my "Northern Garter" which we decided was actually a parietalis, she was wild-caught so we don't know how old she was but probably 5 years.
She crashed very quickly and died about three hours after I got home from the vet. The vet thought that she had a systemic bacterial infection, the main indicator being peripheral in her mouth along with the history I gave and her general condition. She thinks that the infection was probably opportunistic and exploiting and underlying health problem - Nobby has been loosing weight slowly since August despite eating well.
Nobby had eaten on Friday and had been behaving normally and had been active over the weekend. Last night around 20:30 I noticed her taking a long drink, she was drinking for a couple of minutes and I counted over 50 gulps. I took her out to check her over as I thought her mouth wasn't closed fully, just open a hairline. I managed to look into her mouth but couldn't see any swelling or inflammation to indicate stomatitis. She struggled a little when I opened her mouth, but then sat still in my hand, after a minute I realised she was abnormally inactive. I kept her out for another 10 minutes, during that time she barely moved but did regurgitate one pinky while I was holding her.
I kept her in a quarantine box overnight and this morning she was in almost exactly the same position I'd left her in last night. She did respond to my hand, a bit of tongue flicking and tracking my hand, but she didn't move much. I gave her a warm bath, she had another long drink of around 30 gulps. But was still abnormally inactive.
At this point I decided that a vet was necessary and got an appointment for 4pm. Nobby was the same all day. I've already mentioned the vet's opinion. She prescribed a course of antibiotics (Fortum 0.06ml every 3 days for 5 doses, injected intramuscular). They also drew blood to run some specialist reptile screens, but couldn't get as much out of her as they needed for the full run of tests - the vet has asked for tests to be prioritised with bacterial screen first, then blood counts, then kidney and liver function tests. I'm hoping we'll get something back from the tests to tell me if she died of something contagious, the scarey thing is the speed she went from normal to slithering in the great wetland in the sky. I've kept her body refrigerated in case there's a need for a PM.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//734/medium/1050370_1.jpg (http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/showphoto.php?photo=12278&title=nobby&cat=734)
Nobby - died 2 June 2014 (photo taken during her last meal on 31 May)
She crashed very quickly and died about three hours after I got home from the vet. The vet thought that she had a systemic bacterial infection, the main indicator being peripheral in her mouth along with the history I gave and her general condition. She thinks that the infection was probably opportunistic and exploiting and underlying health problem - Nobby has been loosing weight slowly since August despite eating well.
Nobby had eaten on Friday and had been behaving normally and had been active over the weekend. Last night around 20:30 I noticed her taking a long drink, she was drinking for a couple of minutes and I counted over 50 gulps. I took her out to check her over as I thought her mouth wasn't closed fully, just open a hairline. I managed to look into her mouth but couldn't see any swelling or inflammation to indicate stomatitis. She struggled a little when I opened her mouth, but then sat still in my hand, after a minute I realised she was abnormally inactive. I kept her out for another 10 minutes, during that time she barely moved but did regurgitate one pinky while I was holding her.
I kept her in a quarantine box overnight and this morning she was in almost exactly the same position I'd left her in last night. She did respond to my hand, a bit of tongue flicking and tracking my hand, but she didn't move much. I gave her a warm bath, she had another long drink of around 30 gulps. But was still abnormally inactive.
At this point I decided that a vet was necessary and got an appointment for 4pm. Nobby was the same all day. I've already mentioned the vet's opinion. She prescribed a course of antibiotics (Fortum 0.06ml every 3 days for 5 doses, injected intramuscular). They also drew blood to run some specialist reptile screens, but couldn't get as much out of her as they needed for the full run of tests - the vet has asked for tests to be prioritised with bacterial screen first, then blood counts, then kidney and liver function tests. I'm hoping we'll get something back from the tests to tell me if she died of something contagious, the scarey thing is the speed she went from normal to slithering in the great wetland in the sky. I've kept her body refrigerated in case there's a need for a PM.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//734/medium/1050370_1.jpg (http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/showphoto.php?photo=12278&title=nobby&cat=734)
Nobby - died 2 June 2014 (photo taken during her last meal on 31 May)