Ovarian cysts leading to septicaemia

[chris-uk]

I got a call from the vet today (well the wife actually spoke to the vet) with the results of the post mortem on Nobby. The good news is that she didn't die from anything contagious or preventable.

The cause of death was septicaemia. The septicaemia came about from a large number of septic cysts which filled most of her lower abdominal compartment. The cysts originated from her ovaries or the ovarian ducts, and are likely to have been building for several years and possibly for most of her adult life. There were a lot of follicles that had failed to develop into eggs and had become septic. There was no external sign despite the extent of the cysts, they couldn't be felt, so the first visible sign was the petechiae in her mouth when the septicaemia set in.
The rest of her organs were all normal. The vet said that had they investigated sooner there would have been nothing that could have been done to save her, certainly their recommendation would have been euthanasia had they performed an endoscopy and found the issue.

Nobby was another example of a snake that hid a long term illness for a long time whilst appearing to be healthy.

[guidofatherof5]

I got a call from the vet today (well the wife actually spoke to the vet) with the results of the post mortem on Nobby. The good news is that she didn't die from anything contagious or preventable.

The cause of death was septicaemia. The septicaemia came about from a large number of septic cysts which filled most of her lower abdominal compartment. The cysts originated from her ovaries or the ovarian ducts, and are likely to have been building for several years and possibly for most of her adult life. There were a lot of follicles that had failed to develop into eggs and had become septic. There was no external sign despite the extent of the cysts, they couldn't be felt, so the first visible sign was the petechiae in her mouth when the septicaemia set in.
The rest of her organs were all normal. The vet said that had they investigated sooner there would have been nothing that could have been done to save her, certainly their recommendation would have been euthanasia had they performed an endoscopy and found the issue.

Nobby was another example of a snake that hid a long term illness for a long time whilst appearing to be healthy.

A trait shared with many animals. Thanks for looking into the cause of her death.

[chris-uk]

A trait shared with many animals. Thanks for looking into the cause of her death.

I needed answers, not least because I needed to know whether the septicaemia had a contagious cause.
In the last 4 days my commonest garter snake has cost me several times what it would cost to buy my most expensive garter. It doesn't matter to me which of my snakes needs attention, they'll be treated the same.

[chris-uk]

I got an email from my vet today with the post mortem summary. I'll share it in case it's of interest to anyone.

-Thin body condition
-No abnormal skin lesions
-Petechiae on mucous membranes in oral cavity - consistent with septicaemia
-Small amount of sticky mucous in oral cavity
-Trachea, oesophagus, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, gall bladder, stomach, intestines all have normal appearance on gross exam and samples of all collected in formalin
-Oviducts enlarged and full of abscessated ova taking up most of coelomic cavity

Suspect cause of death was septicaemia secondary to overwhelming infection associated with abscessated eggs throughout oviducts.

What I'm wondering is the abscessated eggs. Nobby was probably 5 years old and had never mated, as far as I know she has never thrown jellies. My understanding is that the eggs she produced would normally have been reabsorbed to recycle the nutrients, for some reason that never happened with Nobby and the eggs remained in her oviducts and eventually went septic.

I don't believe there was anything that could have prevented this, but I am wondering whether this is an indication that a female never breeding could be detrimental to her health.

[guidofatherof5]

So many variables in your question. Environmental influences, nutrition, genetics, etc.

[joeysgreen]

The only preventative for this would have been spaying her just as we do with cats and dogs. We regularly spay species like chameleons and iguanas that commonly have reproductive problems. The low incidence of this problem in snakes bids unnessary risk of surgery. I do not see this case as grounds for unbred snakes being detrimental to health. We could speculate for this individual; could regular brumation have been enough to prevent? Would breeding have prevented this, or cause it to be problematic sooner? Unfortunately( or fortunately), we don't have a large enough sample size with this specific problem to get all these answers.

Ian

[chris-uk]

There's risks with every choice we make, I'm fairly happy that this was an unfortunate occurrence and couldn't have been foreseen. Makes me wonder whether other sudden deaths would he attributed to the same cause if more deaths were PM'ed.
I think even without going to the extent of a PM looking for petecheia in the mouth is something that we should be aware of. I wasn't aware of this sign of septicaemia.

[guidofatherof5]

There's risks with every choice we make, I'm fairly happy that this was an unfortunate occurrence and couldn't have been foreseen. Makes me wonder whether other sudden deaths would he attributed to the same cause if more deaths were PM'ed.
I think even without going to the extent of a PM looking for petecheia in the mouth is something that we should be aware of. I wasn't aware of this sign of septicaemia.

That is new info. for me also. Glad you were able to go the extra mile with Nobby's death.