Any advice please - no idea what's wrong.

[Mix]

Hi all. I've been absent for a while, life has been busy and I've not been online all that much. I apologise for not making more time to be active here.

Unfortunately, I lost Laguna. At first I was suspicious since it hasn't been that long since losing Lily, and thought it may be something I'm (unknowingly) doing. I can't think of anything I'm doing wrong, and also this time it seems that the circumstances were different - we suspected that Lily had had a convulsion, whereas Laguna looked perfectly normal. Just lying there. They did, however, both go off food. Laguna ate minimally over the last few weeks.

Now, Silver is acting a little strange. She shed four days ago, and ate the day after. She has seemed fine up until now, but she suddenly seems sluggish and lethargic. She won't eat (which is not necessarily odd) and her eyes seem dull/dark despite her recent shed. I checked her for retained eyecaps (although the shed seemed fine), but they don't appear to have retained.

There is no sign of mites, she has fresh water, clean tank etc... just don't know what is wrong. My husband thought that maybe there's something wrong with our tap water? I do treat it with Reptisafe, but could it be limescale or something? They seemed to not be spending as much time in the water lately.
Or is it possible that whatever was wrong with Laguna has passed to Silver? I'm just so, so worried right now.
Plus, in the middle of my checking Silver over, my daughter was sick and is now wrapped up down on the sofa with us. I'm in worrying overdrive.

I really don't want to lose another snake, and I'm feeling really disheartened. Lily and Laguna could have been a coincidence or bad luck, but I'm really worrying now that Silver seems off. Laguna and Silver were both so active and happy. Any help or ideas would be really appreciated right now.

Thank you.

[guidofatherof5]

What are you feeding?
Any suppliments?
I don't treat water and not sure if the chemicals could be causing a problem.
Not sure what to tell you at this point other than to hang in there.
Keep us posted.

[d_virginiana]

If you are worried about the water being a problem you could always get a gallon jug of spring water from the store and use that for a bit to see if your snake shows any improvement.

Hoping your snake improves.

[Mix]

Silver didn't make it to the morning. I have no words to describe how I'm feeling right now.

Is it more common to experience problems with younger snakes? All mine have been under a year old.

Lora - I actually had the same thought, and switched to spring water last night, but it was obviously too late to make a difference - even if that was what was wrong.

Steve - I was feeding trout (which is what they had been fed on since birth), and had added a little salmon and recently atlantic mackerel for variety. I gave Zoo Med Repti Calcium supplement with D3.
I was thinking of trying them with pinkies once they'd gotten a bit bigger, but they refused worms and slugs (even scented with fish), so I don't know if they'd have gone for it. But I know pinkies aren't essential, so it didn't worry me too much.

Gartergal - I can't desribe how bad I feel that your girls died in my care. I'm absolutely crushed.

I can't imagine being without snakes, but I'm too afraid. I don't know what on earth went wrong, so I don't know how I can change it in future. I'm really confused.

[kibakiba]

You can't blame yourself for something you didn't cause. If you do get another snake, try to keep it on the spring water. I give mine boiled and then filtered well water, it keeps all the junk out of it.

Younger snakes are more sensitive to chemicals, so if there were chemicals in the water, it could have caused it, but I'm not completely positive that it might be the cause of death.

[Mix]

Thank you. Today I spoke to my friend; he lives in my area (so our water is the same) and he has an almost 2 year old carolina corn. He has given him nothing but tap water and has noticed no ill effects. He wondered if any of our water piping in the house could be the problem (it's a victorian house), but was re-piped in regular copper piping.

I'm also not sure that the water was the cause (it was just an idea as they weren't spending much time in there), but I'm totally bemused. I've been trying to think of anything and everything - viv, substrate, light, heat, humidity, decor, diet, water, mite checks, supplements, cleaning... I can't think of anything amiss, yet I don't know if I can believe that it's just unfortunate coincidence that all 3 of my snakes had unknown problems.

I'm so reluctant to get another snake - though I don't want to be without them - because I dread this happening again.

[kibakiba]

Well it could be the fish. You never know with some fish. They may be thiamine free, but you never know about the mercury and junk in it. I feed fish as a little treat. I had a problem with some of my babies (namely, Squirt) who would only eat worms at first, and then got stuck on fish. She wouldn't even take fish scented food. Eventually, I just didn't feed her for a week, and she took the pinky parts I had offered her after that. Perhaps you could try that, also, if you get another snake.

I understand how you feel. When Squirt and Thumbelina got in a fight and their mouths got infected I felt guilty, because I hadn't paid attention to their mouths until probably 2 weeks after they showed signs of infection. Looking back, I could see something wrong, but, like I said, I didn't pay much attention to it. Luckily I got some medicine from Richard and helped get them cleaned up. I missed a day with Squirts medicine and her whole mouth turned a deep purple-red colour. When I checked on her and picked her up, she'd wave her head around with her mouth open. I felt so terrible and part of me wanted to give up on taking care of the snakes and just give them to someone more responsible, because I felt I had caused little Squirt so much pain that I wasn't worthy of owning her. I was scared of it happening to my other snakes also, and that I'd be careless again. I couldn't just give up on the little snakes that had brought me so much joy, though. I check on all my snakes and look them all over at least once a week to make sure that everyone is healthy and fit.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Sorry for your loss.

[Mix]

Thank you all. I guess it's down to the fact that I feel a little helpless.
I will look in to pinky feeding for future, maybe even a yearling already established on pinks. I thought it would be safe using fish from UK farms, but I guess you can never tell what could be in it.

[Sonya610]

If you are really concerned what about contacting a herp vet and inquiring about a necropsy? I would want to talk to the vet and find out ahead of time if they can easily find the cause of obvious things (like whether it was a pathogen or some sort of chemical toxin).