My snake died! please read and help me figure this out

[da_illest]

what the hell!! my snake, an Eryx colubrinus loveridgei (kenyan sand boa) which was 10 inches big, died!! I loved this snake it was such a nice guy, never attempted to bite and was a curious little guy always exploring when i took it out.. i never even handled it daily like i should have but it never bit me even when it was hingry.. anyways, let me explain, i put a pinkie in for it 2 nights ago and it didn't eat it so i left the pinkie in... last night i saw it beside the water dish with half it's body sticking out the substrate and the pinkie was about 6 inches away from it rolling around and i thought this was strange because it was always a vicious eater! i opened the tank lid and it didn't go and hide under the substrate as usual so i went from under and softly touched it to see if it was alive and it was, it moved but it seemed weak.. i didn't think there was anything i could do and maybe since he was EXTREMELY EXTREMELY EXXXXXTREMLY docile it didn't bother him that i touched him.. so i wake up today to see if it ate the pinkie and saw the pinkie still rolling around on the substrate (shredded aspen) happy as ever and my snake rolled up upside down in the water dish as if it drowned itself.. this is strange.. did it drown itself? i'm curious now..

it always ate live pinkies well and ever since it regergitated the fuzzy i fed it it has regurgitated the rest of the pinkies as well but already sucked dry, the pinkie was just a straght black thing when i found it so i thought it had gotten all the insides out and it would be ok.. if you remember i posted that it had regurgitated it fuzzy and Old hag suggested i keep it with a constant belly heat source to help it digest and the next day or 2 i got a heat pad (under tank heater by ZOOMED) and placed it under the tank on one side, the temp directly over the pad (i have a quality electronic thermometer with a probe) was highest being 103.something and lowest being 90 (depending on room temp. and my animal room in the basement is small and in the day time it's high and at night it lowers a bit)... the cool side of the tank was in the 70's.. i don't know what the heck could have happened as i am a freak when it comes to proper husbandry of my pets and do everything within my power to make it good.. i'm confused.. it always had a water dish which i would fill once or twice a week specially after a meal and it was on the cool side of the tank.. it was upside down and curled up in a ball.. the water dish was never full enough for the whole snake to be submerged in fully...

i'm SOOOO upset because to tell you the truth i only handled it once or twice a week for 10-15 minuted and it NEVER even ATTEMPTED to bite even after not being fed for a few days.. i'm so pissed.. i'm thinking it could be impaction but how? why? i used shredded aspen like many people use for their KSB's and it didn't have a buldge in it's body! i don't think i'll ever find such a docile snake again which saddens me...

 

[Malkavian]

Previous to getting the tank heater what were the temps you were keeping it at? Using more under tank heaters or spot lamps?


Chronic regurgitation is never a good thing. To the best of my knowlege lowish temps for a species + regurgitation == some kind of infection

 

[da_illest]

before the under tank heater i had it on a spot lamp on a timer which turned them on at 10 am and off at 11 pm.. daytime temps in the substrate with the spot lamp where max 92 or 93 and the lowest was at night when the lamp was off and it was in the upper 70's... ever since i got the under tank heater it's been in the 90's constantly.. why would it drown itself though? it's head was under the water..

 

[da_illest]

this is how i found it... it was belly up all over :? i'm so pissed

 

[OldHag]

We used to keep a boa in wood shavings....and it ingested some wood chips which caused a "scratch" in the intestines which got infected and swollen and caused an impaction and would throw up every meal and she too died.... I NEVER feed my snakes in the substrate!! I put them in a container that has NOTHING it can ingest besides the food item. Maybe it got some wood chips in it and got impacted.
Maybe with the combo of a heat lamp and under tank heat it got too hot... You dont need the heat lamp if you have undertank heat.
Sorry to hear about your snake thats a real bummer...Im thinking it had an infection/impaction problem if it was throwing up as much as you say.
Michelle

 

[scorpio]

i would reccomend sand for sand boas. Thats what ive used and my sand boas have been going for 6 years under the same simple care guidelines.

 

[Limardi]

You should never leave mice/ rats whatever you feed your snake in the cage; if it hasn't eaten it you sould take it out. They can be very aggressive and do serious damage to your snake. Maybe you should have a vet perform a necropsy (postmortem examination) on your snake. Maybe the vet can determine how your snake died.

 

[da_illest]

We used to keep a boa in wood shavings....and it ingested some wood chips which caused a "scratch" in the intestines which got infected and swollen and caused an impaction and would throw up every meal and she too died.... I NEVER feed my snakes in the substrate!! I put them in a container that has NOTHING it can ingest besides the food item. Maybe it got some wood chips in it and got impacted.
Michelle

hey michelle, that's exactly what i'm thinking happened to mine.. the whole infection ordeal because of maybe ingesting some wood but i'm not sure so i want to know others opinions.. it's sad..

 

[da_illest]

You should never leave mice/ rats whatever you feed your snake in the cage; if it hasn't eaten it you sould take it out. They can be very aggressive and do serious damage to your snake. Maybe you should have a vet perform a necropsy (postmortem examination) on your snake. Maybe the vet can determine how your snake died.

the key word/s in that sentence is mice/rats... pinkies can be left as long as you'd like as they can't do any damage what so ever..

 

[Mister Internet]

I think that, along with the advice not to leave live food in with a herp if it hasn't eaten (ALWAYS good advice - even with pinkies, they have little teeth too), what is really standing out in my mind is that if you use wood shavings, you should NEVER let the snake eat the prey item off of the shavings. To do so is just asking for ingestion and impaction. Some of the bark piece subtrates like Repti-bark would be OK in most cases, as the pieces are by and large too big to "stick" to the prey item, but wood shavings exhibit an ability to stick to things akin to static cling. If you have been feeding a snake that small with prey dropped directly on the shavings, you may very well have had a problem in relation to ingestion/impaction...

I'm no snake expert, I can't say for sure... it would just seem to make sense based on my observations over the years. I keep my juvie Okeetee corn on Aspen shavings, and I ALWAYS put the prey on a piece of paper or paper plate... something to get it on a smooth surface free of substrate.

Sorry to hear about your loss... I can't imagine how it would be to lose a reptile... bug losses I brush off fairly easily, but I would be crushed if I lost my snake.

 

[Phillip]

Impaction would be my 1st bet as well since it sounds like the setup was fine with the exception of the aspen. Sand is a better substrate for that species and the problem of ingesting substrate is lessened when compared to aspen.

Phil

 

[da_illest]

i was listening to people on ssnakess.com.. they have a section on only sand boas and many keepers have told me they've kept they're ksb's on aspen and fed them on it for years without death so i trusted these people.. they where the ones that convinced me to take mine off the sand... i'm really upset that i lost it but life goes on.. i'd be REALLY upset if i lost my first and second t's, 2 rosehairs.. i've grown so attached to them.. i was getting attached to the snake but i didn't have it long enough to be extremely emotionaly attached... maaaaan... this made me not want to ever get a snake again..