My 7 mth Old Bredli Died.

[Cypher]

My 7 mth old Bredli died yesterday. I'm devastated & seriously at a loss, why...how did it happen?

I've only had her for about 2 months now, suffice to say I would handle her, clean the enclosure & feed her every Monday. Her last feed,which was Mon 7th Sept, she ate 2 hopper mice & was very active & alert when I handled her.

The following Monday, a couple of days ago, I lifted up her hidey hole to let her know I was going to handle, clean her enclosure & feed. The first thing I noticed is that she had shed. It was a partial shed & as I handled her I gently pulled the rest of the old skin of.

Once the old skin was off I noticed a redness on her underbelly, roughly about 6 inches long (she was close to 3ft long by now) stemming from her genital openening (clacal ?). My first thought is that she might've gotten burnt from the heat mat (thermostat was acting up over the wk/end) so I wiped her down with betadine. I knew she was in discomfort as she really didn't like me wiping where she was red. I bagged her whilst I changed her substrate from recycled paper pellets to newspaper ( for the duration of applying betadine). She wasn't interested in eating after all this.

The next day I made a booking to see a vet but the earliest would still be a week away.

That night, she died. The redness had spread & was deeper in colour. I took her body to a friend who has over 10 yrs of reptile experience & he put it down to an urinary tract infection (not burn) as it was most severe around the clacal & dulled in redness the further up the underbelly.

The Bredli had a habit of defecating inside her hidey hole which I would inspect & clean on a weekly basis.

I'm just at a loss of how active & hungry she was one week to sheddding & exposing the extent of the infection to dying within 10 days of being handled & fed last. I'm surprised that there was no sign of infection or discomfort prior to the shedding & the extent of the infection once it was exposed.

R.I.P Little One.

 

[bfg23]

wow, on a few other thread i have been saying that a vet trip is not necessarily the first thing to do when an animal becomes slightly sick. Maybe i regret a little of what i said after reading your story cypher.

I am very sorry for your loss, i know how you must feel, i felt so bad when one of my frogs died.

 

[Chris1]

gee, really sorry to hear that,...do u still have her body?
an autopsy from teh vet might give u some peace of mind,..

i lost a beardy a year ago, i thought she was slightly impacted since she'd missed a day of pooing, and the next day she died.
i couldnt believe that she was running around like her normal crazy self till the day before,...
the autopsy was inconclusive, but the vet assured me it wasnt husbandry related. a possible infection,....it did make me feel a bit better to know i hadnt killed her.

since then i might be a bit paranoid but at the slightest sign of anything weird i'm off to the vet, antibiotics can fix so many things that would be near impossible to diagnose,....

i hope u feel ok soon, its really hard to lose a pet.

 

[Midol]

Sorry for your loss.

I'm the same now, as soon as any of my animals show symptoms I go to the vets. Dogs, snakes, maybe not my fish but definitely the dogs and snake.

 

[Cypher]

I'm just at a loss at how a healthy, active & well fed snake could show no sign of sickness then shed, expose the severe extent of infection then die inside of 7 days of feeding it last...?

On hindsight, from day one of getting the python, I always thought the end of the tail was a bit limp. Not gripping my hand, fingers, branches but just hanging down.
As it grew older, it became more prominent that the tip of the tail seemed to look more whithered than strong, especially after it shed. This was another thing I was going to bring up with the vet...

Taking a sick animal to the vet can have two sides to the story, I guess.
The vet that specialised in reptiles was booked solid for a week so I had no choice but to wait.
Should I have searched for another reptile friendly vet for an appointment sooner?
Could I have taken time off work?

 

[Midol]

Not blaming you

If what happened to you happened to me I'd have not found a different vet. It didn't seem urgent. I'd put it in the same category as my dog not eating or red spots on his belly (both of which have occured). I'd wait up to a week and a half for things like that.

I do take time off work to take my animals to the vet. I work as a security dog handler so my company knows that if I ask for time off regarding my animals then I'm not *really* asking. I'm taking the time off whether they like it or not. But regardless, it didn't seem like an urgent problem so there was nothing more that you could have done.

"Hindsight is not necessarily the best guide to understanding what really happened. The past is often as distorted by hindsight as it is clarified by it." - Amos Elon.

 

[Cypher]

gee, really sorry to hear that,...do u still have her body?
an autopsy from teh vet might give u some peace of mind,..

Not so much an autopsy, but I took the body to a friend with reptile experience. He then photographed the infected areas & sent the pics to another mate who works with the reptiles at Taronga zoo. His diagnosis, based on the photos was urinary tract infection.

But he was also at loss to explain why the extent of the redness/infection didn't show til after it shed.

 

[sam.wright]

sorry to hear...
do u have a melamine enclosure? Melamine's level of toxicity is not very high, but it is known to cause urinary problems and bladder stones when consumed. if u have been screwing into or drilling and didnt get all the dust particles this could be a reason.

 

[Cypher]

sorry to hear...
do u have a melamine enclosure? Melamine's level of toxicity is not very high, but it is known to cause urinary problems and bladder stones when consumed. if u have been screwing into or drilling and didnt get all the dust particles this could be a reason.

I had her in a fishtank (2ft long x 1 ft deep x 18in high).
The substrate was recycled paper pellets (kitty litter)....possibly a high source of dust particles but alot of articles have said it was ok to use...

Like I mentioned she would only defecate in her hide box ( the heated end) so it wouldn't have too hygenic where she hid/slept. I cleaned the hide box once a week, more often would've stressed her.

I'm making a mental list based on what I would do differently if I was to purchase another python.

In the meantime,
Cheers for all your kind words.

 

[BROWNS]

Well this is the first time I've ever heard of snakes getting UTI's which I doubt can be diagnosed from just a photo,it would take getting a urine sample tested to be able to say it's a urinary tract infection and then if one was detected antibiotics would fix that problem easily either a broad spectrum a/biotic or if the test gives a result on what the pathogen causing the infection is they can give it antibiotics that they know will definitely fix the UTI.

I highly doubt the death would be from melamine being ingested.I think it was you in another thread which was asking for advice I mentioned that snakes and many other animals don't outwardly show they have a problem till it's too late or close to it.There could be many causes for the death however unless an autopsy was done you will never know why your snake died which is why taking them to a vet can give you peace of mind and for example if it was from a husbandry problem which I'm not saying it was you would then know what not to do so this doesn't happen again to any other snakes/reptiles in general you may own.

I do agree with many others that not all vets can be helpful when it comes to reptiles which is why a reptile specialist vet would be the best option,even if you get your non reptile experienced vet can't help they can leaze with a reptile specialist,send pics etc which may or may not help.If you do or did manage to find the cause of death it's something you can learn from however without an autopsy the cause of death is a hypothetical guess at best..!

Sorry for your loss believe me I know just what it feels like,don't blame yourself however next time take any reptile straight to the vet if the problem is something unknown and can't be fixed with simple home remedies like applying topical betadine etc.There's no reptile vet anywhere near where I live but when I take an animal to the local vet I also give them contact details for a reptile specialist vet which has helped me in the past.