My BHP died today

[Forensick]

All was fine, recently used enclosure, cleaned with water and f10
feed her on tuesday
gave her 2 rats, she only ate one which was weird for her... but happens to my others sometimes

next day she was acting kind of sluggish
checked the temps and everything, all normal, thought it was weird, firgured if she wasnt back to normal this morning we'd take her to the vet

woke up and she was gone

what on earth could have happened
i feel horrible for not taking her to the vet the moment i noticed

 

[shane14]

so sorry mate. I felt the same when i lost 1 of my beardeds. Poor lil girl. RIP

 

[naledge]

i feel horrible for not taking her to the vet the moment i noticed

It's not your fault, animals act differently sometimes. You had no real way of knowing something was wrong.

 

[Ramsayi]

All was fine, recently used enclosure, cleaned with water and f10
feed her on tuesday
gave her 2 rats, she only ate one which was weird for her... but happens to my others sometimes

next day she was acting kind of sluggish
checked the temps and everything, all normal, thought it was weird, firgured if she wasnt back to normal this morning we'd take her to the vet

woke up and she was gone

what on earth could have happened
i feel horrible for not taking her to the vet the moment i noticed

Can you give a bit more info on the animal such as age/size etc.If I were to take a guess I would suspect the rat as being the possible cause.

I would be taking it to the vet to get a necropsy done on it otherwise you will never know and would have learned nothing.

 

[kupper]

And make sure the body is kept in the fridge until you do and not the freezer

 

[DerekRoddy]

Can you give a bit more info on the animal such as age/size etc.If I were to take a guess I would suspect the rat as being the possible cause.

I would be taking it to the vet to get a necropsy done on it otherwise you will never know and would have learned nothing.

I agree with Ramsayi....

Here in the states...keepers have a common problem of BHP dying on them...for no reason.

Well, the reason.... is the rats we feed em'.
People are so used to getting other animals "up to size", "Breeding age", etc...pounding them full of rodents...(which they don't really eat very much of...in the wild...in addition too... if they were...the rodents they'd be eating wouldn't be fed for the to get up to "feeder" size....like they are when they're captive raised)
BHP's cannot process the fat contents of a rodent... like a Carpet, etc...because, they're systems are set up for reptiles, snakes, etc...

I know at least 10 keepers that have lost their BHPs (most females too) from feeding them rats that are too large.
Cut them open and...... it's fatty liver disease, Kidney failure from working too hard, Fat bodies, etc...
Not saying that happened here but, I have even heard of young animals not processing the rodents very well and dying....full of Fat bodies...attached to every organ in the digestive system.

As a general rule....I never feed a BHP anything larger than the width of it's head (Unless it's a reptile) . Just feed em' more of the small stuff.

Sorry for your loss....sucks to lose an animal/ friend.

D.

 

[shellfisch]

Really sorry to hear that, sorry for your loss

I would be taking it to the vet to get a necropsy done on it otherwise you will never know and would have learned nothing.

I agree.

 

[Forensick]

We buried her this morning under the tree her enclosure used to face

Couldnt get to see a vet till monday, and couldnt bear having her in the fridge till then, or even really the thought of her being cut up and disposed of somewhere else...
i know it is illogical, but no one ever said these things were sposed to be logical

to answer the other Qs
she was maybe 3.5 feet long
18months old

always had alot of trouble putting size on her, but we didnt over feed, she got 2-3 rats mice as wide as her head every 2 weeks, and nothing for one month of winter
her lethagy started as soon as she moved back from the feeding enclosure to her own.
the day i noticed odd behaviour she was sticking her head straight up, and flattening out the lower half of her body (weird enough that we decided to take her to the vet the next day), when i took her out to bury her i noticed the lump from the feeding looked maybe 4-5cm higher than it normally would be (i think, nothing to really compare too... just looked higher than normal)

i called the pet store i got the rats from today, just to let them know, in case it happens to others, and to give them a chance to check over their own stock
-not blaming them
stuff like that is just a curtesy i think, same as if you get sick after eating at a restaurant, means they can check there stuff to make sure nothing is wrong (that they can measure, temps etc)

 

[morgs202]

Mate that sucks . I can understand the burying thing, you get attached to them and the last thing you want, like you said is to have them just cut up and disposed of...

 

[schizmz]

My deepest sympathies.

 

[Poggle]

sorry for your loss

 

[symbol]

Sorry to hear that news. Just dreadful.

I heard a story during the week about (Not on this site) someone at works brother had a few pythons, all healthy until he went and bought rats from a pet shop, fed the rats to the pythons...2 days later both pythons dead! Has anyone else had this experience?? What could be wrong with the rats to cause the snake to die??? (besides poison)

 

[toximac]

If it makes you feel any better *which it prob wont* I recently had a Blonde mac 18months die on me..it would eat very slow, no idea how it died, exactly everything uve just said.. things like this unfair but yes Id be devastated if it was a BHP I hope your ok and perhaps you should enter the green python comp. in reptile australia mag to replace her...:-/

 

[Chris1]

so sorry for ur loss,..

i remember a thread about a year ago where someones had 2 or 3 snakes die from teh same batch of petshop rats, the theory was that some come from universities where theyve been test animals, are gassed with a toxic gas and accidentally thrown in with a bunch of co2 euthenised rats,...

ive been to paranoid to get rats from petshops since that thread,..

hope u feel better soon, its horrible to lose a pet.

 

[FAY]

Sorry to hear about your loss Forensick..If I remember correctly, didn't you offer to cook a three course meal for a dinner party to get her???

 

[junglecarpet]

Im so sorry to hear about your loss I would have buried mine straight away to, the idea of having my babies cut up is just horrible... I couldnt do it so I understand completely

Hopefully you can find out what the issue is though and if you ever get another python, I would definitely recommend finding a trustworthy private breeder of rodents to buy off

 

[itbites]

So sorry for your loss

It's even worse when it happens suddenly & it's unexplainable..