Necropsy Results

[kevyn]

I performed a necropsy today on my deceased Kalimantan Tropdiolaemus wagleri (Wagler's Temple Pitviper). I found her to be free of parasites both in the lungs (where I expected to find worms) and in the lower and upper digestive tracts. I did find solidified fecies in the lower intestine that was causing a blockage. Small amounts of urine could pass but nothing solid. Leading to my conclusion that she died of impaction. All internal organs appeared healthy and free signs of trauma and disease.

 

[Adam]

Thanx for sharing that with us. I know it's hard but did she look like she was constipated before she died?

 

[kevyn]

I could tell she had to deficate, and I soaked her quite abit, nothing really happened so I foolishly assumed she was okay. The feces that I found in her digestive tract was rock hard, like a bunch of little stones. There is not alot of reliable information regarding the captive husbandry of this species so anyone keeping them or breeding them is really pioneering. It is a hard lesson to learn, but a valuable one for the future. I jsut wish that an animal didn't have to die inorder for me to learn it.

 

[Adam]

A hard way to learn indeed, but you aren't the only one to have learned things the hard way. I am sure there are a few of out there who have lost snakes and now with the new knowledge you have aquired I am sure you will not loose another the same way.Hard luck but thanx for sharing it with us.

 

[africancichlidau]

That's what it is all about Kev, sharing your knowledge so that others can benefit from it. A hard, very hard, lesson learned by you now can save many other keepers from the same occurrence and many other snakes from the same fate. If you are pioneering with a species then you are having a very valuable input to herpetology as a whole and have a reason to be proud, though at the moment, you also have a reason to be sad. I hope the former is greater than the latter in the long run. Good onya mate