Hi Barbie, I would make absolutely sure you do not have a mite problem. A friend of mine had a similar sudden death problem in his collection. I did fecals on many of his animals and found nothing. I questioned him about mites, and he said definetly not, then two days later took a closer look and found he had a major mite infestation! They were also doing a strange flipping behavior too, flopping their heads or tails around (maybe to try and rid themselves of mites). He lost several thayeri and a desert iguana, all very suddenly. No more deaths since he got a can of Provent-A-Mite!
You also mention you had a green snake, which threw up a red flag when i was reading your message. These are usually wild collected and carrying mites and blistery sores. I have observed mites on green snakes I have seen in pet stores here in CA recently, and almost always found mites on the green snakes when they arrived at the pet store I worked at in NJ many years ago. Good luck with this, Steve www.geckosetc.com --- Barbie Heid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi gang, > > I apologize for bringing this to this list, but I'm desperate for help, and > need to pick everybody's brains ... > > I've got what looks like a *serious* virus running through my snake > collection, and fast. Brief rundown - > > First, every snake involved (appeared to be) healthy, were great feeders, > active, and, all between the age of 1-2 years old. None of them (except the > garters) ever had any contact with one another. > > Started four weeks ago with a tank of baby garters. Woke up one morning to > find three of them dead. Not upside down, or coiled - dead, as if in their > tracks, like they were actually tooling around the tank and bam. The next > night, a smooth green who was in the tank inches away died, same way. > > I immediately quarantined the remaining garter, but I don't know if it was > too little, too late. > > Two days ago, the last baby garter died. This morning, I woke up, and one of > my three favorite hognoses was dead. At five o'clock today, I lost a second > hognose. > > I've talked to my vet a few times, and he's not always available, due to > some personal stuff. He has been unable to necropsy any of the snakes, but > he says it walks, talks, and smells like a virus. I have numerous other > geckos, frogs, and salamanders; whatever this is only effecting snakes. For > that reason, he's ruled out chemicals, poisoning etc. > > I swear, I use strict handwashing between tanks, and I can't stop this > thing - I don't even know what I'm looking for, as everybody who died was > perfectly fine, then dropped dead - no symptoms of anything. > > Because the hognose just died a few hours ago, well, I did one myself - > here's what I found. ~ > > [snipped from what I posted to the snakes list] > > Well, here it is ~ > > >I know some of you don't think it's a good idea, but the vet is unavailable > to do it, so, why not? I just had to see ... > > And I found - nothing (at least for the most part). > > I opened up Busy, and found what looked like a perfectly normal, healthy > snake (except for LI, later). > > Mouth looked great - no swelling, discharge, all teeth intact; roof of the > mouth nice and light pink. > > Started in the right lung, because I figured if there was a problem, that's > where I'd find it. Looked great, inside and out (didn't bother with the > left, size). Judging by what I've seen of healthy necrospied snakes, the > trach, heart and right lung looked great. > > Found last night's toad in the stomach; removed that (phew!). To be honest, > I'm not sure which was which, [I always get them confused] but the > gallbladder and spleen looked OK - about this big ( ) and black, one > slightly larger than the other. The stomach and the bowel loops of the small > intestine looked good, tissue was nice and pink; when I opened it, just > small amounts of clear fluid. I was looking for tapeworms, anything I could > see with the naked eye - nothing. Liver looked about the same size as in > other snakes I've seen. > > I somehow missed the pancreas (must have come out with the bowel loops). > Located > both kidneys and the blood vessels to them; both looked equal in size; > judging by the blood vessels, looked like they were well perfused, and > didn't look swollen or anything. Only located one ovary, though. > > But here's what did look very weird: in the large intestine was a *massive* > amount of brown fluid - I mean massive. There were some urates, right at the > cloaca; when I scooped that out, looked like normal snake pee. > > The amount of fluid in there was unbelievable - and the smell! (Yes, I > perforated the intestine :( > > I'm going to call the vet and tell him what I found, but does anyone have a > clue what this massive amount of fluid means???? > > She had only been dead two hours, and extereriorly, looked great - no lumps, > swelling of any kind anywhere. Just the normal bulge where the toad was.> > > Again, I apologize for this being off topic. But if anyone has any ideas, or > has seen anything like this, please let me know. I've cleaned the living > daylights out of everything, top to bottom, and I'm still losing snakes. > > I can't tie this to anything else: due to the various different species, > they all had varied diets; haven't introduced anything new to the house or > anybody's environment, and have used the same soap and water cleaning I've > used for years. I don't use tap water on the critters; I buy bottled water > for them. Food, when collected, is always from way out in the boondocks, far > away from public water systems, etc. > > Thank you so much for any help, > > Barbie >^,,^< > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://members.tripod.com/barbieheid/ > "Save the whales - collect the whole set." > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Global Gecko Association > http://www.gekkota.com > Classifieds > http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi > gecko mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko _______________________________________________ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
