! Gravid boa death.

Really? I had never heard of it before. I am still waiting to ask the vet a few more questions (phone tag), and I was going to ask if breeding could be related, or the feeting schedule of the breeding season.... I'm wondering if a female who is used to having an intestinal tract that is usually full, and then goes through breeding with little food, if just that can cause a situation like what happened.

I'm sorry you had a similar problem... hopefully this information will help other people avoid a similar situation. I will definitely let you know when I find out more from the vet hopefully today or sometime this week at least.

sorry - feeding schedule, not "feeting".

Just got a call back.

Here is a more detailed explanation from the vet....

DeeDee was probably sick for about two weeks judging by the condition of her intestine and the condition of the rest of her body. The vet has not personally seen this condition in snakes before, but it is common in mammals. The intestine basically telescoped inward on itself, and the overlapped section developed an infected abscess. The abscess blocked the intestine and there was fecal matter built up behind it (which was the cause of the swelling). The kidneys, however, empty into the cloaca, and usually urates that are passed into the cloaca are then held there (or back up a bit into the intestine) until the snake defecates. I found tracks of pasty semiliquid urates in her cage when I found that she had died, so that explains why she could pass urates alone (I didn't know where urates get passed into the tract).

The vet also said that conditions like this usually happen fairly quickly, and that even had I recognized the signs, major surgery would have been required, and even if the surgery was successful, more than likely she would have had serious complications.

The vet said her fat reserves and other tissue health was very good (when I asked how long she might have been sick with this). Her intestines looked good above the abscess, that was the entire problem.

I also asked the vet if in his opinion, this was caused by breeding or by being off feed for breeding season. He said he did not know, because he has never seen this happen in a snake. I asked if in his opinion, if DeeDee was large enough to breed for a dwarf boa subspecies, and he said that she was definitely large enough to breed without problems, though he didn't see any signs of activity in her reproductive tract at all. He said that except for the abscess, she was in excellent health (makes me feel better), and that from her size and age, breeding would not have been an issue with her. (I know, the photo I took didn't have anything to show the snake's size in scale with anything else).

So what probably happened, according to the vet, was that when she last defecated, her intestine twisted and slid in on itself. He also let me know that in a potentially gravid boa (with slugs or with live babies), that when feeling their abdomen, you should feel individual round lumps, if the female will let you touch her. DeeDee's belly, when I felt it after she died, just had one large squishy area.

Hopefully this will help some people avoid this if this does happen more than freakishly rarely - and if you think something might be amiss with your gravid boa, see if you can feel bumps, because a large single swelling isn't normal. I wonder if some boas' musculature might hide bumps...

The vet was sorta wrong with one thing, while it is possible to feel lumps in gravid boas, many times you can't. I believe he meant oviparous snakes could be manipulated in order to tell if they are gravid. Live bearers are much trickier.

Chris

i just want to say that first of all, my god, i am so sorry. i teared up just reading this thread. this hits very close to home for me, im breeding for my first time this year, and i cant thank you enough for putting this story out there as painful as it must have been to keep talking about it. because of your story i will now look out for that and take my girl to the vet when in a couple months or when she starts showing, and also i dont think i will be breeding this snake anymore because she is first, my pet, and always will be. my next breeding will be done with another snake bought just for breeding, not that i wouldnt care about the next snake, but because i care about this one so much. thank you again for telling your story.

No problem - I think the vet's point was that DeeDee's belly had just one area with a very liquidy swelling that had a hard spot at one end, rather than having a swelling that ran along her whole rear half... and I'm sure some snakes are harder to feel individual round areas because of size and shape.

I do regret now NOT handling her a little bit - I didn't move her or handle her more than to clean her cage because I thought it would jeopardize her litter, but perhaps a small amount of "feeling" her belly would have at least let me know something wasn't quite right.

The vet did say that he has never seen this exact thing happen in a snake and is probably uncommon, but as Donnie said, a somewhat similar situation happened twice to him - I think the scary part of this was that BECAUSE I thought she might be gravid, the swelling didn't worry me. Even though you are not supposed to move gravid boas much when they are near their due date, if you are worried that something isn't quite normal, a trip to a good herp vet should be in order anyway...

So this seems to be pretty rare, but happens quickly and is hard to treat IF it does happen... I hope my story hasn't discouraged or worried too many first-timers out there... I hope my female suri does have a good litter in June, so perhaps my first breeding season won't turn out to be completely depressing....