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My cornsnake died!

Optreptiles

Optreptiles

New member
Sorry if this is in the wrong section, but I don't know where else to put a thread like this.

Today I went to check on my cornsnake Cara, and found her dead in her cage (every cornsnake owner's worst nightmare). I noticed she seemed to be biting herself on the side. I have no clue as to what might have caused this. About 2 days ago she regurgitated a mouse (which i'm not sure what would have caused that either). She didn't appear to be sick, the warm side of the cage was about 83 F, and she did have some water. As for the regurge, I have no idea what caused that, as she had adequate heat, no environmental stressors, she wasn't over-handled, etc. There was some defecation in her cage that was a few days old that I didn't have a chance to clean out. I feel horrible about the whole thing. Is there some way she could have accidentally bit herself and got stuck? Was it a bad mouse? Any advice is much appreciated.
 
I *doubt* your snake bit itself, and that was cause of death. Surely if that happened you would have surely seen it during feeding -hard to imagine another time that could happen. Was the mouth opened and latched onto its body? A regurge is never a good sign and usually points to temperature -sometimes, stress or too large of a meal. A little missed feces won't kill a snake, or the snakes I've rescued in the past would have died months ago.
 
Her mouth was open and latched onto her body. The mouse I gave her was about the size she gets every week. I know that when I found the regurge, it smelled awful, like a rotten corpse. Is that normal? This was the first regurge I've ever experienced personally.
 
I am so very sorry concerning the loss of your snake.

There can be any number of potential problems, plus as many more we don't even know exist yet. Every snake owner will experience that sudden death. The regurge does indicate some sort of an issue, but whether it was environmental or medical, it will be difficult to determine without a necropsy, and even then, most of the time yo won't get a definitive diagnosis.

As a precaution, dispose of everything you can of that snakes viv and thoroughly disinfect the rest, just in case some nasty little germ was the cause. Also, watch your other snake or herps and practice quarantine procedures for awhile to make sure they didn't pick up what took the life of your other snake.
 
I'm so sorry to hear the loss of your beloved girl... don't take it too much to heart, baby corn snakes can be extremely fragile especially to internal/medical injuries or defects they may have had since they hatched. It may have just been dealt a bad set of genes that caused some abnormality that can't be seen. :(
 
Thanks to everyone for the comments. I gave her a proper burial a few hours ago.

@Sacred_Nightmares, Cara was actually 5 years old :awcrap: but thanks anyway.
 
I have, I think, stumbled upon such an occurance when the snake suffered from internal trauma(intestine tract blockage possibly). The discomfort caused the snake to bite himself... but it was not the cause of death.
No way of knowing without an autopsy.

Right now it is important that, if you have other reptiles, you take the viv, wash it well, and put it in the sun for 3 days. If you can do this with single use gloves... even better.

I really am sorry for your loss...
 
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