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Osteoporosis?

N

notapixie

New member
I work at a petstore, and one day I talked to a woman on the phone who said the vet had told her that her snake, which she had bought from us, had osteoporosis. Forward a couple months to a couple days ago, and she brought the snake in and had us replace it. This snake looks to be in awful shape... his entire body is deformed, he has big lumps every cm or so all the way down to the end of his tail.

Now obviously this snake has to be euthanized... but despite some research, I haven't found anything resembling what's wrong with this snake, and as far as I can tell snakes can't get osteoporosis... maybe some type of mbd? I'd like to know what would have caused this... genetics? Maltreatment? Infection? If so, is it contagious? The closest thing I've heard is osteomyelitis, but that doesn't sound quite right either...

If it makes a difference, the snake looks to be about 1.5 - 2 years old, and as yet he is still eating, drinking, and shedding like normal, and it seems to be an affliction that just continues to get worse with time.

Thanks for any info you can give
 
As you're going to euthanase anyway, it might be worth arranging a PM with a reptile vet in advance, so that you can get more detailed info. (Don't store the snake's body in a freezer as this causes cell damage - keeping it cool in the refridgerator will be fine).

Any of my guesses about the cause, are just that.

If it's a problem with the skeletal structure (should show up in an X-ray), then maybe a problem metabolising or processing calcium, leading to multiple breaks and/or uneven bone deposition. Possibly mistreatment leading to multiple breaks. Could be an inappropriate diet leading to insufficient calcium intake.

If non-skeletal, then the lumps could be tumours, or even just fatty deposits.

Hope you find out the root cause. Must be heartbreaking to have one of your own returned in such a state.
 
Got some pics on my camera phone at work today, sorry they aren't the greatest quality but they give you an idea. They're kinda big, so here are the links:

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/notapixie/01-10-06_1328.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/notapixie/01-10-06_1327.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g54/notapixie/01-10-06_1326.jpg

Has anyone else seen this or had it happen to one of their snakes?

The snake isn't mine, it's from the petstore where I work. I'm asking more out of curiosity because I've never seen this before. As it's not mine, however, I don't have much influence in what happens to it or if it's looked at by a vet.
 
Thought it might help if I copied one of the photos direct to this thread.

Never seen anything that bad, that wasn't obvious from hatching. Hope someone else has some ideas.
 

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  • 01-10-06_1326.jpg
    01-10-06_1326.jpg
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Looks like osteitis deformans or Paget's diesease. It's not common but it causes irregular and excessive bone growth that leads to fusion of the spine etc.
 
:-offtopic I'm amazed that the store offered money back if the snake was bought as a hatchling
 
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