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Our young corn snake has stopped eating and is losing a lot of weight

I had the same thing happen to me a few months ago with the baby I bought in Nov. from Petsmart. I realized after a couple of weeks that she was sick when I got her. I did the meds as well, but she never got better and was just dead one day. It's sad, but a good lesson about big box pet stores. However when I had to buy food for my other one a while back I held a beautiful corn at Petco, so hard not to buy it, but I know better, I'd be sick if another one died that I bought.
Sorry for your loss and hope your daughter takes it alright. :'(
 
Looking back at your post, and being a vet myself (although not practicing and not trained in reptiles) - I am thinking as a postmortem - the soft lump she had may had been an abscess - maybe she ingested some substrate and that migrated through her body, eventually creating a foreign object response from her body. unfortunately the abscess grew bigger and it burst. There isn't much you could have done.
 
D'n'D said:
Looking back at your post, and being a vet myself (although not practicing and not trained in reptiles) - I am thinking as a postmortem - the soft lump she had may had been an abscess - maybe she ingested some substrate and that migrated through her body, eventually creating a foreign object response from her body. unfortunately the abscess grew bigger and it burst. There isn't much you could have done.
Click to expand...

We always fed her in a separate feeding box so she definitely didn't swallow any substrate when feeding. She was our first snake so I didn't realize until now, but looking at other people's 1 1/2 year old corn snakes, our snake was tiny. She was maybe 24" long and very thin. Other snakes I see online look like full grown animals. Even though she ate fine, she just never thrived and grew. Thanks again for your help guys.
 
I had a snake that abscessed and had to be euthanised because it had a stomach stricture that tore when I tube fed it a single cc of egg yolk. The egg yolk ended up in the body cavity due the tear and made an abscess. It's name was 'Too Stupid To Live' because I'd been fore feeding mouse tails to it for months.

I also suggest a post mortem. It might give you a bit of closure.
 
Again, the vet in me keeps rummaging over this.

Maybe she aspirated something ... I don't Know. But when you say the lump was soft, that means either a cyst or and abscess. Yes, a postmortem will bring closure, and indeed, when you say that she didn't thrive, you may be right. My 6-month old puts on 1-2 g on every feeding and is now 39g. There could also have been an anatomical anomaly, that in time became more accentuated and lead to her not thriving and eventually her death.
I remember as a kid, my first puppy died at 6months - she failed to thrive - she was not meant to live. But the next ... she lived to 19 years. So do a post mortem to find out if it was infectious or not and then get another one - season just started and on this forum I saw some nice clutches in the making ...

Hugs,
Dana
 
My daughter definitely wasn't down with a post mortem. She buried her in our front yard with 5 pinkies and her favorite wood log hide. She's doing better today...last night was rough. We are still waiting for the crypto test results. If it was crypto, we should throw away everything in the tank, sterilize the tank and start from scratch right?
 
So sorry to hear of the loss. Some just weren't meant to make it.

Yes, toss everything in the viv that can't be sterilized and if you do get another reptile you can boil rocks and solid pieces of decoration with a splash of bleach added to the water, but if you can, start over fresh.

The viv should be scrubbed and scrubbed again with bleach water, then rinsed and let dry in the sun. This SHOULD kill everything bad left in the tank.
 
smigon said:
So sorry to hear of the loss. Some just weren't meant to make it.

Yes, toss everything in the viv that can't be sterilized and if you do get another reptile you can boil rocks and solid pieces of decoration with a splash of bleach added to the water, but if you can, start over fresh.

The viv should be scrubbed and scrubbed again with bleach water, then rinsed and let dry in the sun. This SHOULD kill everything bad left in the tank.
Click to expand...

I am definitely emptying the tank, and might just replace the tank as well for peace of mind. I read bleach does nothing against crypto but ammonia works. I worry about the silicone strips in the corners harboring the parasite. I think I'll just start fresh with all new equipment.
 
We heard from the vet. The final test results were positive for crypto. I guess there was nothing else we could have done. I'm definitely throwing the entire tank out now. For $30 to replace the 20 gallon tank, it isn't worth the peace of mind you get from all new equipment.
 
I am sorry but you did everything you could have done... and I would also totally toss the tank and replace it. <3 Hope your daughter gets a little peace of mind. However I would take the result to the pet store, since you haven't had the snake around other snakes you can prove he/she was sick from the bat most likely you may be able to get medical care covered to a degree either way they need to stop buying snakes from where they are or more will bite the dust the same way as well...
 
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