RIP Hera...

Well guys...I've been busy with finals and my KSB for a while so I've been less active as of late... But I have some bad news today. Hera died today at around 10 AM

It all started on Wednesday when I went to feed her...she refused to eat so I simply shrugged it off since her last meal was pretty big. On Friday, she became unusually aggressive and bit me and my fiance. She also started to bite the silicon seal inside of her tank. We left her alone and checked on her Saturday..she was still aggressive and bit me again. That's when she went to the cool side of the tank above the substrate...she didn't burrow for the entire day/night.

Today, we checked on her again. She was in the same exact position we left her on Saturday...so she was in that position for 12 hours...staring up at the top of the tank and unburrowed. My fiance held her for a second then she opened her mouth and twitched/shook her head. When he placed her back in the tank, she immediately rolled up into a tight, rock hard ball and rolled around the tank, defecating in the process. When she stopped, her mouth was wide open...she was constricting herself to death, it seemed...We couldn't get her to stop and we didn't want to hurt her...so we waited for a moment to see if she'd realize that she was hurting herself. Her grip loosened, but her mouth stayed wide open. In the process, her belly area where her lungs would be turned blackish blue within a few seconds.

We removed her from the tank and put her into a sterilite container to make sure she didn't get substrate in her mouth. Within a few minutes, she went completely limp. Her esophagus was not opening and closing like it should. Her mouth slowly closed on it's own since her body unwrapped in the upside-down position...it seems that she died from a seizure...we made sure she was dead by placing her tub in her tank on the warm side. She didn't move for over an hour.

I'm going to be getting a necropsy on her tomorrow to see what might have killed her...it was really scary and strange since I don't use chemicals around her tank (her tank is right next to Typhon's and he's fine) and her tank temperatures are in the appropriate range. I never fed her while she was in her enclosure to make sure she wouldn't get impacted...

It was so sudden and graphic... She died in 5-10 minutes. It seems like it might have been IBD that did her in...I hope that's not the case since it's highly contagious to other boas/pythons and has no cure... I'll keep you guys updated about the necropsy...

Oh I am so sorry to hear that. What a terrible event to witness but at least she was not alone when it happened. Poor thing. RIP HERA.

awwwww im so sorry hun x

RIP Hera x

Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry ):

RIP Hera.

That is so strange. I'm really sorry, Cerra. ):

The
necropsy results are in...I got a play by play diagnosis since I was
able to go in the back and watch the vet perform the necropsy. Talk
about educational.

Everything was normal except for her liver. It was dark and rounder
than it should be. Parts of the liver were also thinner than usual (it
looked like when you poke hamburger meat through the seran wrap and make
a hole without puncturing the seran wrap...in this case it was the
membrane). Based on how she died and how quickly she died, he ruled out
IBD. He discussed a few options on what could have happened:

1. Self-induced injury from constriction. The liver wasn't swollen
but looked "angry". The thinner areas of the liver could have been from
the extreme amount of pressure. Also, her stomach area where the liver
was located wasn't blackish blue until after she constricted herself, so
this explanation is likely.
2. Septic infection based on how
red/discolored the liver was paired with her behavior. Basically, he
explained that if she had septicemia, the infection could have spread
through her blood and affected her brain, ultimately causing death. It
would also make sense since the incubation period seems to fit something
bacterial (2-2 1/2 weeks since I got her from the reptile expo).
3.
Menangitis (?) could have been another factor since everything pointed
to something neurological that caused her death. This could have
affected her brain and caused the symptoms leading to her death.

So for an even more basic summary, her death was likely something
neurological or a form of infection that affected her brain. Also, I
found out that she was supposedly supposed to be 4 months old based on
the words of an acquaintance of the original breeder (unfortunately, he
doesn't know the breeder's number...he purchased several of Hera's
siblings though and that was about three or so months ago). Hera was
still just under 8 inches and weighed 10 or so grams, so she might have
had other troubles relating to general growth...*sigh* At least it isn't
IBD... Wish I could have done more for her, though.