Autopsy

[vuduman]

AUTOPSY

The following photos are quite graphic.Viewer's discretion is adviced!



I had the most gorgeous Bitis arietans (puffadder),that I grew up from a baby.
Here is a photo of her when she was about a year old and about 70cm.


I put a male(not my first choice) in the cage to keep her company so she can hopefully preduce her first litter.
I did'nt witness copulation,but was not upset that she was'nt going to produce her first season.

Unfortunately she died when she was about two and a half years of age and about 1,2m in size.
I was so upset as I was raising a little handpicked male especially for her,
but he has another few years to go before he is mature enough.It was suppose to be a lifelong project to breed
designer puffadders with loads of white and high contrasting colour.

Here is a recent picture of the male I was raising for her.Stunning little puffadder.


Apart from being quite heartbroken for the loss of “Maxine”,it was quite a shock
to see her still in perfect condition,but mouth open and full of substrate,dead in her cage.
I put all the puffadders in excact similar cages:
Glass tank,heating underneath,well ventilated meshlid.The other puffadders are still doing 100%.
No sniffles and still taking small meals once a week.In the cage they always have a big waterbowl off the heat,a hidebox and as substrate I use Kennaf bedding(or however you spell that).I feed them mostly on mice and small rats once a while just to keep their bodyfat down a bit as they can become obese rather fast with that appetite.

I have no idea why she died for this is the second puffadder ever dying on me,and the other one
was one I was trying to rescue after it being mistreated...and I've had loads!

My mom said she saw her the previous day, head up,body stretched out staring at the top corner of the cage(stargazing).But what is the reason for this behaviour?

So a “just as curious “friend of mine “roadkill456”decided that we should document an autopsy
and try to determine the cause of death...

Firstly,I removed the fangs just in case of a missunfortunate event of a fang in the finger whilst we are at work.
Then the cutting began...


At first glance.we noticed the belly was full of eggs-25 in total(about the size of marbles).
Witch saddened the event even further.



Everything seems to be in order,apart from the gallbladder and pancreas that was green in colour.
It seems like the colour spreaded to the ,what appears to be fertile eggmass.It was full of little red vains.


I have noticed that snakes that has been dead for a day or so,often has this green stain
showing through the skin.Regamortis has not taken affect yet,and I froze her for the day to do the autopsy the next day,
so it was still fresh when we "opperated".
Also there was no substrate in the intestines.The substrate(kennaf bedding)is very absorbent,and I thought if this was in her
intestines,it could possibly get stuck.But nothing there...
The liver looked a bit large,but I'm no expert.


We think the light coloured tissue is fat?


Any experts in this field that has a logical answer for death in this case?It would be greatly appreciated for future mistakes
not to be made.Does everything appear to be the right colour of a healthy snake?

Apart from the “startgaze”a day before her death,there was no signs that this beloved creature of mine was on her way out.

Just so that everything does'nt go to waste,we skinned her beautifully and the skin is in the prosses of drying.I will post some pictures of the skin when it is ready.

Thanks Roadkill456 that helped with the documentation and opperation.

Thanks for reading.





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[Durban Keeper]

cant see too much on my phone, but just wanted to let you know i'm sorry that you lost Maxine. Hopefully we can all learn from this and her death would not have been in vain. D

[Westley Price]

Very sorry to hear of your loss Ferdo.

Great series of pictures though. It's always valueable to see these kinds of things.

I have not done an autopsy myself so I have no idea exactly what to look out for, but that snake looks seriously overweight if the white stuff is subcutaneous fat.

I think that might have killed her in the long run. Most adders are very susceptible to over-feeding and I think this is what might have occurred here.

Once you find the source of her death you will have learnt a lesson so the whole ordeal will not be in vain.

[Bushviper]

I have an idea that she was looked after "too well". I have seen this happen with numerous adders who feed better in captivity than what they do in the wild. These snakes need to have periods where the organs get a chance to rest and the stomachs are empty.

The fat is not extreme but does indicate regular meals with few periods of "drought" in between.

A sad story because she was a beautiful specimen and was ready to mate this winter. Lets hope you get another one and follow the feed three weeks, then skip two weeks regimen.

[nvlooi]

Sorry for the loss Ferdo.
Thanks for the autopsy and desriptive photographs.

Agree with BV, we must always remember in nature some snakes survive only on a few meals a year and they grow to great sizes on their own time.

[roadkill456]

Great post!

It was very interesting to go through the whole autopsy & see the inner workings of this machine.

Would we be correct in thinking the 25 “eggs” are in fact fertile offspring? Any idea how far along she would have been?

Does the greenish discoloring have nothing to do with the cause of death maybe? As this was the only obvious sign of illness. Any idea what the discoloration would be?

Once again…to Vuduman, sorry for the loss, but thanks to the little bit more knowledge gained.

[Westley Price]

From what I've read, the green colour is normal after death.

The gall bladder starts to get green even just a few hours after death so I have my doubts that it had anything to do with its death.

I cannot comment of the eggs as I don't have much knowledge on reproduction of Adders.

[vuduman]

Thanks guys for the feedback and kind words for the loss of this amazing reptile.

I must admit:In the first year, she was the garbage bin of the snakeroom,and her head started looking a bit small for the girth of the snake.So she has been on a dieet the last year only getting a mouse every three weeks.But I guess in the long run the damage of overfeeding is ireverseble.

Is it maybe possible that she was'nt really old enough to breed this season?Two and a half years of age.
I think it is the case of,as BV suggested ,"looking after her too well"as the other ones that I have no rush with and without a feeding chart are still alive and well-just a bit more slender.

I think the lesson learnt here is to get more snakes,so that everyone gets an equal share of food.lol

[Westley Price]

Ferdo, I think if she was too young to breed the eggs would have developed a bit more before she died.

I think when a young snake breeds and dies from the breeding it's normally a case of getting egg-bound, not getting the babies out or the egg developement just taking too much of the snake's energy. I can't say that any of these is the case for the snake above. She was big and not too young so I doubt age would be an issue.

Good on you for looking at the dark cloud's silver lining! I wish I could do the same in similar situations.

[Bushviper]

Snakes will not ovulate if they are too young to breed. This was not a factor in her death.

[vuduman]

Thanks BV.That makes sence.The cause of death does seem to be a little more clear after illiminating some of the more unlikely
causes.
Thanks Westley.Yes.Its sometimes hard to turn the other cheek.
But in this case I think we all owe it to the snakes we loose, to try determine the cause of death and learn someting from it.
Not to make the same mistakes again as they are restricted to a cage and we are responcable for giving them a good lifestyle at any cost.

[Silvrav]

Vuduman, how far pregnant was she? no change to save the eggs even?

sorry for your loss... and thank you for sharing.

[vuduman]

@Silvrav.
No chance man.
They still just looked like little vainy marbles.I think the only way you will get babies out of a dead puffadder is if she was heavily pregnant and it's just been killed and the babies are wriggling inside her.
I've heard cases of roadkill with babies climbing out through the torn skin.And I also heard a case of someone killing a pregnant puffadder with a pitchfork,and the babies climbed out like spaghetti.

[Snake Charmer]

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss.

[MegF]

Sorry for your loss. I've lost a few this year as well but I have to say, there are massive fat deposites in the abdomen.Too much I'd say. While it's true they won't ovulate if they aren't old enough to breed, it's not necessarily true that she was fit to breed. Young snakes that are much too small are routinely "accidently" bred when they are co-habitated with males. Some cornsnakes as small as 80 grams have been bred by males that are ready to go and will breed. The likelyhood of the snake having no issues is small when they are undersized. I'd say the pregnancy did not kill her as she had plenty of eggs and it doesn't appear that any have burst, nor did they develop enough to have caused a blockage. While she was on the young side of breeding (I don't breed unless the animal is a minimum of 3 and sometimes older but I'm a very conservative feeder) she appeared to be large enough. The liver in the photo does look fatty, however freezing the animal might be at fault for the color change. If you plan on ever having a vet necropsy a snake, always refridgerate, never freeze as freezing destroys the tissue and makes it impossible to do tissue tests or see the true nature of the organs. The gallbladder often leaks into the abdomen after death and it's usually pretty quickly that it does that. It would have been helpful to have seen the kidneys, lung and heart as well. It could have been obesity, or kidney/liver problems but without being able to see the other organs it's hard to tell. She was a beautiful animal though and I can tell you that it's always the best ones we have that die on us!