Necropsy (EXTREMELY GRAPHIC)

[danktat]

This thread I suppose is partially to vent, partially to show what I found, and partially to ask the opinions of those who have more experience than myself. As was posted on an eariler thread, I lost a boa to God knows what. No warning, no lingering illness, no malfunctions in heating or caging....just instant death. I have had necropsies done before at the University of Penn Vet Clinic but I was told that they only did them on "current patients" of specific doctors there and NOT just on the basis of immediate need. As a result I opened her up myself. This is what I found.
.
Her
.

.
Beginning disection
.

.

.

.
What sucks is that it looks like she took and was gravid. I come to this conclusion as is dark striping on the ova that apprear to be in the beginning stages of developing into snakes.
.

.

.
Liver looks ok
.

.
Stomache...a little small as she hasn't been fed in a couple of months due to breeding.
.

.
This concerned me and perhaps some of you with more knowlege can help me out here. If you noticed in the first couple of pix there was a pretty good amount of fat deposits. Well here is the heart and I am no expert, but, does this ammount of fat around the heart look normal?
.

.

.
Not sure how much I learned except that I didn't get skunked this season, she just didn't have a chance to drop them. Looks like only one side ovulated too (which may explain why males were still interested in her). The fat deposits were a bit disturbing but I am not sure if they are in the normal range. I found no tumors like the doctors did on Pandora when doing her necropsy. Any opinions would be appreciated.
.
Thanks for the long read.

[Allysen]

That's so sad! It's a pity that there wasn't anything super obvious, like tumors or something that you could easily identify as a cause of death. Have you thought of emailing the pictures to different University zoology and veterinary departments?

[ssjsmits]

I dunno, pretty impressive work though.

[JuliusSqueezer]

Sorry for your loss, man.

That is indeed a great deal of fat around the heart. How old was she? How long have you had her? When was she last bred prior to this season? Did you dissect the lungs and check for fluid or masses or those nasty little corkscrew pasta looking worms? Any redness or rupturing of the digestive tract? From what I can see, it looks pretty clear. No signs of any of those weird little coccidia/crypto buggers but...it doesn't rule out rogue parasites that got lost in the bloodstream missing the digestive track and ending up in the brain, heart, lungs or other organs. These can easily at any time turn deadly and due to them not being in the digestive tract they are completely undetectable by way of fecals. Sometimes you catch them in blood smears from heart sticks. Sometimes you don't. As sudden as this was and with no prior history of neurological disorder, I'd guess something coronary...or Pulmonary Embolism or something. Kind of hard to look at a heart and guess at what stopped it. If you dissect all the coronary arteries, you might get lucky and find a big blood clot or blob of worms or something. Out of probably close to 100 home necropsy's I've done over the years, I've found crypto a few times but knew it was present. I've found huge masses on the liver of a tokay gecko and lungs absolutely full of phlegm and clear liquid from a chronic RI / BD Burm....the other 90 some odd percent were mysteries but educational to peek inside none the less. I hate to admit having so many dead animals but 30 years of doing rescue and the sad state that so many come in...they add up. I have seen fat around the heart before and wondered the same thing you are wondering...From what I understand though, that's typically a problem of boas that were power fed from birth that die young from fat build up around the heart and other related diseases.



No one will be able to say for sure any cause of death at this point but the heart is suspect. Complications of pregnancy are always possible. Could have been a combination of things. Tissue samples might tell something...might not. Reptiles hide symptoms too well sometimes when they are sick. It's supposed to be a defense thing but it sure would make helping them get over stuff if they would tell us what's bothering them.

[danktat]

Thanks for the reply. I am no doctor so I didn't really expect that I would be able to figure it out. I always did think she was a little overweight from the day she came in. She was an '01. Legnth was a little under 8 ft and she was 22'ish lbs. It was less her weight as far as numbers go then the overally look of the muscle to fat ratio that had me believe she was over weight. I have definately seen worse but she was just bigger than I like to keep my females. This has, I must admit, been one of my tougher losses.

[JuliusSqueezer]

8 feet and 22 pounds isn't really alarming for a 7 year old boa..not even for BCC. I just wonder at what rate she was brought up to that size. BCC get a good bit larger than most if not all other of the subspecies typically but they also usually grow a lot slower. Having not raised her to that size yourself, you can't really know how she was fed before you got her. At any rate...It sucks. I feel for ya.

	Boa Constrictor Constrictor

[AbsoluteApril]

Thank you for sharing your results.
This site has some pictures of snake necropcies where there were infections and what to look for:
Southern Reptile Education - Medical Procedures & Ailments
From some reading I've been doing, it appears that excess fat in snakes does tend to condense around the heart and liver which can cause premature death.. I haven't seen enough snakes opened up to say if she had too many fat deposits or not. But there does appear to be quite a bit around the heart, even though a healthy snake will have many fat bodies.
Frog & Snake Dissection: Compare Anatomy
As Julius mentioned, it may have been from the way she was raised. Or it could have been something else all together or a combination. At least you tried and could rule out a few things. I agree with Allysen as well, try sending the pics to some vets and perhaps they can give some more insight as well.
It's always sad to lose a snake, especially one you prized so much, I hope you're doing okay.

[danktat]

I hope you're doing okay.

I still have my whisky

[JuliusSqueezer]

Hey...not meaning to sound insensitive but...you didn't throw that C note away with the newspaper did you?