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Miscarriage and Death
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by BlackMamba88 on December 5, 2013
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I came home today and one of my adult gravid female squams had a miscarriage and died. Lost about 7 snakes plus however many she didn't miscarriage. Its pissing me off really bad because I have no idea WTF happened. The snake was in perfect health, I breed squams and they are the only species I keep so I am pretty good with them. I had the snake in the same setup for the last 4 years. This particular group always does super well, it's a male and two female and I have them in a 44 gallon hexagon tank that they have all been in together for the last 4 years. They do really well together. The other two snakes are fine although my other female has been acting a bit sluggish these last few day and I am horrified. I really need to understand what happened here to stop this from ever happening again. The snake showed no signs of illness before her death. No gaping or star gazing nothing, she was perfectly fine and healthy. There was also no blood in the cage just the yellow egg sacks and the snakes. I was keeping these two females in prime condition because I knew they were pregnant. The only thing I saw was that the night before she seemed to be climbing around a lot and looked at me with an odd look like she was trying to tell me something. Her tank is by my computer desk and I specifically remember looking over and thinking " wtf is this snake looking at?" Then the next day I woke up and she was on her back dead with baby snakes all over the tank. Anybody have any idea what happened here ? What am I missing I really need to know.
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RE: Miscarriage and Death
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by BlackMamba88 on December 5, 2013
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Also the babies were not fully developed enough to live outside the womb. You could tell the were squams but they were pinkish in color.
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RE: Miscarriage and Death
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by wamartin67 on December 6, 2013
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Most likely there's nothing you could do or nothing you did wrong. From a medical perspective there is so much that has to go right during a pregnancy and delivery (in any animal species) that it's really a miracle when it does go smoothly. Before modern medicine the mortality rate for pregnant women and babies during pregnancy/delivery was fairly high.
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RE: Miscarriage and Death
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by agkistrodude on December 7, 2013
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I've seen this happen a few times over the years. to my own snakes a couple of times. No good explanation, just theories. Sometimes stuff just happens. I'm sure you could get an answer if you know someone that could do a thorough necropsy, but that can be costly. Sorry for your loss, Marty
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RE: Miscarriage and Death
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by Ptk on December 9, 2013
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How does one "impulse buy" a monocled Cobra?....., never mind I don't want to know.
I hate you lost one this way. Just a theory to mull over but perhaps the stress of pregnancy and the presence of the other two snakes was just too much? I believe stress can kill more captive snakes than just about anything.
If it were me I would separate the remaining two into individual sterile enclosures. I would then remove all substrate, climbing branches, water bowls and whatever else you might have in there. Bleach or replace everything (including handling equipment), let it sit empty awhile, rise and dry thoroughly - just to rule out anything environmental.
Best of luck!
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RE: Miscarriage and Death
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by BobH on December 9, 2013
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I agree with the earlier post that it was probably stress related. I suspect the gravid females go off and hide somewhere where there is little if any activity and no other snakes to eat her precious babies. Sorry, but probably not much you could have done except isolate the gravid female to a place without activity and other snakes.
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RE: Miscarriage and Death
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by VenomHerp on December 10, 2013
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Man, I am sorry to hear that happened! Like others have said, it's a miracle when this doesn't happen. Wish I had a more helpful response.
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