My pet Corn Snake died, why???

Question
Hi, my pet Corn Snake died on the weekend. He was 7 years old and had never had a health problem and was a good eater.  For 2 days before his death he sat very still with his head and neck raised up about 2-3 inches, it was like he was mesmerized.  He would move around the tank occasionally then raise his head again, always looking in the same direction.  I thought it may have been something to do with the other Corn in the same tank, thought she may have been pregnant and this was some kind of ritual, I guess not. The WORST thing is, I am very diligent in cleaning the water bowl regularly with reptile cleaner but last week, along with the reptile cleaning solution i used a toothbrush that i use for cleaning the bathroom to scrub the rough section of the water bowl. I would have scrubbed over a 1 inch sq section and rinsed the bowl properly afterwards. Looking back I dont know why on earth I did this, it was so so stupid but I am just preying it wasnt that that killed him. So i guess i really want to know if a snakes reaction to being poisoned would be to raise his head like that and then pass away. I am so upset about his death, he was such a funny little snake and im preying it wasnt me that killed him. Thanks for anything u can help me with. d

Answer
Dee, I seriously doubt the action you described would have caused your snake's death.  Especially if you rinsed it off as you said.  Sadly, you'll never know for sure what killed the animal w/o an etopsy (animal autopsy), and even if you went through all that expense you might still not know...  Give yourself time to get over it and get yourself another one.  Animals (especially reptiles) sometimes just die.  The symptoms are so slow in coming and usually so minor w/ reptiles we usually miss them.  I'm sorry for your loss, BPC