Male corn snakes deaths

Question
QUESTION: Dear Paul,

I have been breeding corn snakes for the last five years and have had a good success rate with the young. The problem i have is my last two male snakes have died suddenly both with similar symptoms. The symptoms consisted of violent shaking of the head and general muscle spasm's which has resulted in death in both incidences. The first snake was a Bubblegum corn which looked as though its heart had exploded as there was a large area of blood in this region. But the second who died today actually had no evidence of a rupture etc. The weird thing is all four of my female corns are perfectly well and are good eaters and egg producers. Could the males be catching something from the females causing them to die? I read some of your answers in internal parasites and if this was the cause why are the females doing ok? my male was kept alone and introduced in breeding season but all have been together at some point. Do you have any ideas on what this could be or what is causing it my first instinct was a sexually transmitted infection?

Kind regards

Andrew Downer

ANSWER: Sorry about the loss of your snakes Andrew. I know how you feel.

I've never heard of a sexually transmitted disease for snakes. Most parasitic diseases that I've witnessed happened over several days or weeks where the animal continually lost weight. What you described sounds more live a central nervous system problem. Were the snakes exposed to any types of cleaning solutions or no-pest products? That would be my first guess. The only way to tell for sure is to take one of the dead snakes to a reptile vet for a necropsy.

There's also a book on Amazon that you may be interested in. It's called Understanding Reptile Parasites. It's a very good read and pretty cheap in cost, so worthwhile for any snake owner.

Paul

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Paul,

Thank you for your prompt reply. Yes the last male that died yesterday was exposed to a cleaning product but it was one that is recommended for reptile use, sorry i can't remember the name of the product used. This could however explain the differences between the two deaths as the first had visible signs of internal damage where as the second one did not. My worrie is that the females have also be exposed to this cleaning product, although there tank is much larger so that may be why they have not yet developed a problem. It seams like just plain old bad luck really. i will stop using the product and see what happens.

Sorry to go on but what are your thoughts on aspen as a bedding substrate? Its just i have started using this instead of beach chipping's and find it holds more moisture and is prone to mold, could this have caused respiratory problems resulting in death?

Thank you for the book recommendation i will get that ASAP.

Andy

Answer
I would suspect the cleaning product then. I mainly just use soap and water, sometimes chlorhexidine. As far as the females, all that you can do is wait and see.

I use aspen too, and you're right, it does mold up a lot. I wouldn't think that it would have caused a respiratory problem though unless you left the cage dirty for more than a month or two (I mean a really dirty cage).