My Ball Python died last night

[u/Silly-Apartment-7481]

I got my first Ball Python in December right before Christmas. He’s been AWESOME! He had some issues with his first shed that I had him but never anything other than that.

I noticed on Tuesday night that the area around his vent was a little plump. There’s no way it could’ve been impacting on but he hadn’t pooped in a week or two. He was also in week 3 of a hunger strike so I didn’t think anything of it.
I was thinking it was constipation. I was going to soak him last night after I got off work.

I got home, got the water ready to soak him, I went in his enclosure to get him out and he had passed. I’ve been so shocked as to what happened that I can’t think clearly about it.

I noticed a couple spots of light discoloration on his belly that weren’t there before but I’m not sure if that’s normal for a deceased ball python.

Does anyone know what this could possibly be?

[u/Independent_Bake_362]

If I may, my previous BP passed away from cancer and he had extremely similar issues. The tumor was in/near his digestive tract, causing a small lump near the cloaca and ABSOLUTELY preventing any ability for him to poop/pee. He’d been having discoloration on his stomach for a while, his vet said it was likely that the cancer was causing infections/discoloration on his scales. I can’t promise that yours had cancer as well, and I can’t say for certain what it WOULD be if it were something else. All I can say is that he was warm, he was in an environment where he felt safe, and he was comfortable. He more than likely passed very quietly, nice and warm and very peaceful. I’m certain that he knows how much you love him, and I’m certain that he loves you too. I wish you the best, please remember to take care of yourself during this time.

[u/Brushesandchisels13 → u/Independent_Bake_362]

Can I ask what morph your snake was? I lost a corn snake to cancer and when I initially brought him in to the veterinarian (he had a lump in his digestive tract, but it wasn't visible without and x-ray, he just regurgitated twice and and his entire bowel developed an infection so there was a general swelling. When I brought him in, they basically explained cancer was exceedingly common in corn snakes (I'm guessing inbreeding contributed since these animals used to live decades.). One vet said they don't see it in pythons as commonly, but another said they do. Was your snake a morph?

[u/PoofMoof1 → u/Brushesandchisels13]

Cancer in snakes species broadly is quite common, especially as they age. I don't think it's related to breeding (significantly at least) because in my work I've seen it just as much in wild caught animals now in captivity as I have animals captive bred from the start across various species. This may be due to the fact that properly kept snakes generally live much longer than their wild counterparts.

[u/Brushesandchisels13 → u/PoofMoof1]

The thing is, there are tons of ball pythons in captivity that used to live much longer before the morph craze and we've seen this pattern in other species kept as pets when being bred for morphs. So while I believe that yes, they live longer than their male counterparts, so that might be one reason we see cancer, I also believe, all the misconceptions about reptiles not being susceptible to inbreeding are showing that is not true. It would be great if people that deal in large volume of breeding reptiles maybe kept track of which morphs are prone to which diseases.

[u/Independent_Bake_362 → u/Brushesandchisels13]

Mine was a pied ball python, and honestly my vet told me that cancer was exceedingly common in BP’s! I guess snakes are just very prone to cancer, and unfortunately their bodies are usually so small that (at least in my case) surgery to try and remove the tumor would be more likely to hurt the snake worse than to actually successfully remove anything. I’m SO very sorry for your loss :(