So there was a necropsy done for Stripes. Unfortunately I had had a really bad time with Blackie's death so I put her body in the freezer after a few days so I could just "move on". I still have her, but I don't think any tests work now.


Stripes' vet confirmed that there was a lot of blood in the intestines, no indications of parasites, some stress on the liver, and otherwise no interesting findings or, otherwise, inconclusive blood work. So he didn't note anything about stomach or heart. I guess there could have still been crypto, but not any worms. Also confirmed that Stripes was male.


In my opinion a bunch of sudden bleeding in two individuals from the digestive system at the same time looks a whole lot like poisoning. Something went in both of them and wrecked havoc. The necropsy didn't support parasite load that they had from the wild, and I think genetic defect wouldn't have beset both at the exact same time like that. So I'm looking at the days leading up to the incident for my culprit.

I'm now feeling the symptoms came from Vitamin E toxicity. The Flukers I switched to right before symptoms was this : Robot Check


It has added vitamin E, which is fat soluble, but no indication of how much or any warnings. Vitamin E can build up in the body, rather than just "peeing" out extra. Too much Vitamin E will change the way blood works, preventing clotting, and high doses are linked to cardiac events in humans.


When they became ill I started daily, sometimes twice daily soaks in water treated with this stuff. I wasn't careful with the concentration, using a "drop" (.5 cc) in a small critter carrier, never imagining there could be an overdose risk in a water conditioner. It still didn't strike me to look at whether Vitamin E had a toxicity risk until well after everything happened. I guess I just assumed it was a "safe" water soluble vitamin like the Vitamin C crap the pet industry so often puts in guinea pig products.


There were likely compounding problems. But either way, putting a fat soluble vitamin in a water conditioner is stupid at worst, unnecessary at best. I haven't checked with the vet whether vitamin overdoses show in blood work, or talking to Flukers (though I will!) so I may have no cause for this conclusion as to why my snakes died. But the more I learn about the risks of overloading Vitamin E (even in humans!), the more angry I am that Flukers is just tossing around the stuff with no caution or warnings.


Last thought: one compounding issue seems to be that I was using any water conditioner at all. The vet said I didn't ever need one for snakes (?). So, learning process all around. I'm still using Reptisafe (carefully) with my box turtle.